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Gen. Petraeus Says U.S. May Have Helped "Reestablish Deterrence" by Killing Soleimani
(Foreign Policy) Lara Seligman - Former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and former CIA director Gen. (ret.) David Petraeus is keenly familiar with Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani's killing was designed to send a pointed message to the regime that the U.S. will not tolerate continued provocation, Petraeus said. "It is impossible to overstate the importance of this particular action. It is more significant than the killing of Osama bin Laden or even the death of [Islamic State leader] al-Baghdadi....The reasoning seems to be to show in the most significant way possible that the U.S. is just not going to allow the continued violence - the rocketing of our bases, the killing of an American contractor, the attacks on shipping, on unarmed drones - without a very significant response." "This is a very significant effort to reestablish deterrence, which obviously had not been shored up by the relatively insignificant responses up until now....Yes, they can respond and they can retaliate, and that can lead to further retaliation - and that it is clear now that the administration is willing to take very substantial action. This is a pretty clarifying moment in that regard."