Mar 24 2023

“US counterstrikes Iran in Syria: Pentagon update after America fires back”

8 comments on ““US counterstrikes Iran in Syria: Pentagon update after America fires back””

  2. I also wondered to someone else who wondered, which must mean that a lot of Americans are wondering. The person I was wondering to has always kept up with news.

    They say it’s to fight ISIS, I read. I need to find a map of where our bases are located. We are probably there for geostrategic reasons. Someone explained to me years ago about an important road in the area. But, geostrategic often means the right to use waterways like the Mediterranean and Suez Canal and straits for shipping and military. Russia has strategically taken control of shipping chokepoints, and Syria is part of Russian attempt to control the Mediterranean. Also, China has taken over ports in the region (e.g. in Italy and Israel). No one talks about the real reason that the US invaded Haiti was because of Germany. The Germans were threatening Haiti, but there is an important passage that runs between Haiti and Cuba (Windward passage?), which is why it mattered to the United States. The Crimean War was fought for right to access the Black Sea, though it was supposed to be about the Holy Land and access to holy sites. There will have to be another Crimean War unless Ukraine can take it back alone. Our first war was fought for the right to ship on the Mediterranean.

    I’ve tended to favor isolationism in the past. However, unless Russia, China and everyone else are thrown out of Latin America, we can’t afford to be isolationists. And, we’ve never been, so it’s unlikely. The country was settled by British who were traders and ship captains. My earliest ancestor that I can trace was a ship captain. And, surprisingly, early Americans weren’t scared to go back and forth to Britain or Ireland even though they went by sail and could get stuck if there was no wind. Many were always deported as punishment. I think one of my ancestresses was deported to the US and returned to the UK, only to be deported again.

    The Windward passage and a lot of shipping areas are now used to drug runners, so we are in some places, like Colombia, catching drug traffickers.

    It seems that we are the only ones willing and able to stand up against China, and, to a lessor degree, Russia. China really started spreading out everywhere under the Belt and Road starting around 2017, when everyone was paying attention to Trump.

    I wish we could give half of California to Mexico and the other half to Canada, along with Washington State and Oregon.

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    • I forgot to mention Iran. More than anything we are countering Iran in the area. However, Iran is now in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Russia and China and India, so it’s the same thing. Hezbollah and Hamas are both Iranian backed. Iran’s probably the biggest menace of all, but somehow we tend to forget it.

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        • We don’t have to be anywhere. It’s a policy choice. I didn’t make it and I wouldn’t have made it. However, I might not be right. I think this is the road that was referred to: “The official goal of the Americans in Syria is defeating ISIS and ensuring that ISIS does not return to the areas that have been liberated,” said Mzahem Alsaloum, a Syrian analyst. “But the presence of the Americans is also important to cut [Iranian] military and smuggling supply lines [from Iraq] … if the Iranians took al-Tanf, there would be a direct link between Tehran, Baghdad and Damascus.”https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/24/why-does-us-still-forces-syria-explainer (Al Jazeera is government of Qatar). So, basically to stop Iran from running over the entire area. Earlier in the article it mentions protecting Israel.

          I think we should have focused more on protecting the Americas from Russia and China. We’ve let Russia and China take over Latin America, while we were in the Middle and Far East. I opposed the war in Iraq, but because so many people suffered and died I have tried to think of what might be good. For Afghanistan and Iraq, since the US went in, they probably should have stayed, like they have in Germany and Korea. Like having an unwanted baby – once pregnant you shouldn’t abandon it.

          US military presence map: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/10/infographic-us-military-presence-around-the-world-interactive

          It’s hard to control waterways with enemy control of the shoreline.

          Russia has a base in Syria on the Mediterranean. They are using their base in Crimea to terrorize everyone on the Black Sea, and could do the same on the Med. Meanwhile, Turkey controls the Strait into the Black Sea and wouldn’t even let us in to recuperate our drone, and Turkey is in NATO.

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          • I think we’re being spread too thin and our soldiers are always in harm’s way, fighting their battles and they get nothing for it when they come home. When China comes knocking on our door, we sure as hell won’t have any of them helping us!

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