Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
With coronavirus pandemic dominating the world’s attention, it’s easy to forget that the US is essentially in a state of war with Iran, just Thursday night conducting a major aerial bombing campaign against multiple Iran-backed militia targets across southern Iraq.
In response to prior rocket attacks on Camp Taji which killed two Americans on Wednesday the Pentagon declared that “all options are on the table” — suggesting there could be more strikes to come. The Pentagon said it initiated a “proportional” response against five Kata’ib Hezbollah weapons facilities.
US Patriot missiles file image
Iraq’s government immediately condemned the attacks as not only unauthorized violations of its airspace, but as having killed and wounded several Iraqi security force personnel.
Top US forces general in the region, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, brushed Baghdad’s condemnation aside, essentially saying it was Iraqi forces’ fault for being there. Many officers in the Iraqi Army essentially see Khatib Hezbollah as a de facto extension of national forces.
Reuters reports:
Iraq condemned overnight U.S. air strikes on Friday, saying they killed six people and warning of dangerous consequences for what it called a violation of sovereignty and targeted aggression against the nation’s regular armed forces.
The foreign ministry further summoned the US and UK ambassadors following the attacks. But the Pentagon is not backing down.
“These locations that we struck are clear locations of terrorist bases,” McKenzie said Friday. When asked about Iraq’s fierce response, he said, “If Iraqi military forces are there, I would say it’s probably not a good idea to position yourself with Khatib Hezbollah in the wake of a strike that killed Americans and Coalition members.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is moving Patriot air defense missile systems into Iraq to better defensed US personnel against any potential Iranian strike, even at a moment when Tehran’s real focus remains on combating the deadlier Covid-19 outbreak in its midst.
It was also reported Friday that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has agreed to keep two aircraft carriers in the Gulf region “for a period of time”. They’ve been identified as the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS Harry S. Truman.
The US rarely maintains two carriers there, with the last instance coming about eight years ago, in 2012.
Who do they think they are scaring? Patriots and aircraft carriers lmao what next the flop-35 hahahaha
Even Saddam’s WW2 vintage SCUD-B made it past the dud Patriots and the Ansarallah devastated the Saudi morons oil facilities where both the shitty “patriots” and THAAD were deployed. Even the Russian Katyusha are far superior :) effective and much cheaper.
The FACT of the matter is that the child killing murderous Americunt scum are killing Iraqis every day and stealing their OIL and natural resources and the people have had enough, the latest Katyusha 122mm strike on the Taji occupation forces base was launched in broad daylight from a Iraqi army truck which is kind of hard to hide even in an Americunt lardass. Now after bombing the Kerbala airport, which is close to the Holy Shrines sacred to all Muslims, the Americunts have made more enemies and now the Iraqi army like the Afghan ANA will again start killing the occupation scum.
The US actions will bring a unity of Iraqi resistance to the US military I hope. More US body bags will not be a vote winner for Trump.
An IED campaign and an issue of Manpads to Iraqi forces would make the US position in Syria and Iraq a costly one indeed.
There is a visceral hatred of the US Military, and by extension the US Elite, that is ready to explode in many countries, even in Europe.
It is the US strategy of chaos globally that has caused the migrant crisis in Europe, and people generally are waking up to that fact.
The US is ensuring it gets kicked out faster and in much bloodier fashion. A lot of the forces which vowed to push the US out of Iraq, are for my take, organizing as to how they will do it. There has even been some public declaration of this. I give it by the end of the year, US forces will be hard pressed to venture out of their bases in Iraq and having a very rough time even staying in them. As far as the Patriots go, they are sitting ducks. It is a piece of equipment that is hard to defend in close proximity to combat and not that effective overall, to boot.
Let them go ahead and play. The decision making process by the US military, not just the political class, has been ass in the air stupid lately. The retaliation is absolutely sky high over the top. When are they going to learn. They tried this stuff with over 100k troops on the ground before and it did not work. Yet they follow the same logic against a better armed, trained, experienced and more determined potential adversary.
Hey DoD, stop being stupid to the max. They don’t care about dying. They love to kill US troops and this will continue without abate. They are not even showing a fraction of what they can do and like with Iran, you guys are going to get ploughed out of the blue. For those who think I am being harsh about this, I am not. It is just the plain truth. They are not afraid of US forces and certainly not afraid of Israeli forces. The game is over dudes. Wake the fuck up. My take folks. I hope peace takes the lead on this circus.
Spot On, John.
Will it take a defeat of the US in Iraq that’s on a par with the destruction, or ‘neutralizing’ in US parlance, of three Roman Legions? :)
” September 9-11, AD 9
With today’s post, I’m returning to my ancient/medieval comfort zone of history. This “battle” stopped the march of the Roman Empire into northern Europe, and – literally – gave the first emperor Caesar Augustus a huge headache.”
