It’s something that always comes out of dictatorships: entire groups of people forced to cry over the death of a supposedly revered leader. We’ve seen those images from China and, especially, North Korea, but — since today — also from Iran.
Terror General Qasem Soleimani was truly a bad man. Evil incarnate. He was responsible for many of the Iranian-backed terror acts in the Middle East and throughout the world. In 2015, General Mike Flynn (you know the one: he was later set up by the Obama-loving and Trump-hating FBI) rightfully described him as the “number one terrorist in the world.”
Soleimani–#1 terrorist in the world, now a good guy & Iran, #1 State Sponsor of Terrorism, now has nuke capabilities–what just happened?
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) July 15, 2015
Additionally, Soleimani was largely responsible for his own government’s violent response to pro-democracy protesters and to the actions of the Iraqi government when their own citizens had the audacity to publicly condemn their policies (and corruption).
However, although he was clearly a terror-mastermind, Soleimani was also one of the most powerful figures in the Iranian government. He may even have been the country’s unofficial number two, right after the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
As a result, although a significant part of the Iranian people are undoubtedly happy that he’s gone, they’re nonetheless forced to pretend they feel extremely, terribly bad about it. They’are out on the streets and on tv crying, crying, crying. There’s even footage of Khamenei himself crying his eyes out:
🔴Khamenei is crying for killing Qassem Soleimani. Thank you, Mr.Trump. The Islamic Republic must go.#IraniansDetestSoleimani pic.twitter.com/ENI1aLGlGk
— Mohammad Mozafari (@mohmd_mozafari) January 6, 2020
Clearly, that little bit of acting has set the tone. Another video has now surfaced of Iranians supposedly mourning Soleimani’s passing. The saddest part about this video is that it features a bunch of schoolchildren rather than career-politicians:
#Iranian children made to cry for Soleimani. When I was a kid I was also forced by my school in #Iran to chant for Khomeini, which I silently refused. This is how the Islamic Republic, a police state, makes the world believe in “national unity” after Soleimani’s death. pic.twitter.com/kOL6RH29OL
— Alireza Nader (@AlirezaNader) January 6, 2020
As that Twitter user writes, it’s truly horrible to see this footage. Not because those kids are so incredibly crestfallen, but because you just know that they’re forced to participate in this little theater show… and they won’t even get extra credits for it.
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