On January 28, Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias launched a drone strike in northeast Jordan, killing three US troops and injuring 34 others. The US retaliated on February 3, striking upwards of 85 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Iranian proxy militia targets across western Iraq and eastern Syria.
Though the reissued waiver includes threats of G7 sanctions if Iran continues supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, the White House’s conflicting policy with Iran points to its fundamental misunderstanding of the Iranian threat.
The ayatollah’s theocratic dictatorship espouses the destruction of Israel, anti-American hostilities, and the export of its Twelver Shi’ite ideology to create a hegemonic Muslim theocracy in the Middle East. To Western ears, where the separation of church and state is deeply ingrained in policy and opinion, these goals are irrational and implausible, despite Iran’s deployment of the IRGC and its network of proxy militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, and Yemen against Israel, Western targets, and Sunni opposition.
Deterrence is only possible upon comprehension of the threat at hand. Will the US wait to seriously respond to Iran’s threats till the regime achieves the means to execute its religious vision, such as a nuclear arsenal? READ MORE
