I-Raconteur

If Iraq is now squarely in Iran’s camp – a less-than-subtle reality – who’s the puppet master in Tehran? The beleaguered President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, struggling to maintain power as his nation’s currency collapses? If that were the case, the President’s likely fall would strain that puppetry severely. Unfortunately, the Iraqi manipulation is controlled directly by the “man upstairs,” supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, through a major general heading the Iranian Quds Force, the paramilitary branch of that nation’s armed forces: Qassim Suleimani.

Sulemani could give a rat’s posterior about Ahmadinejad or his opinions. He is the man with the power, and he makes that very clear within the inner circles of government by telling folks that he is the “sole authority” when it comes to Iranian’s interests in its neighboring little brother, Iraq. “A soft-spoken, gray-haired operative who carries himself with the confidence that comes from having the backing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, General Suleimani is the antithesis of the bombastic Iranian president. Now a major general — the highest rank in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps — after a promotion last year, he has been the mastermind behind two central Iranian foreign policy initiatives, exerting and expanding Tehran’s influence in the internal politics of Iraq and providing military support for the rule of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

“That role has put him in direct conflict with American policy makers hoping to ensure Iraq’s future as an ally of the United States, to bring about the fall of Mr. Assad and to curb Iran’s attempt to gain influence in the region. Last year, the United States Treasury Department put General Suleimani on its sanctions list because American officials said he had been involved in a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.” New York Times, October 2^nd. With Ahmadinejad and the Iranian economy teetering, knowing eyes are shifting to a man with no desire to step into the political limelight, but an operative who seems to be in charge of enforcing the policies of the body of religious clerics who really run Iran.

With a power struggle pitting Ahmadinejad and at least some of the Revolutionary Guards trying to trim the power at the religious top, don’t bet on the challengers. Ahmadinejad can’t run in the next election (he is termed out), and there is even talk of abolishing the office of president entirely. The clerics have a whole lot more power than any elected official plus the loyalty of folks like Suleimani, who can put a severe crimp in any serious attempts to challenge that authority. Ahmadinejad is beyond expendable. Think of the Quds Force as the highest level of special ops in the Revolutionary Guards, the best of the best.

Suleimani was war hero during the eight-year conflict back in the 1980s with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. They say he was particularly good at infiltrating and setting up special missions behind enemy lines. He really knows the territory and the players. He moved up the ranks taking over the Quds in the 1990s, a force with a unique skill-set in fomenting revolution movements in other countries. “After the 2003 American invasion of Iraq, General Suleimani took on the mission of expanding Iran’s influence in the country, tying down the American military and, ultimately, encouraging its exit: paramount objectives for an Iranian government that was determined to be a major power in the region and that felt threatened by expanding American military presence on its western and eastern flanks…

“Gen. David H. Petraeus, who came to know the Quds Force commander’s influence when he served in Iraq, once described General Suleimani as ‘a truly evil figure’ in a letter to Robert M. Gates, then the defense secretary. In another letter, he acknowledged the influence General Suleimani had brought to bear in Iraq. ‘The most sobering surprise of the week was probably the extent of direct Iranian involvement in Iraqi political intrigue,’ General Petraeus wrote in an April 2008 letter to Mr. Gates.” NY Times. He’s good at his job, as current Iraqi politics would clearly support… and he is truly the man Americans need to worry about… not the U.N. speech-making moppet who will soon be out of a job. Iraq listens to Major General Qassim Suleimani a whole lot more than any member of the U.S. military or diplomatic corps, and that’s a very big problem for America’s aspirations in the region. It’s also a sign that it was indeed Iran who won the war in Iraq.

I’m Peter Dekom, looking through the bushes at the true men of Iran who oppose us.