Posted on 01/17/2024 4:45:54 AM PST by bert
The overall message of Iran is that it will continue to carry out attacks where it pleases.
Iran doubled down on its decision to launch attacks against Iraq and Pakistan over the last few days. Iran’s Ministry of Defense said Iran has a right to protect itself, claiming the attacks were defensive. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also continued to claim it was targeting “Zionists” and also “ISIS” in its attacks. The autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq has rejected Iran’s claims and has highlighted the fact Iran killed civilians in its attacks.
The overall message of Iran is that it will continue to carry out attacks where it pleases. However, the pattern of attacks is clear. Iran has exploited areas where there is weak governance or where it already supports militias that have influence over various states. For instance, Iran’s attacks in Pakistan target the Balochistan region, an area that is already restive. In Iraq, Iran targets the Kurdistan region.
The Kurdish region hosts US forces, and the Kurdish ruling parties in Erbil and Sulimaniyeh tend to be pro-American and pro-western. Iran thus exploits this, targeting what it considers a weak region that cannot resist its attacks. Iran already has powerful lobbies in Baghdad in the form of various political parties and militias. Iran has also exploited Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon in the same way. For instance, in Yemen, Iran is clearly pushing the Houthis to attack more ships in the Red Sea. This is a new escalation for Iran. Iran already backed the Houthis for years and exported missile and drone technology there. But Iran now wants to operationalize the Houthis, using them to threaten Israel, commercial shipping and now also to threaten western navies.
Iran’s foreign minister also met with Pakistan’s Prime Minister on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the wake of Iran’s attacks inside Pakistan. Therefore, in each arena, Iran attempts to create a semblance of normalcy for its attacks.
It’s not the first time Iran attacked the Kurdistan region, for instance. Iran has used missiles and drones in the past to carry out attacks on Erbil and other areas. Iran uses various excuses for these attacks. Sometimes it claims to be targeting Kurdish dissidents, sometimes it claims to be targeting “Zionists.” Iran clearly is trying to both send a message, draw red lines and openly show that it can carry out attacks near where US forces are based. Iran has used its militias to do the same thing in Iraq and Syria. In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, Iran encouraged its proxies in Iraq and Syria to carry out 120 attacks. This represents a major escalation.
Iran's zone of influence Iran’s goal here is to carve out a zone of influence and then extend that influence and normalize these attacks. For instance, Iran already had influence in Baghdad via its militias and in Syria via support for the Assad regime. It already had its Hezbollah proxy, and it was already backing the Houthis, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
However, in the last year, Iran systematically sought to increase the range and power of these groups. For instance, PIJ in the West Bank grew increasingly bold in its operations in Jenin. Hamas carried out the October 7 massacre. The Houthis began targeting ships. Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon have carried out 2,000 rocket attacks on Israel since October 7. In Iraq and Syria, the Iranian-backed militias have carried out more than 120 attacks. Iran has now attacked the Kurdistan region of Iraq and also Pakistan. Iran is also showing it has impunity in these attacks to harm civilians. Children have been killed and harmed in Erbil and in Pakistan. Iran knows it faces no consequences. These are important developments, and they show that the arc of instability Iran has carved out is now increasing in the region.
The efforts to destroy Israel have not only failed but brought about the total annihilation of Hamas and the Palestinian proxies.
The Hezbollah surrogate has ineffectively challenged Israel in the north and put the very life of the Nasrallah Hezbollah chief in jeopardy
The effort to close the Red Sea by the armed Houthi riff raff is not succeeding either. The world knows the lowest of the low Houthi Arabs are merely getting paid by Iran to disrupt the sea lanes. Such trash lacks the ability to make a living, much make war.
The worst fear is realized. The signers of the Abraham accords are talking openly about their plans for Palestine. That planning excludes what is there presently. It does not include a single soul from Iran
As Iran gets closer to having nukes they will become much more bold in their actions.
Biden softness on the Islamic Fascist Republic, is what emboldned the Mullahcracy for its servants: Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, militias in Iraq..
I will argue that the Israelis know all about the Iranian nukes. There are none.
If nukes were close, the current panicked efforts would not be necessary. Iran would not have made the Hamas attack. Iran would not have sicced the Houthi riff raff on the sea lanes and the great world navies.
Current events are the clue that Iran has no nukes, now or the near term.
Your neocon chest pounding is obvious.
Iran is stronger because we killed Saddam and created a power vacuum.
You will continue to talk tough from your couch while doing nothing.
Our border, if you’re American, has and is being invaded every single day.
You are warmongering trash, complicit in the destruction of our country.
What absolute ignorant drivel.
As as paleocon isolationist,. you have no clue
And, what’s worse, It is 7° and I need to get on the road and my diesael engine won’t start
Every issue is far below immigration. We will become North Brazil.
We can’t even make recruiting goals in a country of 340 million people.
We can’t manufacture anything without components from other countries.
We are dying as a country, and you give an damn about Yemen and Iran.
Sorry to hear about your car.
At least the one Iranian Kurd I have met (in Greece many years ago) was not happy with the Iranian regime (this was after the overthrow of the shah).
And the Islamic state attacks on Iran might be the straw that finally pushes the Iranians to over throw the theocracy
“We can’t manufacture anything without components from other countries.”
Next to no products are made with components manufactured in ONE country. Heck, even a steel nail will have metal ores from different countries.
The Kurds are always betrayed by those claiming to help them.
The Allies did it with their various peace treaties after WWI. We have done it several times.
One thing I did notice about the Kurds, they seem to be Kurds first, Moslems second. There are of course Moslem Kurds (majority), Christian Kurds, Jewish Kurds, Yazidis Kurds and Zoroastrian Kurds but they seem to be Kurds before they are anything else.
If it is a must that the U.S. has a sizeable military presence in the area, move 100% of that presence in Qatar to the Kurds semi-autonomous region of Iraq, and move all U.S. forces elsewhere in Iraq also to the Kurds area. Note, as I said, if it is a must to start with.
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