I’ve been pondering what to write about Iran’s top military leader Qassem Soleimani ever since he was killed last Friday.

Sometimes in this high-speed, social media-driven, fake news-corrupted era, patience is a virtue for journalists, especially opinionated columnists like me, and it makes sense to take a pause before committing to any firm conclusions.

My initial feeling on hearing the news was one of relief that such an obviously despicable human being was dead.

My second feeling, one that I suspect most people had whatever their view of President Trump’s decision to order Soleimani’s death via a drone strike on his car convoy at Baghdad airport, was concern at what this meant for world peace.

But now, five days later, and after Iran hit back at America last night with missile strikes at US bases in Iraq, I know what I think, and it’s this: Trump was absolutely right.

Let’s be very clear: Soleimani was the world’s most dangerous terrorist.

No ‘ifs’, no ‘buts’, no carefully-worded equivocation.

After Iran hit back at America last night with missile strikes at US bases in Iraq, I know what I think, and it’s this: Trump was absolutely right

Let’s be very clear: Soleimani was the world’s most dangerous terrorist. No ‘ifs’, no ‘buts’, no carefully-worded equivocation

Iran’s second most powerful man was leader of the Quds Force, Iran’s brutally despotic Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and presided over two decades of despicable terror acts committed by proxy terrorists right across the Middle East, from Iraq to Yemen and Syria to Lebanon.

As such, he was no different ideologically from other terror leaders like Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Like them, his life was devoted to killing people via terrorism.

And like them, he was killed by US forces to stop him directing more terror acts.

Yet unlike Bin Laden and Baghdadi, Soleimani’s death has been met with howls of protests from the world’s liberals.

Within minutes of it being confirmed, out sprang the usual suspect mouth-foaming Trump-loathing celebrities who erupt in hysterical rage every time he speaks, tweets or does anything, often with little knowledge of what has actually happened.

Actress Rose McGowan led the pack by posting the following tweet: ‘Dear Iran, the USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people. 52% of us humbly apologize. We want peace with your nation. We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime. We do not know how to escape. Please do not kill us.’

Iran has fired 22 ballistic missiles (one pictured) at two Iraqi bases housing American troops

President Trump ordered Soleimani’s death via a drone strike on his car convoy at Baghdad airport (pictured)

When this bizarre mea culpa prompted understandable outrage, she retorted: ‘Of course Soleimani was an evil man who did evil things. But that at the moment is not the f*cking point.’

Then she apologized again to Iran.

Later, McGowan back-tracked, explaining: ‘OK, so I freaked out because we may have impending war…..I do not want any more American soldiers killed, that’s it.’

Hmmm.

So, the best way to prevent more American soldiers being killed is to keep alive the man who has been killing so many of them for 20 years?

Ms McGowan wasn’t the only one who sounded confused.

Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback famed for his kneeling protests during the US national anthem, accused Trump of having a racist motivation.

‘There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks on Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism,’ he tweeted.

Sorry, what?

Kaepernick either doesn’t know, or chose to ignore, that for many years Iran has been committing terror attacks on black and brown people for the expansion of its own imperialist agenda in the Middle East.

Many other stars, from John Legend to John Cusack and Alyssa Milano, also felt compelled to tell the world how disgusting it was that Soleimani had been killed, as Twitter – so often wrong about almost everything – went into meltdown about the inevitable World War 3 that would now apparently result from Trump’s supposed idiocy.

(Spoiler alert: it won’t.)

Soleimani was no different ideologically from other terror leaders like Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden (left) and ISIS commander Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (right). Like them, he was killed by US forces to stop him directing more terror acts. Yet unlike Bin Laden and Baghdadi, Soleimani’s death has been met with howls of protests from the world’s liberals

Oh, they all agreed Soleimani was a very bad man who killed lots of people, but they also think he should have been kept alive to continue killing lots more people.

Epitomizing this seemingly absurd contradictory attitude was Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren whose initial response to the news was this: ‘Soleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans.’

A day later, Warren had a re-think and said that in fact, the bad guy was President Trump who had ‘assassinated a senior foreign military official.’

It’s no coincidence that Warren’s dramatic change in tone came after 24 hours of rage from fellow liberals horrified that she had told the truth about Soleimani’s murderous record.

But when repeatedly pressed yesterday by Meghan McCain on The View as to whether Soleimani was a terrorist, Warren finally said: ‘Of course he was.’

So, let me get this straight: Soleimani was a mass murdering terrorist responsible for killing 1000s of people including 100s of Americans, but should be left alone because it might ‘escalate the situation with Iran’?

I don’t remember the risk of escalating conflict being an issue with the killings of Bin Laden or Baghdadi, who were also mass murdering terrorists responsible for murdering 1000s of people including many Americans.

No, when Obama ordered the execution of Bin Laden, liberals cheered him around the world.

