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Early Sunday morning, local time, a drone successfully struck a US military facility on the Iraq/Syria/Jordan border. Three US servicemembers were killed and several dozen were injured.
The US Central Command claims that the attack hit a facility inside Jordan, but Jordan and the “Iraqi Resistance,” which took credit for the attack, say the US facility was inside Syria’s border.
Why does it matter? Jordan is a US ally and as such American troops stationed on its territory – while in our opinion extremely unwise – are not illegally occupying foreign soil. However, if as is likely this facility was inside the Syrian border it means US troops illegally occupying Syrian territory were hit. In other words a foreign occupying force was attacked by people defending their homeland. That’s a very different story and one that Washington’s warmongers would rather Americans back home not ponder.
Most Americans likely do not understand that US forces are illegally occupying a large portion of Syrian territory – a country with which Washington is not legally at war – and therefore any Americans killed in Syria may result in the public starting to ask, “why exactly are we there”?
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has never seen a war he doesn’t want other people to fight, has offered his own explanation as to why US troops are getting killed in Syria: “Our forces in Jordan and Syria are there to protect the American homeland.” But as thousands illegally enter our actual American homeland every day with total impunity, it is a claim that is unlikely to resonate with most Americans.
Nevertheless Graham, a one-hit wonder, has posted his advice to respond to the Iraqi Resistance drone strike on the US base in Syria: “Hit Iran now. Hit them hard.” Iraq attacks an illegal US base in Syria? Attack Iran. His morning decaf mocha frap latte from Starbucks is cold? Attack Iran. One hit wonder.
A look at the above graphic showing the number of US troops in bases scattered throughout the region well within Iranian missile range reveals everything sane Americans need to understand about Graham and his fellow neocons: they don’t care about American troops. They view them as mere cannon-fodder to feed their obsession with finally fulfilling Netanyahu’s demand that the US attack Iran for Israel’s sake.
US hyper-interventionist foreign policy has thus far been relatively risk-free at home. A few thousand died in the disastrous US wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, but most Americans are so disconnected from military families that they likely knew no one who was sacrificed for Bush’s counterproductive war. But if Graham’s fever dreams are fulfilled and the US launches an attack on Iran with nearly a Vietnam-sized contingent of American “sitting ducks” in the region, there is a very good chance America may finally take notice.
35,000 Americans in body bags to satisfy Lindsey’s perverse lust for blood could well finally focus America’s attention on the malevolent force that has maintained an iron grip on US foreign policy regardless of whether R’s or D’s are “running the show.” Let’s hope America wakes up before this happens.
So where do things go from here?
The Iraqi Resistance claims the attack was retaliation for the US support of Israel’s continuing attacks on Gaza and for recent US strikes on Iraqi military personnel inside Iraq. The Washington Post quotes an Iraqi Resistance spokesman as saying, “If the crimes of the Zionist regime do not stop, all American positions throughout the region will be a legitimate target for us and the war will intensify.”
As veteran journalist Elijah Magnier writes, that the Iraqi resistance takes credit for the attack “is embarrassing for the US administration because the retaliation could take place in Iraq and increase demands for US forces to leave the country.”
Iraq has already demanded that the US remove its occupation troops immediately and the Iraqi parliament voted nearly four years ago that US troops must leave the country. The DC establishment claimed that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was to “restore democracy,” but when the democratically-elected Iraqi parliament voted for the US military to end its occupation of the country…Washington said “no” to democracy.
Nobody wants US troops in the region except for Israel, which has just been found to be possibly committing genocide in Gaza. Is this really the crowd we want to run with? Maybe we can just come home?
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