Will Trump ‘Fall on his sword’ or trip over it as he runs for cover?
http://www.burnpit.us/2011/09/battle-teutoburg-forest-germans-massacre-three-roman-legions
Don’t forget about Crassus losing seven legions at Carrhae against the Parthians i.e., Persians), plus his life to boot.
Yes, and sadly the people without any interest in history older than last weekare no more that domesticated animals in human form.
History give us the knowledge that our lives are not unique.
That could very well happen Florian.
Agreed, so why arent the iraqis doing so ? Every other week you read about a couple of rockets being fired by unknown perpetrators which “landed near a US base” causing no casualties whatsoever and the PMU’s forever threatening to “attack” US forces if they dont leave. Im sorry but this is hardly going to get the scum out of Iraq, until they start getting killed and shipped back in bodybags in significant numbers they are just going to keep laughing at the iraqis. The Iraqi parliament has already told them to leave which they are ignoring and a couple of rockets here and there and a few injuries isnt going to make them do so. And europe by the way is hardly innocent in the US’s “strategy of chaos” as you put it.
Terrorist states of America in action..
“Baghdad is outraged …..Tehran will respond harshly….” – I can’t help but smile when I hear the rhetoric of these impotent Muslim regimes. And Then psychopaths like Old Impotent Zio Psycho writes “All Americans / Jews must be killed … Putin is a Zionist …”. A pathetic bunch of impotents.
Do you remember US occupation of Iraq?… near 5.000 US soldiers killed…60.000 wounded…1.000 vehicles( Tanks,APC, Humvee) destroyed..30 aircraft shot down….
I keep saying that the Americans should leave Iraq. But these Muslim regimes have only rhetoric to offer.
Then be adults, quit responding to the rhetoric and get the fuck out.
I won’t give fools like you the pleasure.
Kewl …. I’m a self aware sarcastic bot living in a simulation. Why the fuck didn’t the iranians give me a 20 year old olympic athletes body and a wife to match instead of this worn out aching piece of shit?
I like your sarcasm. Keep safe.
He is a JEW PUNK and an uneducated one at that :)
Why not GO HOME ffs
I think the Iraqis don’t want the Americans to leave. And so the US continues to spend billions of dollars in Iraq’s deserts.
Yes they do. Most Shia Iraqi’s want them to leave and the Sunni’s have, for the most part rendered their verdict on the American presence in their country for years, as in two full blown insurrections. The U.S. helped create ISIS in order to stay in country for years, to “help.” But most people have seen through that game now and the American stay in the country is proving more problematic than helpful.
It will only take the Iraqi government to ask the Americans to leave. The US needs to stop trying to fix all these backward countries. The US needs to take care of its citizens first.
The US needs to take care of its citizens first, you said it.
The parliament voted to ask them to leave, but the government has to follow up with an official notice. The U.S. agents of hybrid war kicked off a protest movement to oust the Iraqi Prime Minister and got their way but the incoming Prime Minister has now been blocked from a majority too. Either man has committed to the removal of U.S. forces but cannot right now lead the government. These games cloud the issue, and are clearly manipulated from the U.S. Embassy. The public is fed up, the military is fed up and the whole experiment in “democracy” has proven to be a farce, an element of control imposed by U.S. occupiers who wrote a constitution that keeps the government weak and vulnerable to American games.
In reality, Iranian militias shoot Katyusha on Iraqi army bases that are also hosted by Americans. In my opinion Iraqi citizens are fed up with the intervention of both Iran and the US in Iraq.
That’s no doubt true but what the Americans want in Iraq and what the Iranians want are two vastly different things. Iran believes that a Shia theocracy is only a matter of time, just like it was in their case with the Shah. Iran has no need to influence that process and can let nature take it’s course. What Iran wants is for the U.S. to leave and for commerce between Iraq and Iran and through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon to develop unhindered by American interference. The U.S. is trying to control Iraq and prevent this from happening in an effort to pressure Iran. Iraq and Iran have more in common on this (and other issues) and seeing how the U.S. sanctions on Iran are unilateral and not UN based Iraq feels no need to limit economic and transportation contact with Iran. Iran would be fine if both the U.S. and Iranian military structures left Iraq and commerce proceeded. Iraq would be fine with that too. It’s the U.S. who has a problem with it and so both countries continue to operate in Iraq with opposite military and political goals. So you’re right, Iraq no doubt wants the game being played on their territory by both sides to stop. But make no mistake, Iraqis are way more in line with Iran’s ultimate goal of commerce between Iraq and Iran than with America’s goal of preventing it, and that’s where the rubber will meet the road in the long run.
