Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Iran Gambles on Escalation With Surprise Attack on U.S. Forces
The Wall Street Journal ^ | Updated July 29, 2026 12:13 pm ET | Jared Malsin and Suha Ma’ayeh

Posted on 07/29/2026 11:21:53 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Airstrikes in Jordan show Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is willing to risk Trump’s retaliation

Iran’s surprise missile attack on U.S. forces in Jordan shows Tehran’s military leaders would rather risk ramping up the war than play defense or accept a peace deal that would expose them to greater domestic political pressures.

Iran fired ballistic missiles on U.S. troops early Wednesday local time, demonstrating a willingness by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which exerts more power than ever in Tehran, to escalate during a relative lull in the conflict and attempt to seize the initiative after weeks in which Iran has mostly reacted to U.S. and Israeli attacks.

President Trump was cited by Fox News as saying the U.S. would hit Iran hard in response to the attack. “They’re going to get a beating,” chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst early Wednesday quoted Trump as telling him. The White House didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.

A senior Jordanian government official said five missiles were intercepted in Jordan’s eastern desert and caused no injuries or material damage. The official declined to comment on the specific targets of the missiles. U.S. troops are posted to a Jordanian base near the Syrian border and at a separate air base in the desert where an Iranian missile strike killed two American servicemembers earlier this month. The Jordanian official said the Iranian attack showed the region was undergoing dramatic change.

The attack illustrates a fundamental shift in which the IRGC has grown more assertive and more comfortable with a state of war that could continue for months, rather than enter into a peace in which it would have to face public dissatisfaction with Iran’s struggling economy and its lethal clampdown on protesters earlier this year, analysts say.


(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: albertatroll; ceasefiremisfire; groundhogday; iran; iranescalates; iraq; irgc; jaredmalsin; jordan; koranimals; leftistsource; mou2; saudiarabia; suhamaayeh; wallstreeturinal; yemen
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-112 next last
To: 1035rep; Ultra Sonic 007
That's a completely disingenuous approach, if Trump really believes that.

Stopping Iran from advancing a nuclear weapons program is a perfect example of "policing the Middle East," and you can't police the Middle East without pissing away thousands of lives and trillions of dollars.

So I'd ask Trump to go back and think about that one again. And my original point still stands: The guy should have listened to himself before starting this fiasco.

81 posted on 07/29/2026 6:04:23 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel
Well, I give Trump credit for changing his mind as conditions change.

What condition changed in 2026 that hasn't been in place for years?

Other than a visit to the highly sensitive White House Situation Room by Bibi Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad in February 2026, that is?

Every globalist prick among the Republican Party leadership since 1990 had the same lame "conditions change!" excuse for pissing all over their grassroots supporters and violating their core campaign promises. This is the single biggest reason for Trump's success on the national political stage.

I suspect very few of these GOP voters are buying this sh!t anymore.

82 posted on 07/29/2026 6:07:53 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: cowboyusa
Trump didn’t learn the lesson of previous Wars.

Yes, he did.

See Post #70. He knew damn well that the best (only) course of action for the U.S. was to stay the hell out of the Middle East.

83 posted on 07/29/2026 6:09:43 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: cowboyusa

Democrats should be running away with this Election, but they are not. The Marxism issue is working. If only President Trump we’re a nasty bastard , and not such a nice guy.

*****

True, but they aren’t as strong as the true blue believers think they’re.

Plus, Trump has mitigated potential political disasters in the midterm elections before, 2018 being the one I remember.
House Republican pussies bailed with at least 40 retirements, yet Orange Man battled on the campaign trail to limit losses. His party leaders were pathetic in their countering of Mueller & the Russia Hoax.

Then after the loss Trump impressed me when he called his administration together and said “we’re now at war with House Democrats.”

The 45th & 47th President isn’t easily defeated and is a great political counter puncher.


84 posted on 07/29/2026 6:10:03 PM PDT by unclebankster (Globalism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

Anti semite bump


85 posted on 07/29/2026 6:10:21 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

This War could have been over in Early April. Trump should have followed his hero Jackson.


