Killing Of Gen. Qassem Soleimani Could Be ‘Rallying Force’ For Anti-American Activity, Senator Warns
As the world remains on edge in the wake of the American drone strike that killed top Iranian military Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Democratic Sen. Mark Warner expressed concern on Sunday that President Donald Trump‘s decision to strike could morph into an anti-American rallying cry in the Middle East.
According to The Hill, Warner joined a number of other Democrats who now worry that American troops and assets abroad could be in grave danger on the heels of the Iranian military commander’s surprise death.
“Soleimani could be a rallying force, not only within Iran, but as we may hear later today, even in Iraq where we may be now asked to leave,” Warner said during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
Warner, who is the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, explained that recently there has been “great pushback” on Iran, but explained that Soleimani’s death might have just completely reversed that.
“That anti-Iranian effort now seems to have transformed, as we’ve seen the images and over the last 24 hours, into anti-American activity,” Warner said.
Warner also echoed concerns of his Democratic colleagues concerning the details surrounding the threat that Trump claimed Soleimani posed. It was demanded that the Trump administration provide a clearer explanation of why they chose to take the surprise and drastic action while adding that the lack of notifying Congress of the strike beforehand was also of concern.
“I’m not sure how we will be seen as both stronger and smarter if we have our Iraqi allies asking us to leave, if our NATO allies don’t feel like they are going to be informed before we take this kind of action,” Warner said.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the Trump administration kept the Soleimani strike close to the chest in the hours leading up to the event. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed the president after the White House sent official notification of the military action to Congress shortly before the federally-mandated 48-hour deadline to notify Congress that such actions have taken place.
Pelosi criticized the Trump administration for classifying the document, calling the move “highly unusual” and suggesting that Americans and the rest of Congress are yet privy to the entire story. Adding to the criticism, Pelosi said that the document raised a number of questions as to why the Trump administration decided to go ahead with the Soleimani kill mission.
.@SpeakerPelosi got the classified notification for the Soleimani strike- and calls the Trump admin’s action “provocative, escalatory and disproportionate military engagement” pic.twitter.com/rJiTwsmzSP
— Elizabeth Landers (@ElizLanders) January 5, 2020
The House Speaker also argued that the military action against such a high-level Iranian figure would likely lead to destabilization in the already-fragile Middle East and put U.S. diplomats and allies in unnecessary danger.
