Military Officials Warn of Possible Iranian Attack in The Middle East

It was nearly a year ago that the world was on the edge of their seats, fretting about a possible conflict between the United States and Iran.

That’s because, in the first weeks of 2020, long before we knew just what a year it was going to be, the US military assassinated one of Tehran’s most notorious terror generals via a drone strike in the Middle East.  In retaliation, Iran targeted sleeping American soldiers in Baghdad with over a dozen ballistic missiles.  This attack, while sparing any American casualties, accidentally killed hundreds of people when a Ukrainian airliner was downed in the melee.

Now, as we look to enter 2021, Iran is back on the US military’s radar, both figuratively and literally. 

The U.S. military is bracing for a possible attack on American personnel and interests in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said, days before the first anniversary of an American drone strike that killed an Iranian general in Baghdad.

The officials spoke as two B-52 bombers carried out a round-trip, 30-hour mission from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to the Middle East ending on Wednesday, in an effort to show American presence and military might in the region to deter Iran. The Air Force carried out similar missions twice before in the last 45 days.

“The United States continues to deploy combat-ready capabilities into the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to deter any potential adversary, and make clear that we are ready and able to respond to any aggression directed at Americans or our interests,” said Gen. Frank McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command. “We do not seek conflict, but no one should underestimate our ability to defend our forces or to act decisively in response to any attack.”

The use of American military force in the region has been a hot topic in political circles as of late, with Joe Biden going so far as to characterize Donald Trump’s work against Iran as a “failure”.

One of Trump’s first major policy moves during his first term was the reversal of the Obama-era “nuclear deal” between the US and Iran; something that Biden is intimately familiar with.