How much revenge? Is war still on horizon?

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“Who will take revenge for my father?”asked Zeinab.
“Everyone,” Hassan Rouhani, president of Iran, replied to her. “Everyone will take revenge . . . We will avenge his blood; don’t you worry.” Rouhani visited Soleimani’s family and told them that the U.S. had committed one of history’s unforgettable crimes against the Iranian nation.

“The Americans did not realize what a grave mistake they made. They will suffer the consequences 0f such criminal nature not early today, but also throughout the years to come,” he said. Iran’s supreme commander, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also warned that “the continuing fight and ultimate victory will be more bitter for the murderers and criminals.”

Soon after the drone-explosion killing, the Iran military mistakenly launched a missile that downed a passenger jet at the Tehran airport, killing all 176 aboard. This proved be a temporary street-demonstration diversion against the Ayatollah’s regime. But soon after that another 56 Iranians were crushed to death in a stampede during the funeral for Soleimani in his hometown of Kerman, with another 200 severely injured.

Anti-American sentiment remained strong, and Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab had plenty to say on that occasion. She warned the families of American soldiers that their loved ones would soon die. Speaking for the family at her father’s funeral, she said,’The U.S. and Zionism must know that my father’s martyrdom will further awaken people in the axis of resistance and tear down their spider nests.” She also warned that “the families of American troops in West Asia who have witnessed the U.S. humiliation in Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Yemen will be awaiting news of the death of their children.”

Zaineb also described a list of terrorist group leaders who could aid in killing Americans to help her father: “Secretary-General of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement Seyed Hassan Nasralla, Syrian President Bashar al-Hassad, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ziyad al-Nakhalah, or leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi.”

I’m not big on the knowledge of symbolism or internal politics in the civilizations of the Middle East. However, I will be on personal high alert Jan. 28. The next major Muslim holiday I see coming up appears to be the anniversary of the martyrdom of Fatimah on that date this year, and there is a lot of father-daughter similarity.

“Fāṭimah bint Muḥammad (born 604 – died 632) is the youngest daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and Khadijah, wife of Ali and mother of Hasan and Hussein, and one of the members of Ahl al-Bayt. She is the object of the veneration, love, and respect of all Muslims, as she was the child closest to her father and supported him in his difficulties, was the supporter and loving caretaker of her own husband and children, and was the only child of Muhammad to have male children live beyond childhood, whose descendants are spread throughout the Islamic world and are known as Sayyids. The 11th century dynasty ruling Egypt at the time of the Crusades, the Fatimids, claimed descent from Fatimah.”

But perhaps the Muslims will hold off until a more blood-thirsty male holiday on which to wreak their revenge—in, say, Donald’s adoptive new state of Florida, which he is eyeing for the Electoral College vote later this year—at the Muslim-free spa known as Mar-a-Lago. That might be a good place to avoid for a while.

AND MEANWHILE, what does Donald spend his time concerned with? Starting a war or maybe preventing one? Making a 10-foot putt, enhancing his personal image . . . the 2020 election?

He seems to spend all of his time conducting pep rallies or playing golf. At a rally in Ohio on Thursday night, Trump claimed that he deserved credit for the Nobel Peace Prize recently awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. "I made a deal. I saved a country. And I just heard that the head of that country is now getting the Nobel Peace Prize for saving the country. I said, 'What? Did I have something do with it?' Yeah," Trump said. "But you know, that's the way it is. As long as we know, that's all that matters."

Trump last year offered to help negotiate an agreement between the Ethiopian prime minister and Egypt's prime minister over a dam on the Nile. But Ahmed was awarded the prestigious prize for negotiating a peace deal between Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea following 20 years of bloody conflict. Trump had nothing to do with these peace negotiations.