Pentagon Kills Iran’s Al-Quds Leader
PHILADELPHIA (OnlineColumnist.com), Jan. 2, 2020.--Ordering a strike at the Baghdad airport killing Iran‘s 62-year-old Al-Quds chief Quassem Soleimani, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandas, head of Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF], and five others, 73-year-old President Donald Trump upped the ante, expecting Iran to retaliate for their deaths. On Dec. 31, 2019, Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, no doubt backed by Soleimani’s Al-Quds Force. Soleimani was a thorn in the U.S. side, involved in last year’s bombing of Saudi’s largest oil refinery, including Limpet-mine attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Soleimani was responsible for eight years sabotaging the Saudi, U.S. and Turkish proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Together with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lebanon’s Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah, they defeated the eight-year proxy war to change regimes in Damascus.
Soleimani and al-Muhandas’s dealths will no doubt spark retaliation by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now faced with some tough choices. Khamenei must choose how-and-when to retaliate, now that Trump’s shown a propensity to retaliate for the Dec. 28, 2019 Katab Hezbollah attack on a U.S.-backed Iraqi military base killing an American contractor. Trump’s latest move clearly puts the late al-Muhandas death in perspective, since his Kataib Hezbollah rocket attacks killed an American contractor. While the media focuses on Solemani, al-Muhandas has even greater implications for how Iranian proxies in Iraq, Iraq and Syria respond Khamenei finds himself caught between a rock-and-hard-place because any retaliatory strike could result in a devastating attack on his mullah regime. If Iran directly attacks any U.S. or allied target, it could spell the end of the Ayatollah’s regime. U.S. officials now consider their next move against Iran’s proxies.
Pentagon officials stated that Soleimani and al-Mubandas were plotting new attacks against the U.S. and its allies. Whatever military reinforcements Trump ordered in Baghdad’s Green Zone to protect the U.S. embassy, he’s going to need a lot more when militants in Iran, Iraq and Syria wake up to the news that Soleimani and al-Muhandas were vaporized by a U.S. attack. At the same time, Ayatollah Khemenei knows what happened to Al Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and more recently ISIS’s Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. With Trump using a preemptive foreign policy, it sends a loud message to the Ayatollah that more proxy activities will result in further erosion of Iran’s military rule. Soleimani and al-Muhandas deaths present problems to Khamenei, knowing that any significant retaliation could result in toppling his mullah regime. Iran’s in no place militarily or economically to take on the United States, without risking toppling the revolutionary mullah regime.
Only weeks ago, popular street uprisings around Iran showed the level of frustration with the Ayatollahs’ 41-year-old rule. Khamenei ordered Soleimani to use the Basij militia to round up protesters for mass executions and incarcerations. Iran currently lacks the political stability to take on the U.S,, especially in any military action. Retaliation carries real risks to the Ayatollah’s survival, with some Iranians welcoming the news about Soleimani’s death. Coordinating with the Basij militia, Soleimani was responsible to untold numbers of deaths of Iranian demonstrators against the mullah regime. Countless numbers of Iranians would like nothing more that to see the mullah regime removed. No one in Iran forgets that the U.S. is home to Iran’s largest ex-pat community, working to liberate Iran from tyrannical mullah rule. Trump’s actions, while viewed by some as reckless, send a loud message to the Ayatollah that more provocative actions against the U.S. or its allies might result in an end to the Ayatollah’s 41-year-old rule.
Getting Soleimani and al-Muhandas lets Iran’s state-sponsored terrorist regime know that the White House has lost patience with Iran’s malign activities in the Mideast and North Africa. Supplying Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels rockets, guided missiles and drones to attack Saudi Arabia, Iran refused to stop using it proxies to sponsor guerrilla war around the Middle East. Iran routinely supplied Hezbollah and Hamas with rockets and other arms to attack Israel, the U.S.-‘s closes Mideast ally. Trump has served notice that he won’t tolerate more Iranian attacks on the U.S. and its allies. After attacks on oil tankers and Saudi’s largest oil refinery last summer, Trump kept his powder dry waiting till the right moment. After shooting down an American drone June 20, 2019, Trump told Iran he reserved the right to respond to Iran’s criminal activity at a time of his choice. Targeting Soleimani and al-Muhandas should tell Ayatollah that he could be next.
