Cutting the snake’s head

By: Modesto P. Sa-onoy

There is a saying, attributed to the Arabs, that to kill a snake, cut off its head. Of course, there are other ways to do that, but the saying is an apt explanation or justification for the assassination of political and military leaders throughout the centuries.

The assassination of Iran’s top military commander Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike by the United States at Baghdad’s international airport last Friday sent shock waves all over the world with some sectors gravely concerned that the world will once again be engulfed in war.

It sometimes does like World War I caused by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Bosnian nationalist in 1914. The interlocking alliances among the nations drew them all into a world conflict that lasted for four years and caused the death of over 20 million people.

Many see that the killing of Iran’s top general will not limit the conflict to the US and Iran because they have allies. China immediately expressed its intent to take the side of Iran even as it urged caution that Iran does not take the nuclear path and plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust.

President Rodrigo Duterte even entered the scene, this time he will take the side of the United States despite his friendship with communist China.

US President Donald Trump earlier said the airstrike was carried out “to stop a war” as Soleimani “was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.”

The US pointed to Soleimani as the culprit for the deaths of thousands of Americans. He was behind the recent attacks on US military bases in Iraq, including one on Dec. 27 that killed an American defense contractor. The US counterattack precipitated a mob assault on the US embassy in Iraq. That prompted the US to strike.

Iran vowed to seek revenge and “harsh retaliation” on the US for the death of its top planner and executor of that country’s terroristic attacks, including, according to US intelligence report, the attack and ransack of the US embassy. In international accord, the embassy is an extension and is considered a territory of a country. In effect, that attack was already an invasion of American territory. Iran did not stop or chastised its operators in Iraq.

The precision of the drone attack against Soleimani shows that US intelligence was solid – it knew exactly the time and place to send its deadly drone.

There are American critics that lambasted President Donald Trump for approving the operation. Trump is now on Catch 22. He is criticized especially by leftist and anti-Trump media for “killing a snake” but he would have been excruciated had Soleimani executed his alleged plan for a massive attack against US interest, first in Iraq and then elsewhere. Democrats and leftists are up against Trump not only because this is the US election year but because they simply don’t like him.

I recall the same situation in World War II. Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt hedged and America with its dominant pacifist government kept away while Germany was swallowing one European country after another, starting with Sudetenland in 1938. Japan was doing the same with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the sinking of USS Panay in 1937.

But the Americans, like what they are doing now, were marching with placards demanding they keep out of the war. Emboldened, Germany and Japan invaded one country after another while the Americans watched and went their merry way. Germany began its concentration camps while the Japanese started its biological experiments with humans in Manchuria.

Of course, German operators in the US-led anti-war movements and Nazis marched the streets chanting the greatness of Hitler. Italy jumped into the game to share the booty by invading Africa. Even Russia signed a pact with Germany. The Axis powers believed they got the world in their hands and can just leave the US for future picking.

Appeasement never worked. World history is full of failed peace agreements and a sea of dead bodies.

The US claimed the killing of Soleimani was a preemptive strike, an active defense. Indeed, one does not wait for the snake to bite before cutting off its head. The problem now is that the nest of vipers is striking back.