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<\/p>\nRUSH: Folks, I\u2019m gonna go back and do some just quick hits on some flashbacks here because remember a lot of – it\u2019s not the sole explanation, but much of the reason for the Democrats and the left just jumping all over Trump for doing this and making it look like they feel bad for Iran. They\u2019re literally siding with a genuine enemy of the United States, all because they hate Trump. But don\u2019t forget, one of the driving reasons here is protection of the Obama legacy. Do not discount this.<\/p>\n
You know, much like a lot of conservatives will come to Reagan\u2019s defense every time he\u2019s assaulted, maligned, impugned, it\u2019s the same thing with Democrats and Obama. One of Obama\u2019s signature policies was this deal with Iran which, remember, one of Obama\u2019s purposes here was to make Iran an even bigger power in the Middle East because Obama and his type believe that Israel, as the dominant power in the Middle East, is a destabilizing force because, once again, the United States is not the good guys, our allies are not the good guys, Israel\u2019s not the good guys.<\/p>\n
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As a superpower, what are we? We are discriminating bigots. We\u2019re discriminating racists. We\u2019re discriminating homophobes or whatever the cliches are. As the gigantic superpower, we cannot be good. We cannot be benevolent. Everybody smaller than we is a victim. So the Iranians are victims, and Obama wanted to build \u2019em back up in his convoluted view of stabilizing the region.<\/p>\n
Victor Davis Hanson as a great piece that came out, it\u2019s either today or over the break, that because we have become oil independent, we\u2019ve become energy independent, the Middle East is no longer this giant necessity that it once was, at least to us in a strategic sense. It remains so in an allied sense. But we don\u2019t need to play nice, and we don\u2019t need to bend over, grab the ankles because we need their oil anymore is the point. It\u2019s a big point.<\/p>\n
So just a couple of things here. First off from a website called Arab News: “Soleimani\u2019s Death Leaves Iran\u2019s Strategy in Tatters.”<\/a> Now, this goes back to the last hour, Snerdley asked me, “Hey, this guy that\u2019s replacing the dead guy, do we need to be worried about him?” No, this guy is who\u2019s worried about us. This guy knows he\u2019s being tracked by every tracking device our government has. This guy knows he is under constant surveillance. He knows that any act he takes that causes any harm to Americans puts a mark on him. This guy knows that he cannot run around in secret, in private like Qassem Soleimani could not. Let me give you a couple of pull quotes from the story.<\/p>\n “The killing of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu-Mahdi Al-Muhandis changes everything. With one fell blow Trump has taken out the two dominant figures exporting Iranian militancy across the region.”<\/p>\n What about the mullahs, Rush? Of course, the mullahs are the figureheads here, they give the ultimate orders, but the mullahs remain hidden, protected, shielded. These guys were out actually leading and formulating strategery and all this. It\u2019s a big, big deal. And look at any team. Take out the head of the team, the rest of the snake dies. It\u2019s true here.<\/p>\n Another pull quote. “It was Soleimani who forcefully advocated and spearheaded the policy of bogging the US down in the bloody Iraqi quagmire by building a new generation of paramilitary forces which staged thousands of attacks against coalition troops, killing around 600.<\/p>\n Yeah, that\u2019s right, we wanted to arrest him. Following that we were gonna indict him. Like we had an arrest warrant out for Osama. It\u2019s not the way you deal with these people.<\/p>\n Another pull quote. “As arguably the second-most powerful Iranian after Khamenei -” that\u2019s one of the mullahs “– nobody can fit into Soleimani\u2019s outsized shoes. His designated successor as commander of the Quds Force, Esmael Ghani, is a much lower-profile figure who will lack his late boss\u2019 encyclopedic network of personal contacts and knowledge of a generation of Iranian militancy.”<\/p>\n This is like the practice squad quarterback being thrown into the game, folks. “Should we be afraid of the guy, Mr. Limbaugh?” No. I don\u2019t mean you ignore, but there\u2019s no reason to be on defense here. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God. We\u2019re feeling so — We attacked, we attacked. Oh, my God. We\u2019re gonna get wiped out.” It\u2019s not the attitude that we have.<\/p>\n Final pull quote. “By killing Soleimani, the US has decapitated the principal agent of Tehran\u2019s strategy for regional hegemony, bringing an end to a long phase of Tehran-branded militancy dominated by the Quds Force commander personally. No other global terrorist boasts Soleimani\u2019s longevity in overseeing thousands of paramilitary and terrorist attacks over at least four decades.<\/p>\n “He lived by the sword and died a fitting death. His passing should not be mourned. We are in uncharted territory. How Tehran\u2019s regime chooses to respond in the coming days … will have reverberations in the region for years to come.” That\u2019s Arab News.<\/p>\n Now let\u2019s do some flashbacks, shall we? I have here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers a story from the Hudson Institute, Hudson.org. July 14, 2015. It\u2019s by Lee Smith<\/a>. Do you know who Lee Smith is? Lee Smith wrote one of the definitive books that broke down the coup run against Donald Trump — Steele dossier, the Trump-Russia coup, all of it. Lee Smith is one of the… He worked very closely with Devin Nunes. There\u2019s a bunch of people — Chuck Ross, a bunch of people — who did a lot of great work.<\/p>\n Lee Smith was among the top of the tier here in discovering what had happened with the FBI informants, the tricks they had played against Papadopoulos and so forth, the way they had spied on the Trump administration. That\u2019s the author of this piece. Headline: “Obama Strikes a Deal with Qassem Soleimani — According to the terms of the Iran deal announced in Vienna on Tuesday, U.N. Security Council sanctions regarding nuclear-related issues will be lifted on a number of entities and individuals — from Iranian banks to Lebanese assassins…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/APP-060618-Obama-Iran-Flag.jpg\")
“When the US unsuccessfully sought to arrest Soleimani by attacking his convoy in Kurdistan in early 2007, he responded days later with one of the most audacious militant operations of the conflict, penetrating the coalition\u2019s Karbala headquarters in broad daylight, and abducting and killing several US soldiers.”<\/p>\n
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<\/a>“The name that most sticks out is IRGC-Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani. Administration officials counsel calm, and explain that Suleimani is still on the U.S. terror list and will remain on the terror list. But that\u2019s irrelevant. The reality is that Suleimani is the key to the” Iranian nuclear deal. “[I]t soon became apparent that the White House wasn\u2019t really balancing at all, but had rather chosen one team over the others, Iran.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/APP-UK-Telegraph-TEARAWAY-010620-x.jpg\")
That\u2019s who the guy is. Look, get mad at me all you want. This is who he was, and this is how the Obama administration dealt with it. Do not doubt me. The Obama administration looked at Iran as needing to be built up in order to stabilize the region because in their view Israel, as the dominant power, destabilized the Middle East just as in their view the United States — as a lone superpower — destabilized the world.<\/p>\n