(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Biden administration officials were recently quoted by the New York Times as saying that the U.S. will go to war with Iran if a single U.S. troop is killed by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq or Syria.
At this rate, such a scenario looks highly likely.
According to the Times, Iranian-backed militias had already carried out 140 attacks on American troops in Iraq and Syria as of Thursday, with nearly 70 U.S. personnel wounded, some of them suffering traumatic brain injuries.
“Biden administration officials have regularly debated the proper strategy. They do not want to let such attacks go without a response, but on the other hand do not want to go so far that the conflict would escalate into a full-fledged war, particularly by striking Iran directly,” the Times reported Sunday.
“They privately say they may have no choice, however, if American troops are killed. That is a red line that has not been crossed, but if the Iranian-backed militias ever have a day of better aim or better luck, it easily could be.”
The escalating attacks are a part of an apparent chain reaction: The Iranian-backed militia attacks are in response to the U.S. bombing Yemen; the U.S. bombing of Yemen is in response to the Houthis attacking merchant and military vessels in the Red Sea; the Houthis’ operations in the Red Sea are in response to Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza; and Israel’s attack on Gaza is in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
War hawks on both sides of the political aisle are pushing Joe Biden to escalate the conflict in the name of deterrence.
However, America-First conservatives and libertarians have pointed out for years that the American troops in the Middle East are endangered due to the Defense Department sabotaging efforts by former President Donald Trump to withdraw troops from that region.
Trump’s orders to withdraw from Syria came in 2018 and again in 2019, and each time officials either resigned in protest or outright deceived the President.
In December 2018, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned over the matter, as did Syria envoy Brett McGurk. And according to DefenseOne.com, military officials lied to Trump about how many troops were there.
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” McGurk’s replacement, diplomat Jim Jeffrey, told the publication in November 2020.
Jeffrey added that the actual number of troops in northeast Syria is “a lot more than” the roughly two hundred troops Trump initially agreed to leave there in 2019.
Trump is now warning that Biden has the country on the bring of World War 3.
“Joe Biden is an incompetent, mad man who will start WW3” — Trump.
Trump is right. The US bombing of Yemen/Houthis is just the beginning.
pic.twitter.com/yfZqkn8V3q #Israel #Gaza
— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) January 12, 2024
“Crooked Joe Biden is not only dumb and incompetent. I believe that he has gone mad. A stark raving lunatic,” Trump said earlier this month. “He is a mental catastrophe who’s leading our country to hell. We’ll end up in World War 3 because of this man, and for no reason whatsoever.”
Trump made similar comments on Monday.
“Now we’re getting involved in the Middle East. Look what’s happening… Here we go again with the Middle East! We spent $9 trillion dollars, killed millions of people… You know what we got? Nothing. You got death. You got blood. You got nothing.”
Trump discusses America’s re-engagement in the Middle East on behalf of Israel:
“Now we’re getting involved in the Middle East. Look what’s happening… Here we go again with the Middle East! We spent $9 trillion dollars, killed millions of people… You know what we got? Nothing.… pic.twitter.com/gQ1KYg6aBu
— AF Post (@AFpost) January 23, 2024
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
