Thus, Iran considers that it is already at war, and has struck back. And it will do so again--with whatever instruments of force it can muster, in a manner of its choosing, at whatever deadly level of escalation the US uses to try to force Iran to accept its own strangulation.
Fortunately, all the incidents so far have been without loss of life or immense damage, but any US attack on Iran--whether it's the "tactical assault," "limited to a specific target" that the Jerusalem Post described as imminent, or whether it's the widespread strategic assault aimed at destroying large parts of Iran's infrastructure, "sinking its navy," and bringing about "the official end of Iran" that's been threatened by various US politicians--will result in calamitous death and destruction, and Iran will respond in kind.
That response will take the form of direct counterattacks from the Iranian military on US and attacking forces where possible, and/or asymmetric counterattacks by Iranian-allied forces on US and allied bases, installations, and forces throughout the region.
General Hossein Salami, commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, wants the shooting down of the US drone to be a "clear message" that Iran does "not have any intention for war with any country, but we are ready for war."
To be clear: In my opinion, this is a non-passive, assertive posture that all anti-imperialists should support. The United States has no right to forcibly determine what Iran's government is, what weapons it can have, who its allies are, or with whom it can trade. Iran has every right to fight back against any such aggression, and every anti-imperialist leftist should advocate its victory in any such fight.
Whatever happens to Iran, can the Gulf countries, Israel, Western Europe, Japan, the entire US presence in the Middle East, the world economy, or, most trivially for everyone but him, the Trump presidency, survive that without catastrophic damage? That's the question Iran is now forcing all those actors to answer.
Unfortunately, among the rulers and decision-makers (in whose hands Donald Trump is putty) and, more fatally, among the populace, there is a strongly embedded assumption of inevitable, relatively costless victory and an infinite ability to control outcomes. They think the US will be able to do to Iran what it has done to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria: impose catastrophic destruction at will, without suffering serious and deadly consequence in return.
It doesn't seem to register on them that the US has achieved nothing its own citizens can embrace as "victory" in any of these deadly interventions. In Afghanistan, the US is hoping it can strike a deal with the Taliban it came to defeat sixteen years ago. It can throw missiles at Syria at will, but has not been able to overthrow the Syrian government it proclaimed "had to go" 7 years ago.
Indeed, neither elites nor populace seem able to recognize that Iran is not Syria. As Iranian analyst Trita Parsi says, they've bamboozled themselves into thinking that "Iran is no different from Syria. You can strike yet they won't have the guts to respond." But those who think the US can get away with a limited "tactical" assault on Iran are deluding themselves.
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