Are Americans Ignoring a Powder Keg in Iran?
The United States is sleepwalking its way into a war with Russia... and Iran?
All eyes are on Ukraine. As Russia’s assault on the country continues, particularly in the Donbas region where Ukrainian forces are expected to lose extensive territory in the coming days and weeks, the world has become hyper fixated on the Eastern European war. There is good reason for Americans to be focused on Ukraine, specifically the Democratic-led effort to further involve the United States in the conflict. But when we exclusively fixate on one foreign affairs conundrum, we lose sight of the rest, and there are other issues brewing across the globe that may be of more immediate concern to Americans – namely the rapidly growing tensions with Iran.
Some Americans may believe that our policy of foreign interventionism ended with President Biden’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan. That, of course, is not the case. We aren’t even experiencing a temporary break from war; President Biden deployed several hundred troops to Somalia in early May. We have grown far too comfortable intervening in foreign affairs. This unfortunate truth, paired with recent developments in Iran, should be cause for alarm to all Americans. In the past week, the following events have occurred in Iran:
· Israel assassinated a Quds Force official in Tehran on May 22nd. If the Quds Force sounds familiar, it’s because that’s the wing of Iran’s military which was formerly led by Qassem Soleimani before he was assassinated in 2020 – putting the US closer to war with Iran than it had ever been, at least since the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979.
· On May 25th, a suicide-drone exploded at Iran’s Parchin military complex, where missiles, nuclear capabilities, drones, and other weapons are developed.
· The US, working with Greece, seized an Iranian oil tanker on May 26.
· On May 27th, Iran seized 2 Greek cargo ships, one of which was headed to the United States. That same day, the IRGC threatened to “arrest” 17 other Greek ships operating in the Gulf.
What exactly is going on? Clearly tensions with Iran are growing, and maybe the West has become desensitized to affairs in that region, but this series of events should not be ignored - especially because Iran is reportedly only a few weeks away from possessing the materials to build a nuclear weapon. If that’s the case, then these escalations we’ve seen, particularly the assassination of a Quds Force official and the explosion at a military facility, indicate that direct conflict may be on the horizon. Let’s not forget that the IDF will simulate a massive attack on Iran later this month. Given what we know so far, the timing of this simulation is worrying, to say the least.
To summarize: Israel and the United States fear that Iran is only a few weeks away, at most, from having the capabilities to develop a nuclear weapon. Israel is preparing to simulate a wide-scale attack on Iran later this month. Israel killed a Quds Force official in Tehran this week. An Iranian military complex (which takes part in Iran’s nuclear development) was bombed a few days later. Iran and the United States (via Greece) have drastically increased tensions at sea, with tit-for-tat cargo seizures.
While Americans focus on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Iran is rapidly developing its nuclear capabilities, and escalating tensions between Iran and Israel (and the United States) may be reaching a boiling point. A war with Iran would of course be disastrous in and of itself, but with Iran’s alliance with Russia, America’s alliance with Israel, and NATO providing extensive military support to Ukraine – the world appears to have reached a powder keg moment. If world leaders continue playing this game of brinksmanship, that powder keg could very well explode.