Trump’s preemptive action, far from creating more Mideast chaos, should help contain growing Iranian aggression in the Mideast and North Africa. Killing Soleimani and al-Muhandas lets the Iranian regime know that anyone in the Iranian regime is fair game. All the hand-wringing about possible Iranian retaliation, Trump’s actions should do the exact opposite: Stop Iran’s ongoing terrorist activities, including attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Saudi’s largest oil refinery. Trump has warned Iran that there would be consequences for state-sponsored terrorism. If Soleimani and al-Musandas’ deaths mean anything to the Ayatollah, it’s that he could be next. Any direct retaliations, or even, at this point, proxy retaliations, could result in Trump toppling Iran’s mullah regime. With current popular uprisings, the Ayatollah knows he’s hanging by a thread.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
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Under the Knife
Medieval surgery was, by all accounts, painful for the patient. One of the newest Vatican manuscripts online contains Gerard of Cremona's Latin translation of the Arabic handbook of surgery by the famed Andalusian doctor Abulcasis or Albucasis (see Wikipedia). Consider these instruments:
I'm not going to tell you what they were used for. But anesthetic procedures were crude, so you felt the cut.
This manuscript of the 13th or 14th century is among more than 30 extant according to Monica H Green's count in 2011.
It seems the book was read by non-doctors too. She adds: "Whereas other surgical texts circulated quite widely in western Europe, up until the fifteenth century Albucasis's work was copied only in Italy and, to a lesser extent, in southern France." See too an earlier article online by David Trotter on the Latin mss.
In the past week, 112 manuscripts came online. The Vatican Library's newsletter adds some good news, indicating the digitization program remains open-ended.
The Japan-based company which is the main funder of the project, NTT Data, previously told media its support was limited to 3,000 manuscripts up 2019, but the December newsletter says Katsuichi Sonoda, an NTT Data VP, offered November 30 to continue the collaboration with the Library “indefinitely”.
Ross.47,
Ross.60,
Ross.67 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.71,
Ross.83,
Ross.86.pt.2,
Ross.102 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.104,
Ross.132 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.133,
Ross.134,
Ross.139 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.148 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.166,
Ross.169,
Ross.200,
Ross.205 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.221,
Ross.229 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.233,
Ross.250 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.256,
Ross.267,
Ross.270 (Upgraded to HQ),
Ross.271 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.2389,
Vat.lat.2392, eTK incipit: Gerard of Cremona translations of Arabic medical works, and the De cibariis attributed to Petrus de Musanda
Vat.lat.2403, eTK incipit: Desideranti tibi scribi a me mysteria lapidum omnium
Vat.lat.2408,
Vat.lat.2431,
Vat.lat.2440,
Vat.lat.2445.pt.2,
Vat.lat.2445.pt.3,
Vat.lat.2465, Jacobus de Forlivio, on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates; see Jordanus
Vat.lat.2478,
Vat.lat.3219 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.3367,
Vat.lat.3369,
Vat.lat.4020,
Vat.lat.4021,
Vat.lat.4022,
Vat.lat.4083, eTK incipit: Interrogatio nobilis viri domini Uberti marchionis; (Gerard of Cremona)
Vat.lat.4098 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4112.pt.2,
