In an op-ed in the Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Mamdouh Al-Muhaini, director-general of the Saudi Al-Arabiya and Al-Hadath media outlets, criticized U.S. Democrats who opposed the January 3, 2020 U.S. killing of IRGC Qods Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani. He wrote that the harsh criticism of the killing had gone so far as to depict President Trump as a warmonger and to defend "a despicable terrorist whose hands were stained with the blood... of Americans."
The following are translated excerpts of his op-ed: [1]
Mamdouh Al-Muhaini (Source: Alarabiya.net)
"U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted a controversial tweet that included a photo of Democratic [Party] officials wearing Iranian turbans, expressing their stance on the killing of Qassem Soleimani. The tweet was mocking and biting, but there is a shred of truth in it. The Democrats wanted to depict Trump as irresponsible, impulsive, and hankering for a new war. But they shot themselves in the foot, because in [their desire] to tarnish their rival's image, they became the defenders of a despicable terrorist whose hands were stained with the blood not only of women and children in Iran, Syria, and Iraq, but also with the blood of Americans...
"There is a difference between an inter-party squabble and defending murderers. But these lines have been blurred in recent weeks. The reciprocal mudslinging in the [current presidential] election [campaign] can make people take irrational stands in order to gain popularity – but defending Soleimani was shameful. There is no difference between Soleimani, [the late Al-Qaeda leader] Osama bin Laden, and [the late ISIS leader] Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi; they all murdered innocent people in cold blood in the service of a political agenda and plans for a Shi'ite or Sunni caliphate. There is close cooperation and mutual strategic understanding among these extremist leaders in the service of the same goal – but despite all the similarities [among them], Soleimani was depicted [by these Democrats] as a peace dove who was mercilessly hunted down.
"The killing of Soleimani mobilized [the entire Democratic party], even the pensioners among them. Even former secretary of state John Kerry – known as 'Mullah Kerry' for his desperate defense of the Iranian regime – appeared many times on television echoing the words of [Iranian President] Hassan Rohani and [Iranian Foreign Minister] Javad Zarif. Also Ben Rhodes, national security advisor [sic; Rhodes was deputy national security adviser for strategic communications] to President Barack Obama, has in recent months become a front for bashing every one of the new administration's Iran positions, and guardian of the previous president's legacy... After Soleimani's killing, criticism intensified to the point where he [Soleimani] was portrayed as working for a humanitarian organization... and not as someone who mercilessly piled up white-shrouded bodies of children. What escalated the rage of the Democrats was the American administration's united position vis-à-vis the great operation [i.e. Soleimani's assassination] and Trump's declarations that in the Iranian issue, he is acting in a way that is completely in line with the positions and language of the members of his administration.
"The Democrats' downward slide into defending Iran and Soleimani reflects deep divisions in the Democratic Party, between the old school that sees preservation of the liberal regime as an American role and the new, extremist school that acts irresponsibly and is not only drawn into abandoning political and moral responsibility but is becoming a propaganda arm for defending figures and regimes with a dark, blood-daubed history.
"Let it not be forgotten that the Democratic president Franklin Roosevelt saved the world from the Nazi evil, and that his Democratic successor Harry Truman established the backbone of the new world order under the shadow of which we have been living for the past 70 years. [Recent] Democratic [presidents] such as Bill Clinton... adopted a policy of active and correct intervention. We heard similar echoes of this old Democratic ideology in statements by Jim Jones, [national security] advisor to President Obama, when he welcomed the assassination of Qods Force commander [Soleimani].
"This [old Democratic] school was weakened with the takeover of foreign policy decision-making by a handful of young people during the era of the last president... What we are witnessing now is a direct continuation of, and the triumph of, this team's approach, encouraging the emergence of sharp-tongued individuals on social media who do not hesitate to reveal their connections with extremist organizations and who sow fear and horror in the hearts of the veterans of the party... [They] see Soleimani as a commander who inspires respect... [and are using] words that differ very little from statements made by [Iranian Supreme Leader Ali] Khamenei in his most recent Friday sermon – in which he threatened vengeance, and to destroy the world, as tears flowed from his eyes."
[1] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat (London), January 23, 2020.