Certainly, Iraq is between a rock and a hard place. I also think that if time could be reversed, the Americans would not have invaded Iraq. There seems to be no easy solution to the problematic situation in Iraq.
No they don’t. That is pure propaganda.
American Forces may well have to return home to “take care” of the citizens when those citizens realize the amount of the Congressional giveaway of $4+ Trillion to Wall Street dressed up as a $2 Trillion package for ordinary Americans.
While that may have been true 6 months ago, I believe American “missteps” from the US Military’s crass stupidity in the January Assassination of General Soleimani together with Iraqi Leaders of the PMU’s, as ordered by Pimpeo and sTrumpet followed by completely unwarranted attacks on Iraqi Soldiers, whether PMU Members or otherwise leading to the death of dozens of Iraqi Soldiers and Civilians and all culminating in the attacks on 5 Iraqi Military Bases, once again, as ordered by Pimpeo sTrumpet Jarhead and dEsperate have led the majority of Iraqis to thinking that American Forces need to get the hell out of Iraq and go home. The one thing all Iraqi People agree on whether they be Shia or Sunni is that the American War against Iran cannot and will not be allowed to be fought on Iraqi soil.
Or war. A large scale war would play out something like this: Iran finally has enough B.S. They launch a wide scale offensive against every location in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan housing U.S. forces. Once it starts jaws will hit the floor because Iran has hundreds of thousands of military personnel in the region and the U.S./U.K. under 28,000. If Iraq and Syria join in and Pakistan cites neutrality I don’t see how the U.S. wins, at least in the short term. The Iranians would run wild over them for several months and expel them all the way back to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Then the British and U.S. public would get to watch as hundreds of thousands of American and British soldiers line up to go to Saudi Arabia to fight off the militaries of countries totalling more than 110 million people. It seems that it’s in everyone’s interests to find room for everyone’s security and economic needs but America doesn’t see it that way. Once it starts though, you won’t dismiss them again.
These are fantasies. In the overall war, Iran will return to the Stone Age in a week.
By what mechanism? People say that yet overestimate the power of American combat forces in the region. Turkey isn’t going to allow the USAF to use bases in Turkey to attack Iran. Nor Pakistan. The U.S. air fleets, both Navy and USAF are facing huge limitations in sortie rates because of overuse. It’s not a trivial problem, literally more than half of all U.S. airframes operate under restrictions on manuever. Iran has tens of thousands of IRBM’s to rain down on U.S. airbases, so it’s not going to be the fight you think it is. Yes, Iran will suffer. But there is a point where economic warfare being waged on Iran by the U.S. and other efforts by the Americans to force Iran, and others too, into corners can at some point turn nightmarish fantasies into kinetic realities that will be hard to stop.
Iran’s total attack against US forces is suicide. Remember what happened to the country that attacked the US.
It would be a difficult fight, but the U.S. is worn out. The public is tired of endless war. Iran would and will fight if the U.S. continues to box them in a corner and they get more out of warfare than losing big in a cold peace where there are no other options but surrender.
“The public is tired of endless war. ” – You’re right. But self-defense is something else entirely. The Americans will continue to exert maximum pressure on Iran. And Iran, for its part, will continue to resist. The Iranians had previously been forced to drink from the poison cup.
“The Americans will continue to exert maximum pressure on Iran. And Iran, for its part, will continue to resist.”
You’ve just described endless war.
“But self-defense is something else entirely.”
“Self defence” is when you are attacked while while peacefully going about your business in a lawful manner. The attacks you’ve been on the receiving end of in Iraq are more like “stand your ground” …. you’ve been asked to leave the country and you’ve refused. Now iraqi’s themselves are trying to do what their government can’t do …. kick you’re asses out …. only you’re acting like a bunch of punks who crashed a party and are trashing the place.
it’s not going to get better …. you’re going to be sucked into another $T++ war only this time irans involved and they can hit you back hard as they have demonstrated. This does not benefit the American taxpayer in any way …. it just adds to your grand children’s debt load and creates another generation of grieving mothers and dysfunctional homeless vets.
Wars are fought with a political objective. Something has to be gained by fighting. What do you gain politically or even strategically by staying in iraq after you were asked to leave? You have air and naval bases all over the region so it’s not a security issue. You’re self sufficient in oil so there is nothing there that could justify the risk of a conflict that will only cost you money and lives.
1. The Iraqi government has not asked the US to withdraw its forces. 2. Iran will not attack American forces because they know it will be suicide on their part. 3. I agree that there is no economic reason for leaving American forces in Iraq.
“1. The Iraqi government has not asked the US to withdraw its forces.”
