This Is a Particularly Bad Time for U.S.-Iran Tensions to Flare

Heather Hurlburt published an analysis of the latest exchange of attacks between the US and Iranian proxy forces in New York Magazine.

The U.S. military also announced Friday morning that it was sending Patriot missiles — which bring hundreds of additional U.S. personnel with them — into Iraq to defend bases against rocket attacks. That makes hundreds more targets for such attacks. Goldenberg was skeptical. “If we want to defend the bases against missiles, maybe buy Iron Dome systems from the Israelis. But I’d prioritize buying coronavirus vaccine from the Israelis,” he messaged me.

At this point we should perhaps step back and ask: Didn’t Congress pass a bill requiring the president to get congressional approval before acts of war against Iran? Yes, it did. Didn’t President Trump say we were withdrawing from Iraq? Yes, he did, repeatedly. So how is it that we will now have hundreds more troops there?

And just like coronavirus, the administration’s overarching strategy goes only as far as setting the headlines. Columbia University Iran-watcher Ariane Tabatabai described U.S. policy in the region as identical to its response to the health pandemic — “a giant mess the admin doesn’t know what to do with.”