Ex-SEAL Explains Effects of Soleimani Strike: 'The Gamble Paid Off'
President Donald Trump’s decision to order a done strike on a top Iranian commander not only killed a terrorist, but helped shake the Iranian regime, a former Navy SEAL said.
Former SEAL Jocko Willink, speaking on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” last week, said that the protests that flared in Iran last weekend prove Trump accomplished far more than simply taking out an enemy of America’s soldiers.
“When you look at it from that perspective you could say that this was a brilliant move to kill a person that was an enemy of America and an enemy of the Iranian people,” Willink said, according to Fox News.
Willink said the drone strike that killed the leader of the Quds force eliminated a mastermind who “killed hundreds and hundreds of Americans.”
Trump admittedly took a chance, said Willink, who recently released a book titled, “Leadership Strategy And Tactics: Field Manual.”
“Was it a risk to do this operation? Absolutely,” Willink said. “And if you were to poll everyone that had knowledge about what the conflict is like over there, ‘Hey should we do this or not?’ There would have been mixed feelings.”
The former SEAL likened Trump’s gamble to the risk taken by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 when SEALs when into Pakistan to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“He’s going into Pakistan, he didn’t tell Pakistan what we’re doing. There was massive risk. You know the whole building could have been bombed. That’s a massive risk to do that operation. Pulled it off. Bravo. Outstanding.”
Trump’s decision “is the same thing,” he said.
“We don’t know what could have happened. Trump took a gamble and did this, and you know what? From what it looks like right now, the gamble paid off,” Willink said.
“The response was weak and on top of that, it’s inspired the people of Iran that hate living under this tyrannical dictator to start to rise up, protest. They’re being killed for protesting. That’s what a tyranny is and that’s what they need to rebel against,” he said.
Protests began in Iran after the regime admitted that it lied when it said a Ukrainian jetliner crashed due to technical problems. The truth, which Iran was forced to admit, was that the Iranian military downed the jetliner, killing all 176 people aboard.
4th Day of Iran Protests Sees Students Rally at Four Tehran Universities https://t.co/U3TSfcl2Uf
— The Voice of America (@VOANews) January 15, 2020
Iran: Bloody Crackdown on Dissent | Arbitrary Arrests, Use of Lethal force against Protests https://t.co/rQsUOGICnT #Rights2020 pic.twitter.com/xHxd6PhquS
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) January 15, 2020
In assessing the current protests, coming only two months after massive November protests rocked Iran, Robin Wright, writing in the New Yorker, noted, “The pace of protests is now more frequent, the tone more anti-establishment, and the government’s reaction more violent.”
The article quoted Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran Project Director, as saying the demonstrations are going to hurt the regime.
“The leadership’s abject failure to allow any serious reforms has brought the system to a dead-end. It is unlikely to regain the trust and support of the middle class and is increasingly losing the support of its own more pious/poorer constituents,” Vaez said.
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