[SeekAndFind]

RE: They want to bare their fangs - show they can inflict casualties - without provoking a hugely damaging response.

More importantly, I think they wanted to use this strike as a propaganda to their people that they have done “something” to avenge Soleimani’s death.

They are reporting in their controlled media that they have killed dozens of Americans in their strike ( which MSNBC dutifully parroted, and which they are sure to re-broadcast on their own controlled news ).

[Zhang Fei]

[More importantly, I think they wanted to use this strike as a propaganda to their people that they have done “something” to avenge Soleimani’s death.]

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They might also have been worried about collateral damage. When Saddam fired at Saudi Arabia and Israel in 1991, the collateral damage, from off-course missiles or debris or warheads incompletely detonated by anti-missile systems, would be Saudis, Americans or Israelis - the enemy. Whereas the collateral damage here would be Iraqis - many of them Shiite Arabs that Iran is trying to keep in its orbit.