‘We’re becoming the terror’: Virginia senator hated by ISIS calls Soleimani killing ‘tragedy,’ warns against war with Iran

General Qassem Soleimani was among those responsible for defeating Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, and his killing is a “great tragedy” that could result in a “vast war” with Iran, a former Virginia senator and Marine veteran told RT.

Soleimani was killed on Thursday in a strike outside Baghdad International Airport, for which the White House admitted responsibility later that evening. In a statement to RT on Friday, retired Virginia Senator Richard Black said the assassination “may presage a new war of aggression—this time, against the Iranian people.”

Black noted that the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force had led the fight against both Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists and Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria. 

We are not genuinely fighting a war on terror. I fear that in a sense, we are becoming the terror.

The former senator, who retired at the end of 2019, cautioned against further escalation in the Middle East, recalling a claim predating the 2003 invasion of Iraq that regime change in Tehran was the ultimate objective.

“I pray that we draw back from the vast war that looms,” Black added. “Neither our soldiers nor our people have a voice to stop it.”

Having served in the US Marines during the Vietnam War, Black became an outspoken critic of US involvement in Syria during his last term in the Virginia Senate. In 2014, he thanked Syrian President Bashar Assad for saving Christians and Jews from Al-Qaeda and IS. The following year, IS dubbed him an “American Crusader” and put him on its enemies list.

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