In the early morning of January 3rd, President Donald Trump authorised a drone strike that targeted and killed a prominent Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani. The senior leader was returning from a peace negotiation with Saudi Arabian diplomats when his convoy was destroyed outside of Baghdad.

This is an extreme escalation. Soleimani was speculated to be the next leader of Iran and he was beloved within the nation for his apolitical attitude towards domestic issues and his success in defeating ISIS in the Middle East. This adds to the growing pile of aggressive US actions against Iran, beginning with the completely illogical tearing up of the the JCPOA nuclear agreement and the issuing of crippling sanctions that restrict the import of food and medicine into the country and severely punish any corporation or private company that chooses to do business with Iran. Add to this the fact that the US has overthrown a democratically elected Iranian government in the past and you may begin to see who the bully is in this situation.

But wait a minute... I thought that Soleimani was an evil, bloodthirsty war criminal who killed American soldiers and plotted terrorist attacks around the world? Wasn't he a bad guy? It's just not that simple.

The majority of terrorist attacks carried out throughout the world are conducted by Salafi jihadists, an ultra-conservative branch of Islam that is intolerant of religious dissent, suppresses women and glorifies religious violence - this is the ideology of ISIS, al Queda and Saudi Arabia. Although Iran is also an Islamic Republic, it is a majority Shia nation, a fundamentally opposing doctrine. Salafists believe that Shia muslims are infidels and extremist groups like ISIS seek their eradication. This video from the ex-Iranian supreme leader may offer some context. It is true that Soleimani trained, armed and supported Shia militias in the region that have killed American soldiers, however it is often neglected that the USA is de facto aligned with ISIS in the Syrian civil war.

So not only did the USA assassinate (without a trial I might add) an Iranian general who defeated ISIS, but he was also on a peace mission at the time.

Scott Morrison remains silent on this issue so far, please sign and share this petition to tell him the last thing we need is another war.