What’s good for the goose – apparently.
Iran’s parliament on Tuesday designated the entire Pentagon a terrorist organization, expanding on previous legislation that had blacklisted US Centcom.
“All members of the Pentagon and related companies, as well as actors and commanders involved in the martyrdom of Qassem Soleimani, are designated in the list of terror groups”, ICANA, parliament’s official news services, said. The vote was 228 to 0 with a pair of abstentions.
Parliament also increased funding for the Quds Force by €200 million, handing Esmail Ghaani more dry powder.
Although things are still relatively quiet in the region, they may not stay that way for long. Ali Shamkhani, the head of Iran’s national security council, said the leadership is pondering 13 separate options for retaliating against the US.
“Even if the weakest of these scenarios gains a consensus, its implementation can be a historic nightmare for the Americans”, he mused, in comments cited by Fars. “For now, for intelligence reasons, we cannot provide more information to the media”.
Shamkhani did provide one piece of additional “information”, though. “If the US troops do not leave our region voluntarily and upright, we will do something to carry their bodies horizontally out”, he warned.
Meanwhile, in Kerman, Soleimani’s wish for a “simple” funeral “simply” wasn’t feasible due to the sheer number of people determined to pay their respects.
A day after more than a million turned out in Tehran, the crowd in Kerman overwhelmed the town. More than three-dozen people where killed and more than 100 injured in a literal stampede.
Just prior to the tragedy (which will itself serve as yet another excuse for Iranians to be angry at the US), the head of the IRGC, General Hossein Salami, told the crowd: “We will take revenge, a hard and definitive revenge”.
The US Maritime Administration issued a warning to ships across the Mideast. “The Iranian response to this action, if any, is unknown, but there remains the possibility of Iranian action against US maritime interests in the region”, the advisory reads.
At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, more than 600 young men are headed for the Mideast. “Their final destinations are classified”, Reuters notes, in a piece describing the mood.
One soldier who the linked piece describes as “sporting a grin under close-shorn red hair”, flashed a double-thumbs up. “We’re going to war, bro”, he smiled.
WE’RE GOING TO WAR BRO! haha
Young and dumb — thus has it always been.
More than three-dozen people where killed and more than 100 injured in a literal stampede”. Was he a rapper too?