An escalation too far

Many have rightly condemned the US assassination of Iranian General Soleimani at the Baghdad Airport in Iran’s ally Iraq as an act of war, the first shot in what could spiral out of control into a devastating shooting war engulfing the entire Middle East.

But the US has been at war with Iran for the three years since President Trump took office January 20, 2017. He pledged that the US would withdraw from the Iran Nuclear Agreement, likely the most peace saving initiative in our lifetime. Trump further imposed crippling economic sanctions designed to so degrade the Iranian economy its 80 million citizens would suffer sufficiently to overthrow the Iranian regime so hated by the Trump administration. They lust to replace the Iranian leaders with a puppet government like the US imposed on Afghanistan and Iraq, but failed to do in Syria.

That is war any way you slice it. If another country would dare try to collapse our economy we’d deem that an act of war and retaliate within hours. Why doesn’t Iran? Simple. They’re essentially powerless against the American bully. Iran’s GDP of $350 billion is 1/45th the US $20 trillion. Iran’s $20 billion defense budget is 1/37th the gargantuan $738 billion US defense spending. The US only attacks pipsqueak nations.

But as weak as Iran is compared to the US juggernaut, it could do immense damage if pushed too far. At some point it may decide to take down the US bully along with itself if facing certain annihilation from strangling sanctions as well as missiles blowing up top leaders and Iranian aligned Iraqi militia groups. There is no upside to America’s perpetual war against Iran. The downside? A bottomless pit.