Qassem Soleimani, a new kind of Iranian national hero
(The Christian Science Monitor) For years Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, worked from the shadows, conducting the nation’s battles from Afghanistan to Lebanon.
But today he is Iran’s celebrity general, a man elevated to hero status by a social media machine.
The Islamic Republic long ago turned hero worship into an art form, with its devotion to martyrs from Shi’a religious history as well as recent wars. But the growing personality cult that halos Maj. Gen. Soleimani is different: the gray-haired servant of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is very much alive.
