The Biden administration has the right to “respond” to a Monday night rocket attack on a US military base in Iraq Kurdistan and is working to attribute blame, the White House said on Tuesday.
“We’re still working through attribution with our Iraqi partners to determine precise attribution for this attack,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters. When asked if the US would retaliate, Psaki said the US “reserves the right to respond in the time and the manner of our choosing.”
The attack hit a US base in Erbil, Iraq, killing one contractor working for the US and wounding eight others. One US soldier was also wounded in the incident. A US military spokesman said on Tuesday that the contractor that was killed was not American. Rockets also fell on a nearby airport, and civilians were reported wounded outside of the base.
While the US is working with Iraqi and local Kurdish authorities to attribute blame, a little-known group named Awliya al-Dam took credit for the attack, but it is not yet clear if they were responsible.
These types of attacks are usually blamed on Iran or Iran-backed Shia militias. Sources told US News that some US and Kurdish officials believe Iran was complicit in the attack, but no public accusations have been made, and no evidence has been offered to back up the claim.
Iran denied any responsibility in the Erbil attack on Tuesday and said the accusations against Tehran were “suspicious.” There are many different groups inside Iraq with their own reasons to fire on a US base. For Iran, which is seeking sanctions relief from the new US administration, now is not the time to escalate tensions with Washington.
Occupiers do not have any right to respond.
Yes, if they have no right to be there they have no right to respond.
There still exists and agreement for them to be there, made with the Iraqi government.
The whole Parliament demanded last year that the US leave once and for all.
That’s incorrect. There was a unanimous vote of one faction of parliament, while another faction wasn’t present.
Respond — to whom. Just random display of displeasure,
Yeah, can’t believe the brain dead response. Occupying centuries old State, stealing their oil and someone shoots back…. They act like its totally insane for the victims to send a token of displeasure to the occupier. Who writes these scripts….?????
I
The problem is — these scripts work on the majority of US public. Most people believe that foreign troop deployments are for a noble cause of saving US from primitive, violent people, incapable of running a normal government. Our troops are there in civilizational mission, our sacrifices are appreciated by those we help to civilization. And once in a while, some rouge elements attempt to harm us. We thus must respond firmly to teach them a lesson. If anything, complaints about foreign wars are chiefly due to our being too generous to the world, and should cut back wasting our lives and treasure. We cannot be police, taking care if their endless squabbles.
No. First of all, the public is fed lies and fake news every day. This includes baloney like “they’re keeping us free” and “thank you for your service.
It’s also true that the majority of the people, about seventy percent of them, disapprove of the US Congress here. The most radical of them stormed Capitol Hill recently. Seventy four million of them voted for Trump who is anti-establishment.
Meanwhile there is no national mechanism for enabling the people to govern through their representatives, which define democracy. So there is no democracy. There is only the right to choose one of two schmucks every four years, and a large percentage of the people don’t fall for that faulty definition of democracy.
re: “with our Iraqi partners”
The US is somehow unable to realize that Operation Iraqi Freedom, with all its destruction and killing, did not result in Iraq as an ally. They are not US partners. Quite the opposite is true. Iraq, which had fought a bitter war with Iran not so many years ago, is now an Iran ally. So Iraq kicked the US out of the country twice but the US only left once, therefore the attacks on an unwanted occupier. . . .But that’s US policy — instability and endless war, and Blinken is outraged. Hillary used to be horrified, that’s the only change as we move back into Obama-ism. Let’s see what sort of mindless revenge they come up with, these ignorant children in Washington. Somebody wake up Biden.
Unfortunately, you can’t wake up from senile dementia.
Yeah, can’t believe the brain dead response. Occupying centuries old State, stealing their oil and someone shoots back…. They act like its totally insane for the victims to send a token of displeasure to the occupier. Who writes these scripts….?????
“Occupying 89-year-old State”
Fixed, no charge.
The age of the state is irrelevant.
True. And in fact it’s really only a 17-year-old state (just because the territory has been called “Iraq” for 89 years, that doesn’t mean it’s been a continuous regime; the current regime was installed by the US in 2003).
The right response is to get the hell out of Dodge.
It was a damaging attack with people getting only a short advance notice of it.
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That’s what resistance looks like.
The US should also have the obligation to publish whatever material is used to establish the guilt of anyone targeted in that response.
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