The Wall Street Journal reports that militia groups allied with Iran have started targeting American forces:
Iran in recent days has unleashed the regional militias it has spent years arming.
....Though Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Monday that the U.S. doesn’t have information that Iran “explicitly ordered” the recent militia attacks, Defense Department officials also say that Tehran is either actively encouraging the drone and missile strikes or is refraining from discouraging them. “When you see this uptick in activity and attacks by many of these groups,” a senior Defense official said, “there’s Iranian fingerprints all over it.”
This just gets worse and worse. But I don't have anything insightful to say about it. I'm just passing along the news.
US apparently was trying to delay Israel's ground invasion of Gaza until it could get ready for stuff to potentially escalate as well. Ugh.
Two years. Two years in which we'd mostly limited our exposure to the whole region, and now we're potentially back in the thick of it. Double Ugh.
EDIT: No Hezbollah yet, though. I wonder if they'll stay out of it - they haven't really been willing to get into a conflict against since 2006, where they claimed victory but said in private that it was costly and not something they would have started if they'd known how costly it was.
One carrier strike group was already in the region -- the USS Carney (part of the Ford carrier strike group) shot down missiles headed from Yemen towards the direction of Israel.
I think the second carrier strike group -- Ike -- is headed there to emphasize to Iran that it would lose badly if it got involved directly.
Amazing how extended of an engagement the Carney had compared to initial reports. Over a nine hour period it shot down three or four missiles and 15 drones.
Notwithstanding the likely inaccuracy of the WSJ initial reporting on Iran's involvement, I do believe this to be correct. Good new is that the US will not be getting any boots on the ground and will only need to respond with aerial ordinance if attacked. It is also highly unlikely that Iran will get directly involved against Israel or the US, and Syria, Jordan, and Egypt will stay out.
With 2 aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean, Hezbollah may want to think carefully about firing ordinance in that direction.
We already have troops on the ground in Syria, etc. to prevent ISIS from building back up, not to mention bases in the Middle East, e.g. Qatar.
I did see a write up (Guardian or Atlantic?) where they said the carrier task forces are there to protect those troops--and that the administration asked Israel to wait on invasion until they were in place.
Joe should have kept his mouth shut about financially supporting Israel. We have been for years but this announcement just sent the rest of the world right up the wall. We should NOT take sides in this tinder box. We know better.
Pull out and let them all murder each other.
Are you kidding me?? We shouldn’t take sides between Israel and barbarian terrorists?
Here, let me fix your comment:
"Are you kidding me?? We shouldn’t take sides between an apartheid regime and locals fighting to recover their land?"
You are repulsive. Go hang out with your terrorist friends.
It's repulsive that you condone apartheid.
The Dogs of War have great endurance.
This is the self-same Wall Street Journal that reported as fact that Iran gave Hamas an official explicit green light for October 7. Reserving judgment on the accuracy of this current report. The military spokesperson sounds pretty cautious about going there. And appropriately so, I think.
Oh, how could it possibly get worse?
China Deploys Six Warships to Middle East,
https://www.cf.org/news/china-deploys-six-warships-to-middle-east-us-activates-deployment-of-defence-systems/
That's not really anything worth mentioning, though. An American carrier strike group is larger and carries greater capabilities and firepower. They also don't have any skin in the game, so this is just for show, as in "we're also a great military power".
At some point, maybe not soon, but at some point, the US is going to say to somebody, why don't you ask China?, and they do.
I think Africa. But first, China would need its own bases/ports in the region. Can't answer the call from halfway around the world unless you can wait a few weeks.
Djibouti may be close enough,
https://thediplomat.com/2021/01/china-consolidates-its-commercial-foothold-in-djibouti/
It’s still dumb to have US troops in Iraq and Syria.
Why? Even a small contingent is a deterrent against ISIS and other terrorist groups.
Never let an opportunity go to waste. A war with Iran isnt going to start itself, you have to build momentum for these things.
A belated note.....Iran is still having domestic issues of the morality police abusing/killing teens. This is s distraction.