86 posted on 07/29/2026 6:13:30 PM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: central_va

Keyboard warrior globalist warmonger bump.


87 posted on 07/29/2026 6:15:06 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
Every big war starts as a little one, that has the expectation of being over quickly.

Does that include the Revolutionary War, the first "war of choice" that turned into a three-nation eight year conflict? Four nations if you count the Hessians.

-PJ

88 posted on 07/29/2026 6:15:13 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: unclebankster

Democrats ran military members as moderates in 208, and the Party still had a liberal reputation. No such Party now exists, to the point where my ENTIRE family of life long Democrats have left the Party on discust.


89 posted on 07/29/2026 6:15:32 PM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: unclebankster

These things should have been dealt with in a relevant time frame but due to general lack of spine they weren’t.

I fully understand why Iran never paid for their gross violations of international mores when they invaded the US Embassy and took hostages in 1979. I had grown up as a military brat, was overseas during Vietnam, and had served up until a couple of months before the hostage taking, so I was well tuned into the national sentiment on warfare, and saw the results of that while I was in.

America had not heart for action against Iran. It was too close to Vietnam, and it wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t expect Carter to do anything, and I understood why Reagan didn’t initially.

But Presidents afterwards had little to no excuse not to when it was warranted later, and that showed as weakness.

If you are one of those people who think Trump was led by the nose into this by Israel instead of being given information and deciding it was time to act, you aren’t going to change your mind regardless of information because you’ve made up your mind if you embrace that narrative.


90 posted on 07/29/2026 6:15:35 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

President Trump has been saying the same thing since 2010. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That has never changed.


91 posted on 07/29/2026 6:16:17 PM PDT by 1035rep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: unclebankster

The Democrats picked up 40 seats in the House in 2018. That’s a disaster by any measure.


92 posted on 07/29/2026 6:17:36 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: 1035rep
Say he said the U.S. should not be policing the Middle East, but Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

That sounds like the delusional lunacy of a suburban woman who has made career as a gun control advocate. "Outlaw guns and defund the police!"

93 posted on 07/29/2026 6:19:41 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

What changed was the progress towards a nuclear weapon by Iran.

It is the mark of a moron and a loser to adhere slavishly to a position previously adopted when conditions change...and Trump is neither.

“Suspicions” are like rectums.


94 posted on 07/29/2026 6:20:08 PM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: cowboyusa

I wonder if we could wind up seeing things breaking up into 5 or 6 different parties. It’s going to get harder and harder to have a big tent anymore.


95 posted on 07/29/2026 6:20:21 PM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child
Harkening back to 1979 to support the case for military action in 2026 is like telling Italians they should invade Tunisia to bring a final end to the Punic Wars.

Now try telling China to give up on reclaiming Taiwan. After all, most of their citizens weren't born until after Taiwan declared independence from China and never experienced being a part of communist China.

-PJ

96 posted on 07/29/2026 6:22:04 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel
What changed was the progress towards a nuclear weapon by Iran.

The problem is that nobody has any reason to believe their government when this kind of propaganda is peddled for decades.

BREAKING: Archaeologists in the Holy Land just uncovered a 3,000-year-old Israelite tablet. It reads: "Iran is only weeks away from developing a nuclear weapon."


97 posted on 07/29/2026 6:23:36 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: Political Junkie Too
It's interesting you mention that. As time goes by, I think the populations of these divided countries become more and more amendable to the idea of resolving their differences.

Younger people in South Korea, for example, tend to have less hostility to the North than their parents did -- for the reason you just gave.

98 posted on 07/29/2026 6:26:21 PM PDT by Alberta's Child (If I leave here, it’s because I’m tired of arguing with geriatric parrots wearing MAGA hats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: unclebankster

I go by this moto;” it’s not enough to be passively anti- Marxist. One must be VIOLENTLY anti- Marxist.


99 posted on 07/29/2026 6:27:44 PM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 84 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

Iran was friendly towards Jews for years, before the 12ers took power. WITH THE HELP OF THE USSR BY THE WAY.


100 posted on 07/29/2026 6:29:34 PM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-112 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson