Trump’s Sarah Palin moment: A big goof when it comes to Iran’s top generalBy Tod Robberson / Editorial Writer
Published: September 4, 2015 10:41 am
This was not a gotcha interview set up to trap and confuse GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. It was a legitimate question about a hot-button topic — Iran — that Trump has already pontificated upon repeatedly. As president, Trump would actually need to know about important things going on in the world. So it’s up to Donald Trump to know his stuff. He made a fool of himself, not unlike when Sarah Palin first ventured into the unfamiliar territory of foreign affairs not so long ago.
The question is absolutely relevant because Gen. Qassem Suleimani is commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force. He has been a major thorn in the side of U.S. military and foreign policy for two decades. When the American president asks who is the Iranian personality most likely to find a way for Iran to cheat on any nuclear deal, the name Qassem Suleimani goes to the top of the list. It is incumbent on anyone seeking the nation’s highest office to know exactly who Qassem Suleimani is, and why he’s important.
The seminal piece on Suleimani was written by Dexter Filkins in 2013 for The New Yorker, a magazine published in Trump’s home town. He might consider reading it sometime. Suleimani made life hell for the Americans in Iraq shortly after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
Ryan Crocker was ambassador during the roughest times there. He didn’t even slightly hesitate when I asked him in a November 2013 interview why we should care about Qassem Suleimani and his influence when it comes to negotiations with Iran.
“[Command and coordination of] Hezbollah and other irregular forces, and assistance to them, were put under the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force, which, since the mid-1990s, has been commanded by Qassem Suleimani. So he’s the guy. He reports directly to Khamenei. Not to the president, not to the defense minister. He’s the guy that’s responsible for all of Iran’s overseas operations. And since 2009, the so-called Green Revolution, he was also given responsibility for internal security. That is one heck of a lot of power.
“He ran Hezbollah against us and the Israelis. He backs Hamas and the Palestine Islamic Jihad. He has harbored al-Qaeda. He, with Hezbollah, created Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, Jaish al-Mahdi. When I got off the helicopter on a warm night in March in ’07 in Baghdad, it looked frighteningly like the Beirut I had left a quarter of a century earlier. The Syrians supporting Sunni insurgents and al-Qaeda elements infiltrating into Iraq, and Iran supporting Jaish al-Mahdi and numerous militias elsewhere in the country. It worked for them in Lebanon, and almost worked for them in Iraq. Again, the individual responsible for coordinating all of those activities, moving individuals around, planning operations, coordinating with Syria on these issues is Suleimani. And it’s been Suleimani for close to 20 years.”
Compare that lucid answer to Trump when questioned by Hugh Hewitt:
Hewitt: Are you familiar with General Suleimani?
Trump:: Yes, but go ahead, give me a little, go ahead, tell me.
Hewitt: He runs the Quds Forces.
Trump: Yes, OK, right.
Hewitt: Do you expect his behavior …
Trump: The Kurds, by the way, have been horribly mistreated by …
Hewitt: No, not the Kurds, the Quds Forces, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Forces.
Trump: Yes, yes.
Hewitt: … is the bad guys.
Trump: Right.
Hewitt: Do you expect his behavior to change as a result …
Trump: Oh, I thought you said Kurds, Kurds.
Hewitt: No, Quds.
Hewitt pressed Trump on other leaders of groups with whom the United States is grappling: Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Nusra Front. Trump drew a blank.
“You know, those are like history questions. Do you know this one, do you know that one … But as far as the individual players, of course I don’t know them. I’ve never met them. I haven’t been, you know, in a position to meet them. If, if they’re still there, which is unlikely in many cases, but if they’re still there, I will know them better than I know you,” Trump replied.
Recall the uproar over Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign ad during the 2008 Democratic primary, when she questioned voters over who’d they be most comfortable with when the White House phone rings at 3 a.m. with a major crisis brewing in the world.
Here’s how Donald Trump would handle that 3 a.m. phone call:
White House Aide: Mister president, the Quds Force has just launched a full-blown attack on Saudi Arabia along with their proxies in Yemen.
President Trump: Kurds, gotta love those guys. We sure treated them bad.
Aide: Quds Force, Mister President. Invading Saudi Arabia.
Trump: Saudis. Didn’t they buy one of my buildings?
Aide: Sir, this is urgent. We need to get you on the phone with the Saudi king immediately.
Trump: Wait, and who is that? Suleimani or something?
Aide: Salman, sir. King Salman.
Trump: So he’s the king of Yemen? Or the Kurds?
Aide: No sir, he’s the king of Saudi Arabia. That’s the big desert kingdom in between Egypt and the Persian Gulf. They have lots of oil. President Obama signed a $1 billion arms deal with them.
Trump: So what’s this all about? I thought Saudi Arabia and Egypt were allies. Were they bad to the Kurds?
Aide: Sir, this is about Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Quds Force.
Trump: Ohhh. I thought you said Kurds before. That’s funny.
Aide: Never mind, sir. We just got word that Saudi Arabia has been overrun and the ruling family has been overthrown. Go back to sleep.
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