I'm an Iraqi American and I've seen a lot of miss-information and contradictory reporting on the #WorldWarThree situation unfolding in the middle east. Here is a thread on what is going on and why we need to de-escalate the situation.
I'm going to start with who Soleimani is in the middle east. In Iran, he is seen as a war hero, and highly ranked within the military. He was the leader of Hizbulah- a military group of people that was established in Iraq to fight Isis. (it's related to the Hizbula in Lebanon
but not the same.) When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 03, they overthrew Saddam Hussein's government which resulted in a Shia government. The Shia govenment is backed by Iran politically and religiously. So most if not all of the Iraqi government is made up of former Irani military
personal making Iraq a surrogate to Iran. Because of the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, the only financial outlet they had was Iraq, and Iraqi oil revenue has been funneled back through Iran. Iran sees Iraq as a financial extension. In early October of 2019, the young Iraqis
were fed up with high unemployment, lack of security, sporadic electricity, and little prospects for the future. Social media allowed Iraqis to communicate and mobilize in order to create mass protests for a better quality of life. These protests are still going on but have been
under-reported. The Iraqi gov including the prime minister, his cabinet and parliament were all controlled by political parties backed by Iran. These political parties each had their own militia, which consisted of armed militants. The militias have been insighting violence and
terror on peaceful Iraqis and disrupting their way of life. Soleimani controlled the money and authority of all of the militias, and the Iraqi people blamed him for the political and social disruption within their country. During the protests, he established and controlled the
men in black. The men in black attacked, killed, shot at and kidnapped the peaceful protestors. This is where the U.S. gov gets involved present day. The U.S. gov finally realized that in the last 12 years Iran had taken a foothold of Iraq and Soleimani was the military head
in Iraq. Soleimani's military group launched a rocket attack, killing an American contractor in Iraq. The U.S. government used this in order to launch an attack on the Hizbulah and Soleimani. In addition, U.S. intelligence discovered that Soleimani had plans to carry out more
attacks on Americans. The U.S. gov and military took advantage of the situation in order to take him out. Heres the issue Soleimani was a horrible individual and did nothing good for Iraq, but he and the U.S. government have no right to be in Iraq and are fighting their own war
on Iraqi soil. The majority of Iraqis want Iran and the U.S. to fight on their own soil. Iraqis see the U.S.' interference in their government as a negative. The U.S. effectively set the stage for where we are today by destroying one government and making space for another to
take charge when they had no right to do so. Iraq didn't need nation-building in 2003, it does now and an Iran - U.S. conflict on Iraqi soil would end the progress towards a new government that protesters have been able to make.
I know I'm missing a lot of information but this was getting super long. If anyone needs something clarified please ask. #prayforiraq
