The least that can be said about the US strikes on Iranian targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation to the killing of three American troops is that what is happening in our region – whether carried out by Iran and its militias, or American responses – is depletion and undermining.
Is it possible for Iran or its militias to attack, wound and kill American troops and then for the US response to be a strike on known targets, at a known timing, all preceded with statements that assure Tehran that Washington doesn’t want a war with it?
Ever since the Al-Aqsa Flood, Hezbollah has been waging hollow clashes and the Houthis have been attacking marine navigation. Is it possible for Iran to do what it is doing – through these militias – and later declare that it has nothing to do with them and say that the militias don’t even consult it? How is it possible that these claims have been believed and promoted through diplomatic channels and in the media?
How is it possible that these Iran-aligned militias can destabilize the region, then declare that they will stop targeting American interests, for some of their leaders to quit the scene – as if they were excusing themselves from a classroom – and then for the Americans to fail to come up with a strategy to deal with these groups?
How can there not be a real strategy over how to deal with these lawless militias that have harmed Iraq? How can there not be international mobilization to support Iraq and rid it of the sectarian formula that has led it to this current situation?
Are we seriously supposed to believe that the developments in Syria – which has been transformed into a “wolf trap” where frequent Israeli strikes are hunting down Iranian Revolutionary Guards members, where the US strikes at will and where a real political solution has not been reached – are supposed to be a product of strategy?
When I speak of strategy, the first thing that should be done and achieved is cutting Iranian supply routes from Iraq to Syria. We all know that Syria is at the heart of Iran’s expansionist strategy in the region.
Severing the supply routes means cutting the arteries of these Iranian militias from Iraq to the Mediterranean where Hezbollah lies. This will stop the flow of weapons and the Shiite Afghan Iranian militias to Syria. This step is far more important than the 85 strikes Washington carried out on Friday night.
I say that what is happening is depletion and undermining because the Biden administration is not adopting a serious approach in the region – from Yemen to Syria and from Iraq to Lebanon.
Here one might ask: Does Washington need to do all of this? Take CIA Director William Burns’ answer. In an article published by Foreign Affairs magazine, Burns wrote: “The United States is not exclusively responsible for resolving any of the Middle East’s vexing problems. But none of them can be managed, let alone solved, without active US leadership.”
Ok then, where is the American leadership and its strategy? Burns’ 4,100-word article covered his intelligence career and his future. He used 720 words to write about Russia, 631 about China and only 311 about the region and Iran, and Israel’s war on Gaza.
So, at this moment, all see in the region, whether it is carried out by Iran, Israel, or the US, is depletion and undermining.