Vat.lat.4251,
Vat.lat.4276,
Vat.lat.4347 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4368,
Vat.lat.4375,
Vat.lat.4379,
Vat.lat.4389 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4403,
Vat.lat.4404,
Vat.lat.4405,
Vat.lat.4408
Vat.lat.4420, eTK incipit: Non solum cum scripserunt rememoratores;
Vat.lat.4421,
Vat.lat.4422, eTK incipit: Cum natura non minus indigeat aquis fisicalibus (14c); John of Parma
Vat.lat.4428, Avicenna's Terra Pura and other works; eTK incipit: Corpora mineralia in quatuor dividuntur
Vat.lat.4432, eTK incipits: Quia sentire quidem (early 14th century); De virtutibus naturalibus
Vat.lat.4434, Jacobus de Forlivio, De intentione et remissione formarum, see Jordanus
Vat.lat.4436,
Vat.lat.4441,
Vat.lat.4448, Antonius de Scarparia, 14th century Italian physician, on Galen's Ars Parva, with a diagram discussed by John Murdoch's Album of Science showing the continuum by latitudes from completely well (at top) to completely sick (below):
Vat.lat.4451 (Upgraded to HQ), medical etc, Thadeus of Florence and others, eTK incipit: Impossibile est eundem incipere et finire (14th century)
Vat.lat.4454 (Upgraded to HQ), eTK incipit: Averroes in commento xv de animalibus sicut illa; See also Jordanus
Vat.lat.4455 (Upgraded to HQ), Jordanus, Arithmetic. See Jordanus database. eTK incipit: Convenerunt in hoc antiqui; by Petrus Hispanus
Vat.lat.4457,
Vat.lat.4463,
Vat.lat.4464, eTK incipit: Consuevit dubitari de titulo huius libri; by Dino del Garbo
Vat.lat.4467, Abulcasis/Albucasis (above)
Chirurgia [opus Albucasis; translatio ex arabico], Gerhardus Cremonensis (1114 - 1187) ff. 1r-32r; De locis affectis, Galenus, ff. 33r-59v (translatio anonyma). #surgery #medicine
Vat. Lat. 4467 (14th cent.) among the #LatestDigitizedManuscripts 👨⚕️💉🔪https://t.co/jMWdZXaiby pic.twitter.com/yoLJsN1str
— Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) December 18, 2018
Vat.lat.4469,
Vat.lat.4470,
Vat.lat.4471,
Vat.lat.4473,
Vat.lat.4474,
Vat.lat.4475 (Upgraded to HQ), eTK incipit: Sciendum est quod humores quidam sunt in capite (13c-14c); also: De limphis oculorum qui dicitur paralymenon
Vat.lat.4477, eTK incipit: Cum omne corpus animatum; Glossulae aphorismorum Hippocratis
Vat.lat.4478, eTK incipit: Celi enarrant gloriam dei triplici via aq modo mirabili celi; author Jean Ganivet
Vat.lat.4483,
Vat.lat.4485,
Vat.lat.4487,
Vat.lat.4490 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4493 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4494,
Vat.lat.4495,
Vat.lat.4496,
Vat.lat.4498 (Upgraded to HQ), Frontinus, Seneca and other classical authors, see Jordanus
Vat.lat.4502 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4503,
So even when the phone didn't exist people used to doodle the same way we do when we're on the phone...
Vat. lat. 4503 among the #LatestDigitizedManuscripts ☎✍🏻 https://t.co/Ck3OQgyYFr pic.twitter.com/sbkxS6oi1u
— Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) December 20, 2018
Vat.lat.4504,
Vat.lat.4505,
Vat.lat.4506,
Vat.lat.4507,
Vat.lat.4509,
Vat.lat.4513,
Vat.lat.4514 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4515,
Vat.lat.4518,
Vat.lat.4522 (Upgraded to HQ),
Vat.lat.4523,
Vat.lat.4524,
Vat.lat.4526,
Vat.lat.4527,
Vat.lat.4528,
Vat.lat.4529,
Vat.lat.4530, Jamblichus, see Jordanus
Vat.lat.4535,
Vat.lat.4538,
Vat.lat.4539, Bernelinus, Gerbert and others on arithmetic, see Jordanus. With this bull's eye by the Dennis the Menace of the Vatican rubber stamp:
Vat.lat.5754.pt.A,
Vat.lat.9055,
This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 190. Thanks to @gundormr for harvesting. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.
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