But Trump Derangement Syndrome dictates there must be a very different response when the current president kills a terror leader.

We saw this when Trump was roundly booed at a world series game in Washington the day after Baghdadi blew himself up after being cornered by US special forces.

And now we see it again, only even worse, with the staggeringly two-faced liberal response to Soleimani’s death.

Actress Rose McGowan tweeted: ‘Dear Iran, the USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people. 52% of us humbly apologize. We want peace with your nation. We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime. We do not know how to escape. Please do not kill us'

Later, McGowan back-tracked, explaining: ‘OK, so I freaked out because we may have impending war…..I do not want any more American soldiers killed, that’s it’

For the perfect illustration of this, take two tweets from Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.

The first came on December 31 when the protestors stormed the US embassy in Baghdad.

‘The attack on our embassy in Baghdad is horrifying but predictable,’ he wrote. ‘Trump has rendered America impotent in the Middle East. No one fears us, no one listens to us. America has been reduced to huddling in safe rooms, hoping the bad guys will go away. What a disgrace.’

So, you would think Murphy was thrilled to hear a bad guy had been taken out, right?

Nope.

‘Soleimani was an enemy of the United States,’ he said on January 2. 'That’s not in question. The question is this – as reports suggest, did America just assassinate, without any congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran, knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?’

Have you ever seen a more ridiculous U-turn?

There’s no doubt Soleimani’s death will lead to more repercussions and revenge attacks by Iran.

Last night’s missile strikes, described by the Ayatollah as a ‘slap in the face’ to America, certainly won’t be the end of their response to their martyr’s death.

But that doesn’t make the decision to kill him wrong.

President Trump didn’t just wake up one day and decide to take him out.

Colin Kaepernick, the NFL quarterback famed for his kneeling protests during the US national anthem, accused Trump of having a racist motivation

‘There is nothing new about American terrorist attacks on Black and Brown people for the expansion of American imperialism,’ he tweeted

There had been a series of recent Iran-inspired rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq, culminating in one a few days earlier that killed an American contractor and injured US and Iraqi soldiers.

Trump responded by ordering US strikes on Kataeb Hezbollah, the Iran proxy militia that carried out the rocket attacks.

This prompted the group’s furious supporters to break into the US embassy in Baghdad and set fire to the reception.

For Trump and his military advisors, this situation was disturbingly reminiscent of the capture of the US embassy and its diplomats in Tehran in 1979 and the terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2012 when US ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed.

The President, who’d been heavily critical of his predecessor Barack Obama’s appalling inaction over the Benghazi fiasco, knew that failure to act decisively now when confronted with a similar situation was not an option.

‘Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities,’ Trump tweeted.

To which Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khameni responded on Twitter by taunting back at the US President: ‘You can’t do anything.’

At the same time, the US reportedly received credible intelligence that Soleimani was actively plotting to kill more American military and diplomatic personnel in the Middle East.

Frankly, what else does anyone think he was doing in Iraq?

This represented a direct and immediate challenge to the security of the United States, but one that Iran arrogantly presumed America would do nothing about.

They were wrong.

Epitomizing this seemingly absurd contradictory attitude was Democrat presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren whose initial response to the news was this: ‘Soleimani was a murderer, responsible for the deaths of thousands, including hundreds of Americans.’ A day later, Warren had a re-think and said that in fact, the bad guy was President Trump who had ‘assassinated a senior foreign military official'

President Trump considered various military options presented to him and chose the killing of Soleimani to send Iran a firm message that yes, actually, the United States COULD and WOULD do something to defend itself.

As to his motivation, it had nothing to do with racism as Colin Kaepernick ludicrously suggested.

Nor do I believe it was designed to create a distraction from Trump’s impeachment, which seems to be helping not hindering him in the polls anyway.

No, I share the view of retired General David Petraeus, one of America’s finest military minds, who said Soleimani’s death was ‘bigger than Bin Laden, bigger than Baghdadi’ and a ‘very significant effort to re-establish deterrence’.

Petraeus explained: ‘Soleimani was the architect and operational commander of the Iranian effort to solidify the so-called Shia crescent stretching from Iran to Iraq, through Syria into southern Lebanon. He is responsible for providing explosives and arms and other munitions that killed well over 600 American soldiers and many more of our coalition partners, so his death is of enormous significance. Many people had rightly questioned whether America’s deterrence had eroded somewhat because of the relatively insignificant responses to the earlier actions.’

In other words, President Trump called Iran’s menacing, threatening, cocky, murderous bluff - to put them back in their box.

HE gave THEM the ‘slap in the face’ they deserved and deserves praise not hypocritical liberal outrage for taking such bold action.

Far from making the world a more dangerous place, I think the world just got a lot safer without the presence of a loathsome terror leader like Qassem Soleimani.