Plenty of American Iran hawks dismiss Suleimani as a terrorist. Are they right?
Consider that there is a very good analogy in UK history: T. E. Lawrence. Lawrence was a gifted guerrilla fighter, a political fixer, and a liaison between the British and various groups of Arabs fighting for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Sound familiar?
The Turks undoubtedly viewed Lawrence as a terrorist; from their perspective, he was. We think of him as a hero. The size of the crowds at Suleimani’s funeral tells you that the Iranian population saw him as a hero, too. Just calling him a terrorist is overly simplistic.