How the West Has Turned Murder Into a Political Tool

The West is increasingly attacking heads of state directly, thus turning murder into a political tool. This year, Trump has further escalated this practice. Russian television has broadcast a commentary in its weekly news summary , which I have translated without further introduction, so that everyone can think about it for themselves, writes Thomas Röper.

Murders of heads of state are becoming routine

You have probably noticed how the US and Israel treat the leaders of countries they dislike. President Nicolas Maduro was simply abducted from his residence in Venezuela. The religious leader of Iran, Khamenei, was killed in his residence by a rocket attack. Members of his family were killed along with him, including his 14-month-old granddaughter.

Iran’s highest leadership – spiritual, military, and political – was deliberately eliminated. The most recent attack on a high-ranking politician took place this week. The funeral of National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani led to a massive demonstration of national solidarity.

Interestingly enough, in the West Larijani was regarded as a respectable and sensible politician who was willing to negotiate and reach agreements. He was accepted by many Western heads of state and government leaders and viewed as a potential negotiating partner.

In 2024, Israeli planes bombed the residence of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Dahiya near Beirut. As a result, Hezbollah was temporarily decapitated. In that same year, 2024, Israelis blew up the residence of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, who had come there for the inauguration of the newly elected Iranian President Pesezhkyan.

But the leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas were at least labeled as terrorists. But Larijani?

On the same night as Larijani, Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij militias, one of the militias of the Revolutionary Guard, was killed, Israeli Defense Minister Katz reported.

And on Friday, US President Trump summed it up as follows: “Their leaders are all gone. The next generation of leaders is almost gone. And the third generation is largely gone. Now no one wants to be a leader anymore. We find it difficult to talk to them. We want to talk, but there is no one we can talk to. We just have no one we can talk to. And you know what? We actually quite like that.”

So, assassinating heads of state has become routine these days. In the past, when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was killed in 2006 or Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, it was done supposedly by proxies, supposedly by rebels, to keep up appearances. Nowadays, no one makes that effort anymore.

Of course, heads of state were also assassinated in the past. Often, these murders had domestic political causes, such as the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. Nowadays, however, it concerns terrorist practices by other states.

Assassination attempts are also part of this. Just think of the Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin in May 2023, where not only Russian President Putin’s office is located, but also his residence. The attack was repelled; fortunately, no one was injured, but shrapnel flew around the Kremlin grounds.

Another assassination attempt on Putin was the terror attack of December 29 last year. A swarm of 91 drones targeted the Russian president’s residence in the Novgorod region. As a formality, parts of the downed drones, along with deciphered flight paths and a reconstruction of the sinister plan, were handed over to the American military attaché in Moscow.

The plan of Zelensky, the head of the regime in Kyiv, on the other hand, requires no deciphering. He himself has repeatedly stated that he wants to assassinate Putin or see the Russian president dead. I do not even want to quote these abhorrent statements here.

In general, it can be said that the assassination and liquidation of heads of state is becoming a common tool in modern conflicts—a technology, if you will. While leaders of state were admittedly assassinated in the past as well, at least back then it was treated as if it were something indecent.

This week, for example, the trial of 93-year-old Étienne Davignon began in Brussels. He is accused of involvement in the murder of Congo’s first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba.

Lumumba, also known as the ‘African Castro’, was abducted and murdered in 1961. He angered Belgium like no other. He even said to King Baudouin I: ‘We are no longer your apes.’ With that, a line was drawn under Belgian colonial rule in the Congo.

The abducted Lumumba was tortured, doused with acid, and burned. For more than 60 years, the accusations were denied. They were ashamed of them. But only now is the trial beginning against a former Belgian diplomat involved in this illegal affair.

Hundreds of assassination attempts on the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, were secretly planned and failed miserably, but the US has never admitted this. The same applies to Castro’s ally Che Guevara, who was killed in 1967 during a joint operation by the CIA and the Bolivian army. For the CIA, it was a secret mission.

It was always assumed that heads of state were formerly assassinated by terrorists or individual perpetrators. US President John F. Kennedy. Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme. The assassination attempts on Trump, to name just a few examples.

But today, states commit such murders without shame. Pandora’s box has been opened.

End of translation.

https://www.frontnieuws.com/hoe-het-westen-moorden-tot-een-politiek-middel-heeft-gemaakt