Despite the denial of reality by the Blinken State Department the middle east war gets hotter and spreads eastward (even without) Israel’s intervention. After spending years appeasing the Iranians the world is now faced with the results of that policy.
Iran has trained and funded terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank where the high intensity battles continue. In Lebanon-Israel there are close to 100,000 Israelis displaced and it seems more Lebanese who have left the area south of the Litani as heavy rocket, tank, artillery and air attacks continue from both sides of the border. Attacks have intensified against Israel from Syria and Yemen and Iranians and their militias are attacking US forces in Iraq and Syria. Turkey, Russia and Syrian forces continue bombing areas of northern Syria and now both Iran and Turkey are bombing Kurdish lands.
We know what is going on in Yemen and the surrounding seas with global shipping coming to a standstill there and diminishing Suez Canal traffic is slowly crippling an already disastrous Egyptian economy. US and the UK have been forced to bomb Houthi areas but this of course is after the total failure of the Blinken foreign policy of ending the war in Yemen by cutting arms sales to the side that was pro-West while encouraging Iran to continue funding, arming and training their Houthi allies.
A new front has not opened between Pakistan and Iran. We spoke earlier of the Sunni-Shiite war heating up but it has spread faster and more violently that we expected.
Over the last few days the fighting in the Iran-Pakistan border has heated up. It started with heavy fire between the Pakistani group Jaish ul-Adl and Iranian border guards in the Sistan-Baluchestan border area and included the assassination of Iranian Hussain Gwadanfur on the Khash-Saravan road.
In other clashes between Iranian and Pakistani forces at least two Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG) soldiers were killed and the IRG has shot rockets into Pakistan hitting Turbat and surrounding areas near the coast.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement claiming that they “undertook a series of Highly coordinated …. Precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Siestan-o-Baluchistan province of Iran”. At the end of the press release they speak of Iran being a “brotherly country” with “great respect and admiration for the Iranian people”. It seems that Pakistan does not want to publicly admit that official Iranian forces were involved in the attacks.
What is incredible about Iran is that they have now attacked three nuclear armed states – the US, Pakistan and Israel - without fear of retaliation. We can only imagine what the Revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran will do once they too have a nuclear weapon.
We are in a regional war with fighting going on daily from Pakistan to Libya. Iran and not Israel is at the center and is the cause of nearly all the fighting and the tough statements and tough actions need to be taken against Iran and not Israel. Senate majority leader Schumer has been quoted as saying that he wants to put extra conditions upon the sale of arms to Israel but where was he when Obama sent planeloads of cash to Iran and Biden-Blinken released further billions just this year? Where are the conditions placed on a terrorist state?
The Biden-Blinken foreign policy of appeasing enemies and threatening allies that is at the core of its operation continues apace. First with the cutoff of arms to Saudi Arabia and their Yemeni allies in order to “end the war” to “advice” to the Ukrainians not to provoke the Russians to heavy pressure on Israel to surrender to Hamas by leaving them in power.
One can make deals with countries that are interested in their people or at least their power. One cannot make deals with terrorist groups or revolutionary states that are looking to upend the global order. That is Iran in a nutshell.
Aside from Saddam Hussein's disastrous 1980 invasion, the ruling Mullahs of Iran, despite their military tentacles reaching many different countries, have been immune from any meaningful military assault against their homeland. Even the US has largely refrained from any overt military action despite, among other things, the hostage crisis that shattered Pres. Carter's re-election chances in 1980 & the death of many GIs in Iraq via an Iranian organized insurgency.
In trying to comprehend the reason(s) for this, one can only speculate. However, I have little doubt that if Israeli or US intelligence detect that the Mullahs are on the verge of joining the nuclear arms club (literally weeks away), they will face a military assault on their nation, including Qom, that will make them wish they never initiated their program. Pakistan may now also join in making it a very interesting military triumvirate.
“If avoiding escalation is the highest U.S. priority, then it is only logical to withdraw our forces from the region. That would ensure attacks on our bases don’t continue but ultimately endanger the future of the Mideast. Language that describes avoiding escalation as our highest priority is, therefore, inaccurate and dangerous. It sends an unhelpful signal to our adversaries as well as our friends and allies.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/lesson-of-the-soleimani-strike-quds-iran-deterrence-war-gaza-attacks-on-americans-5c9bbfa1?st=32gw1lv9z87rmsm&reflink=article_copyURL_share