The party’s presidential candidates reacted to the strike with a measure of unity, at least on the surface level, with expressions of concern about what they called the Trump administration’s penchant for reckless action and the possibility of all-out war. On January 3, 2020, a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad International Airport killed General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Quds Force, a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responsible for foreign operations. The strike was ordered by President Donald Trump and marked a significant escalation in U.S.- tensions.
While several deplored Soleimani’s role in directing violence against Americans, the Democrats expressed anxiety rather than jubilation over the circumstances of his demise.Former Vice President Joe Biden said President Donald Trump had “tossed a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., warned that the attack “brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East.”
