Locals react to U.S. deadly attack on top Iranian military commander
NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) -Members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation and some people in the local Muslim community reacted to the U.S. airstrike that killed Iran’s top military general Qassem Soleimani while he was in neighboring Iraq.
GOP House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana said Soleimani has Americans’ blood on his hands.
“Soleimani himself is responsible for the deaths of over 600 of our men and women in uniform, this guy has been one of the major terrorists, most brutal terrorists in the world,” Scalise said.
Local human rights activist and Muslim-American Jenny Yanez’s husband is from Iraq.
"As a matter of fact, my children were supposed to make a trip this summer to the north of Iraq to visit their family,” said Yanez.
She believes the killing of Soleimani will make an already unstable area worse.
“I think he was assassinated, whether or not he’s quote unquote a good guy or not is irrelevant. I think that as an American and as an American citizen I believe that what we did was illegal,” said Yanez. “It’s the equivalent of killing the CIA director as he’s in the airport in another country. It is an act of aggression.”
Tulane University international relations and foreign policy expert Dr. Chris Fettweis says the killing of Soleimani will result in retaliation.
"What their reaction is likely to be is against our military or diplomatic personnel abroad, or some kind of economic target, perhaps or the oil fields or something else, but generally speaking the Iranian government’s responses are always fairly restrained, so we shouldn’t have too much to worry about locally,” said Fettweis.
Still, he says Soleimani’s death will resonate and not just in Iran.
"It’s a big issue within the region. This guy was a folk hero to a lot of people in region,” said Fettweis.
Congressman Cedric Richmond, the only Democrat in Louisiana’s congressional delegation, responded to the deadly airstrike in a written statement:
“I support the use of strategic use of force to protect America and our allies and look forward to more detailed background information on what justified this attack without obtaining congressional authorization. We cannot afford to risk further escalation of a dangerous conflict with Iran as a result of the administration’s rash decision and failure to notify Congress.”
And U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy released the following statement:
"Soleimani was an enemy commander meeting with a subordinate commander who had just directed violent actions against an American Embassy. I look forward to White House, Defense Department and Intelligence briefings as to how this fits in an overall strategy including plans to limit future danger."
Yanez thinks more American soldiers will die as a result of Soleimani’s death.
"This is a very, very irresponsible thing to do because a lot of American soldiers will die. They will fight this war not on our soil,” she said.
But Fettweis doubts Iran will be able to shut off the critical Straits of Hormuz.
"They can’t really close the Straits of Hormuz, that’s where the oil goes through out of the Persian Gulf, militarily they can’t close it. They can make shipping out of there more difficult, they can raise the price of oil,” he said.
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