“Since his death, Soleimani has been hailed as the “Che Guevara of the Middle East” in some quarters…They’re packaging Soleimani as this foreign policy guru, martyr, strategist” (AFP.)
Could anything be more idiotic?
Certainly both Soleimani and Che Guevara have vast appeal to vast numbers of people who are malicious, covetous, lazy and stupid. But that’s about as far as the similarities go.
In a way, radical Islam functions as a transnational form of Bolshevism. What communists do (or attempt) within nations, radical Islam attempts among nations, with the U.S. (the Great Satan) and Israel in the role of the local successful businessmen, the kulak, the well-adjusted, the gregarious and happy. Both communism and radical Islam rationalize their adherents failures, resentments and frustrations, then license (and even reward) their destructive and bloody revenge. For many mentally unbalanced and/or malicious people, this is a hard act to beat.
But Soleimani actually succeeded as a malicious, resentful avenger/destroyer. Che Guevara failed pathetically, abysmally—even hilariously—at absolutely everything he attempted in life, except at the mass-murder of utterly unarmed and defenseless people.
Unlike Che Guevara, Soleimani actually participated in combat, and even succeeded at it, as success is reckoned in the Muslim world. He rose through the ranks during the absurdly bloody Iraq/Iran war then, as commander/advisor, helped defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
And as far as we know Soleimani managed all that without ever shooting himself in the face with his own gun, as did the pathetic military doofus Che Guevara during the Bay of Pigs, though he was 350 miles from the actual battle!…Details here. Other than his competence at murdering bound, gagged and blindfolded men, Che Guevara failed spectacularly at everything he attempted in his life.
In 1965, while planning a military campaign in the Congo against crack mercenaries commanded by a professional soldier (“Mad Mike Hoare) who helped defeat Rommel in North Africa, Che confidently allied himself with “soldiers” who used chicken feathers for helmets and stood in the open waving at attacking aircraft because a muganga (witch doctor) had assured them that the magic water he sprinkled over them would make .50 caliber bullets bounce harmlessly off their bodies. Six months later, Che fled Africa, narrowly escaping with his life and with his tail tucked tightly between his legs.
Two years later, during his Bolivian “guerrilla” campaign, Che split his forces, whereupon they got hopelessly lost and bumbled around, half-starved, half-clothed and half-shod, without any contact with each other for six months before being wiped out. They didn’t even have World War II vintage walkie-talkies to communicate and seemed incapable of applying a compass reading to a map. They spent much of the time walking in circles and were usually within a mile of each other. During this blundering, they often engaged in ferocious firefights against each other.
