After the killings of three American soldiers during the attack by Iranian-backed militia on the U.S. base near the border of Jordan-Syria on January 28, it is time to reevaluate the U.S. presence and abilities in the region.
The U.S. has dragged itself into an undeclared war in the Middle East that does not have a bright end. Unlike the 2003 Iraq-U.S War that showed the region an American iron fist, the U.S. this time has shown a weak image and lack of solutions in the region.
Indeed, the Biden administration has created this catastrophe by pursuing a wrong strategy and miscalculating both U.S. allies and adversaries. At the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, the U.S. failed to keep the scale of its relationships balanced between supporting Israel and maintaining the trust of the Arab allies in the region.
Obviously, the wave of violence that the Iranian regime is spreading throughout the region is both pervasive and uncontrollable. Despite the U.S. strikes on the militias and groups that are fueled by Iran, seemingly the region’s turbulence is still increasing to a higher level. This situation also raises the question if the U.S. is willingly contributing to such turbulence in the Middle East.
However, underestimating the volatility of the Middle Eastern situations, including Iran, is one the major mistakes that the U.S. is paying the price for. Obviously, since day one of Hamas’ attack on Israel, the Biden administration has continuously been denying Iran’s involvement. Historically speaking, Iran’s involvement in violence and attacks traces back to the first days of the Islamic revolution in 1979. Iran has been engineering and creating groups and militias to serve its Islamic Republic agenda across the region.
“We haven’t seen anything that tells us they knew specifically date, time, method, that they were witting to this,” White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said of the October 7, attack. If Kirby was truthful in this statement, it would be a complete failure of the U.S. intelligence and the Biden Administration. In fact, Iran is not only involved in every operation against Israel but is also constantly intervening in the region’s nations.
President Joe Biden has announced that the U.S. is not seeking a war with Iran but this is another deception by the Biden Administration to the American people. The U.S. is walking into the mire of a war and Americans have made the payment with three soldiers. Americans have the right to ask for the reason for the sacrifice. Clearly, the U.S.’s diplomatic and military effort in the Middle East is unavailing.
Evidently, the U.S. struggles to bring its Arab allies and Israel on the table to find a solution to stop the Israel-Hamas catastrophe. President Biden’s credibility is declining among the Arab allies as confusion in his speeches is often observed. Notably, he recently told the reporters that the Egyptian President, Abdel Fatah Alsisi, did not allow the aid to pass through to Gaza. “He did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in. I talked to him. I convinced him to open the gate,” Biden said.
In response, Egyptian President Alsisi said he had agreed to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, and indeed Egypt has not closed the border since the war broke out but the Israeli strikes halted the aid. “From the very beginning, Egypt has opened the Rafah crossing from its side without restrictions or conditions,’ Alsisi stated. (Ahram Online)
It is time to stop the further diminishment of the U.S. in the Middle East. Moreover, we need to create a new policy which protects Americans abroad. Such a policy is to enable the U.S. to maintain solid relationships with our allies and deal firmly with our adversaries.
– Serwan Zangana supported Operation Iraqi Freedom as a U.S Army translator before coming to the U.S from Kurdistan, Iraq in 1997 to seek political asylum. He was granted asylum status and years later proudly became a U.S citizen. He currently serves as a correction officer in Roanoke.
