SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Military experts said the Iraq strike killing Qassem Soleimani was necessary.
Retired United States Marine Corps. Colonel G.I. Wilson served in Iraq in 2005.
"It was a pretty chaotic situation," Wilson says, adding not much has changed. "In the region the Iranians have always been the boogeyman, they've been wanting to stir up trouble, they've been wanting to ferment instability and of course as a result of that they can influence the region and take over."
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Top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani was killed in Iraq after the President ordered the strike.
Wilson said that mission saved lives, adding it was long overdue and Soleimani felt emboldened to continue to stir chaos.
"[Soleimani] was there to execute operations and kill Americans and many innocents as well," Wilson says. "Previous administrations including the Bush administration and the Obama administration allowed this general unbridled activity in the Middle East and at some point you have to stop that."
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Former Navy Pilot, and Air and Space Museum CEO Jim Kidrick agreed, calling airstrike the "magic moment" and the strike was like a "surgical operation," saying the Marines had to be precise in their execution. A difficult task, he adds, when the insurgents don't fight fairly.
The fallout from the attack could go one of two ways, according to Wilson.
"Osama bin Laden was taken down, there were all kinds of threats made, and relatively nothing happened. When Baghdadi was taken down, again, all these threats were made and nothing happened," Wilson recalls. "Is there a potential to see attacks here on the homeland, yes, is there a potential to see attacks on Americans overseas, yes."
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"I mean that's why many men join the Marine Corps, or any branch of the service, so they can deploy, so they can be part of the action. That's why they're there, to deploy. That's probably an increased possibility, but also I wouldn't focus totally on the Middle East. There are other parts of the world I would pay attention to as well," Wilson adds, referring to North Korea.
