The Middle East is put on notice. With President Trump annihilating a key anti-West crusader from Iran in the form of Qassem Suleimani on Friday, the region is set for a major upheaval, its contours as yet only in the realm of imagination. What is clear now is, Iran will not take this lying down. It will hit back at a time, mode(s) and place(s) of its own choosing, and US ally Israel is principally on high alert. American interests in the region as a whole would be in for a major security risk.
Suleimani, closest to the supreme leader in Iran and who acted as top commander for a Revolutionary Guard outfit, was killed in a missile attack via drone route from air close to Baghdad airport in Iraq, where he was executing covert plans of the Iranian government. He was allegedly targeting American interests. Suleimani had earned notoriety and awe for his lethal plots in several nations in the region and beyond, including India where, in 2012, an Israeli diplomat was done to death in Delhi.
In Iraq, the US took on the Sunnis by overthrowing and liquidating Saddam Hussein in 2003 with overt and covert help from the Shia leaders there. After Saddam, the US installed a Shia-led dispensation there, which took on the Sunnis. Retaliation came from the Sunnis in forms like the Islamic State terror force (ISIS). Now, the US is targeting the Shias who rule Iran, by acting boldly and decisively against Suleimani. A war cannot be ruled out on the lines of the US-Iraq war of 2003 in which the European allies of the Americans too actively got involved. Indications are that the US is well-prepared this time to take on the Iranians on its own. The air power of the US is unassailable, even as Iran has its lethal arsenal. The US won the Iraq war with liberal use of Patriot missiles from the air and from the sea. There was too little use of the ground force to win the war – and it won the war in a jiffy.
There are issues like the liquidation of Suleimani being an act of state terror or extra-judicial killling. Trump had already proven through his first term so far that he’s willing to take risks and go an extra mile. Additionally, the Iran hit has raised his stature back home, exactly when he was being on the defensive over the impeachment move.