Yes you were asked to leave by a vote of 170 to 0 by the Iraqi parliament but you refused. Espers statement that the US forces weren’t asked to leave was based on the technicality that after the acting Iraqi premier stepped down over threats leaving the Iraqi parliament illegitimate. It doesn’t change the fact that a majority of iraqi’s want you to leave and you are staying against their wishes
“2. Iran will not attack American forces because they know it will be suicide on their part.”
Your president said that too just before the Iranians launched a ballistic missile attack on a US occupied base. You have no way of knowing whether the Iranians will attack again or not. Obviously whoever struck the US occupied base with rockets aren’t scared of the USA because they attacked again immediately after US air strikes. To say the iranians are scared of the USA is just wishful thinking.
“3. I agree that there is no economic reason for leaving American forces in Iraq.’
If you’re a US citizen and taxpayer you should be questioning just whose interests your military is supporting by staying in Iraq.
You agree that there is no strategic reason for the USA having troops in Iraq but there IS getting US troops out of iraq IS an iranian objective. That means the US soldiers in iraq are at risk for no other reason than a pissing contest …. I’m sure there are reasons for leaving US forces in iraq that aren’t in your best interests as an American but you are the guy paying for this deployment and it’s your brothers sisters and children who are at risk if Iran takes the initiative and attacks US bases.
So far everything that the present administration has assumed about Iran has proven wrong. They didn’t fold under maximum pressure. They’ve proven they have advanced cruise and ballistic missiles with pinpoint targetting capabilities. they shot down a surveillance drone with an Iranian built SAM that the USA was sure was flying out of range of iranian missiles.
Now you say the Iranians wouldn’t dare attack the USA ….. you’re batting 0 – 3 …. are you sure you want to take another swing?
You left out jerks like yourself that also chime in and make ignorant comments.
He is JEW PUNK with one dimensional comments on all blogs that mention Iran. He is laughed off everywhere.
Although you are an old hateful impotent, you know how to make up amusing stories.
if somebody kills your family you will be also outraged, you idiot!
i hope, we meet us soon
These regimes know only to talk. Yesterday, Iranian militias fired Katyusha on an Iraqi base and wounded Iraqi soldiers. What the Iraqi government did about it – talk. Who are we?
we = you and me. translate my name ;)
of course, they can only talk. west took their wespons.
Patriots are not suitable to take down short range rockets. U.S. lacks both a potent SAM designed for fast low altitude targets and the response time as well. By the time they lock on and ready to lunch its already too late. Better option would be the land based gatling CIWS, at least those would have a chance, 4 of them per base should be enough. I have a feeling Pentagon only employs mentally handicapped nowdays…
Nowadays? Hmmm ….. Stretch your mind as far back as Korea and Vietnam!
True.
Excellent!! Keep filling those bags with americuntsand ship them daily back to the jewsa!!
Last I heard Khatib Hezbolah was being subsumed into the Iraqi Army over the course of the past 2 years and is now, de facto, part of the Iraqi Army. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Rocket Attack on Camp Taji was conducted by Hezbollah or by any persons associated with it and for South Front to peddle that claim by the US Military as fact is wholly misleading. Previous similar Rocket Attacks on Camp Taji, where there are also Irai Military based, were conducted by ISIS Cells operating to the North and North-east of Baghdad. It’d be far more in US Forces line of business if it were to go after the ISIS forces remaining in Iraq rather than pursuing the Iraqi Force that did MOST to defeat ISIS in Iraq. The usual American Hypocrisy is staggering.
Iraqi civilians are stead fast with some administration officials. But the some Puppets of USA in the Ass of Trump must get out.
This was some very arrogant talk by the US officer. He is probably going to get those words shoved back down his throat, sideways, in short order.
Apparently the Iraqi military and its politicians are useless. I mean the iraqis been to a lot and it’s hard to say but the truth us the USA USA military have nothing good for the Iraqis, if the Iraqis politicians and military was for the people those USA base would have been sieges and the Russians presence would have there to help them control they airspace. I’m all for America just not the evil version of it.
the iraqis could easily kick them yanks out – like the vietnamese did and now latest the talibans kicked the americans out and if the iraqis did the same thing, needlestick attacks everywhere coupled with severe attacks aiming for the poor fuckers trying to uphold the american honour, of which there is none, till the time the whole thing is lost, the american occupation that is and they will have to fuck off for home.
and after that the termination of the jews await the middles east but it is better to start to unsettle the jews embedded/entrenched in the western societies for starters and dry up the financial support these leeches tend to transfer to the illegal settlement called israel which can’t survive without the large transfers from jews in the diaspora – stop them and the termination is half way done.
easiliy – after decades of war