I don’t know about you but I am scared stiff. The Bible has always said Armageddon will start in the Middle East.
This was the situation in the volatile region and western Asia even before a drone attack over the weekend by militants allegedly linked to Iran killed three American soldiers. It all goes back to the war in Palestine.
Israel has been bombing Lebanon and Syria. The United States has been bombing Iraq, Syria and Yemen. The Houthis rebel group from Yemen has been targeting Western cargo ships in the Red Sea. Turkey has been bombing Syria and Iraq. Iran has dropped bombs on Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.
Now, even Jordan has been attacked, as the three US soldiers were killed at an outpost in the country near the Syrian border.
In case you wonder why everyone is bombing Syria, it’s because thanks to a nasty civil war and its aftermath, every power player in the region has forces, whether proxy or regular, inside it. So for years, they have been bombing and killing each other inside Syria to avoid an outright war between sovereign states. It has been the same with the Yemen civil war. That’s the international political system for you. It’s actually infantile if it weren’t so bloodthirsty.
Israel has been dying to bomb Iran. Now the US may have the perfect excuse to carry out the hit. Of course, that might be problematic. It’s pretty clear that Iran, like the other major Arab states, actually is frightened and wants to de-escalate. That would have to start with a ceasefire in Gaza, but somehow, the C-word has become a taboo in Western capitals. Israel must be allowed to do whatever it wants, however long it takes, according to the ethical-political calculus of the West, or rather the lack thereof.
Does it now mean that any act carried out by Iran-linked groups will be blamed on Tehran? By the same logic, might not the world blame Washington for any action of its allies and partners to which it supplies weapons and over which it has political influence?
Soldiers die. This may sound callous but the US and Israel have been killing far more senior officers within the Iranian military and intelligence.
US President Joe Biden can hardly feign outrage but he certainly does over the dead soldiers.
It’s an election year and the Democrats, already frightened by Donald Trump 2.0, can’t afford to have their flank exposed to Republicans by appearing weak in the Middle East.
Serial warmongering Republicans in the US Senate such as Lindsey Graham, Tom Cotton and John Cornyn are already demanding an immediate attack on Iran.
Stand by Israel, no matter what; and stick it to the Iranians, Armageddon be damned. Sorry, no pun intended, but that’s pretty much what passes for Biden’s policy in the Middle East.
So the killing of three US soldiers is being cited as justification to attack Iran directly.
US-Israeli propaganda notwithstanding, any act by a hostile force does not intrinsically demand a military or diplomatic response. Policymakers must make a conscious decision to respond one way or another, or not at all.
Given the ever-escalating danger in the region, it’s even more alarming that the Biden administration is threatening to unleash on Iran.
However, Biden’s call for revenge or retaliation rings hollow. Leaving aside whether Iran could be held responsible for the attack, it is worth asking what those soldiers were doing and who put them there in the first place.
According to military analysts, the small base where they were killed functions as a support site for the much larger al-Tanf garrison stationed inside Syria, in other words, as part of an illegal US military presence inside someone’s country. But who’s going to eject the Amercians for openly violating Syrian sovereignty without provoking a massive retaliation?
The garrison has reportedly been used as a hub for US and Israeli forces to coordinate attacks against Iranian interests inside Syria and in other parts of the Middle East.
Who put those soldiers in harm’s way in the first place? It’s US decision makers like Biden. They are directly responsible for their deaths.