The escalation of US tensions with Iran has centered greatly, at least
within the narrative, on Iraq. The idea is that US troops are endangered
in Iraq, and that Iranian proxies, who are actually part of the Iraqi
government, are plotting against them.
And just because nothing ever happens doesn’t mean that isn’t going to continue to be a talking point, as US officials talk about “indirect fire” attacks in Iraq, with indirect in this case meaning they don’t appear to be firing directly at the US forces.
Officials say they are perceiving an increase in the amount of mortar
and rocket fire in Iraq. Which would be dangerous to US troops, except
US targets aren’t actually being hit. It’s just that the US has so many
targets in Iraq that something they have “come close.” The military
confirmed there were no casualties, but declined to report on the number
of these not-really-attacks that took place.
No claims of responsibility, no US targets being hit, but experts are
more than willing to tell the media that it is an “ongoing effort by
Iran and its proxy militias.” US officials seem reluctant to say
anything that might contradict that position. They just say Iraqi
officials are investigating.
The lack of anything actually happening means this can’t be a direct
pretext by US hawks to do anything. Yet Mike Pompeo mentioned rocket
fire in Iraq in his litany of grievances against Iran, which suggests
this will continue to be a talking point for the sake of mounting
tensions.
Freaking insane….
The whole “US troops are being attacked by Iranian proxies and Iran” is being emphasized because it plays with Trump – who is big on “supporting the troops” – because that plays with his base and the rest of the electorate who have relatives in the military or knows someone who does.
This is what happens when you have a million people in the military – and probably ten million more who know them individually. One or two percent of the population wags the other 98 percent.
Works the same in Israel which is why Israel backed down in 2006 when over a hundred Israeli soldiers were killed by Hezbollah – which was a disaster in Israeli terms. When your enemy, even losing twenty of theirs compared to one of yours, kills any significant percentage of yours, it’s a shock.
They’re gonna love the Iran war. The US electorate only lost a few thousand killed in Iraq and Afghanistan (albeit several hundred thousand wounded, which is rarely mentioned) and that was over a period of six or seven years. Even Vietnam was only fifty thousand over, what, ten years or more?
Wait until they see the tens of thousands per year they get in Iran…
The only way to stop Iran from mining the Persian Gulf and the Straits is to put troops on Iran’s coast. It’s inevitable. Plus Iran will never stop fighting no matter how much air power the US applies. So the US will commit ground troops – at least at some point, possibly months or even a year into it – and those ground troops will get hit with unrelenting, never-ending military attacks and guerrilla war from what is left of the Iranian military, the IRGC forces, and the one-to-ten-million strong Basij militia. It will be a cluster-f##k that makes Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined look like the “cake-walk” Iraq was supposed to be (and was, relatively speaking.)
Time for the Iraqis to rise up in their own Tet offensive and throw the invader out once and for all.
smells like bovine excrement.