Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds military force, was killed Friday in an airstrike on Friday. President Donald Trump said that the move was made to prevent a war. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick disagrees with this statement. He wrote on Twitter that this was an attack on people of color and another example of “American imperialism.”
“There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks against Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism,” Kaepernick wrote on Twitter on Saturday. He did not end with that comment. The former 49ers QB also added other thoughts with a second tweet.
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“America has always sanctioned and besieged Black and Brown bodies both at home and abroad,” Kaepernick continued. “America militarism is the weapon wielded by American imperialism, to enforce its policing and plundering of the non white world.”
The comments from Kaepernick were met with considerable backlash as many questioned his decision-making. Ben Domenech, the co-founder of The Federalist, tweeted: “Qassem Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans who were black and brown. cc @Nike” as a response.
Domenech was not the only critic of Kaepernick as many users on social media wrote that the former NFL quarterback was opting to side with a terrorist that was responsible for hundreds of deaths in recent years. For example, retired U.S. diplomat Alberto Miguel Fernandez talked about Kaepernick’s football future, writing: “Future backup quarterback for the NFL’s expansion ‘Tehran Pasdaran.’”
According to CBS News, the Defense Department blamed Soleimani for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. Additionally, they said he was behind recent attacks on coalition bases in the Middle East, including one on Dec. 27 that killed an American defense contractor.
“Suleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him,” Trump said to reporters during an interview in West Palm Beach, Fla. “We took action last night to stop a war, we did not take action to start a war.”
Following the death of Suleimani, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, promised retaliation for the airstrike. However, President Trump has warned against any actions against the United States. As he said, “If Americans anywhere are threatened, we have all of those targets already fully identified, and I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary.”
(Photo Credit: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
