By Geoff LaMear
The Pentagon announced Sunday that U.S. forces had conducted strikes against Iranian-backed militia groups on the Iraqi-Syrian border in response to drone attacks targeting U.S. troops and facilities. America has tried this strategy before, and it has failed to stop such proxy attacks: Iranian rockets, and now unmanned aircraft, continue to rain intermittently on U.S. personnel with no signs of abating. Instead of allowing U.S. contractors, troops and property to face attack, the Pentagon would be better off withdrawing from Iraq altogether.
The tit-for-tat process started under President Donald Trump and escalated following the January 2020 U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a senior figure involved in most of the Iranian attacks on U.S. troops. That flashpoint nearly started a war between Iran and the United States, and Iran’s missile strikes in the days following left 110 U.S. troops injured.
Today, not much has changed. Attacks continued through the end of Trump’s presidency, and President Joe Biden began to encounter these proxy attacks from the outset of his administration. But the most recent reciprocal attacks prove that the strategy isn’t working. Deterrence is not shaky; it is nonexistent.
This piece was originally published in NBC on June 28, 2021. Read more HERE.