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Second anniversary of retaliatory Iranian airstrike on US airbase in Iraq

This video screen grab from the US Department of Defense shows General Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., US Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander, speaking during a news briefing at the Pentagon on August 30, 2021. The US military announced the departure of the last US troops from Afghanistan Monday, concluding a 20-year conflict that ended with the Taliban seizing control of the country.

The attack, in retaliation for the assassination of Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani by the United States, marks the first time any country has had the wherewithal to execute an attack of this magnitude on a US base.

On January 3 2020, the United States assassinated Iran's Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, as well as the deputy commander of Iraq's popular mobilization units, Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis, in a drone strike at the Baghdad International Airport.

American democracy, complete sham

When American democracy is a complete sham, as it was under Trump, and it reached its apotheosis, you could say, with the assassination of a great anti ISIS fighter. ... really the main force that was fighting ISIS.

Eric Walberg, Writer and Political Analyst

Five days later, Iran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles at the Ayn Al Asad airbase in Iraq housing US troops in retaliation for the assassination, leaving scores of casualties.

The Pentagon initially downplayed the number of troops injured in the strike, but later admitted that over 100 of its personnel suffered traumatic brain injuries. One died by suicide in October.

I think this is probably what Pompeo and Trump were counting on. They thought, oh, well, we'll kill this Soleimani and then maybe Iran will attack us and that will give us an excuse to go to war against Iran.

I'm sure that was their plan there but you didn't have that ... it's very wise when you're dealing with an enraged bull, you don't poke it, you go around it, you figure out where its weak spots are; you do that kind of strategizing.

Eric Walberg, Writer and Political Analyst

Iran strikes with accuracy and volume

This is what the head of the United States Central Command told The New Yorker about the airstrike on the Ayn al Asad airbase.

They hit pretty much where they wanted to hit.

They can strike effectively across the breadth and the depth of the Middle East.

They could strike with accuracy and they could strike with volume.

General Kenneth McKenzie, CENTCOM Head

The General McKenzie has admitted Iran's missile capabilities have given the Islamic Republic of Iran overmatch, a military term, meaning a level of military prowess where a country can overwhelm the enemy by a significant margin.

Last August, the Taliban slipped to power in Afghanistan in a matter of weeks and seized control of the capital Kabul while the US troops were still present in the country.

Observers believe the United States withdrawal from the Central Asian country will go down in history as one of the most chaotic moves Washington has ever made.

But according to the most senior commander of Iran's Islamic revolution Guards Corps, the Americans will have to leave Iraq in a more humiliating manner than the way they left Afghanistan.

The commander of the IRGC Quds Force said the Americans are facing various problems in the region while the Resistance Front is advancing on a daily basis.

Brigadier General Esmail Qaani noted that the resistance fighters are now equipped with missiles and weapons that can target US warships anywhere in the region, reiterating that the Americans will inevitably be uprooted from the region.

He made the remarks at a ceremony in the Iranian city of Mashhad on the second anniversary of the US assassination of Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani and senior Iraqi PMU commander Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis.

I don't know, you ask if the US has gotten the message well, sometimes people or nations are so foolish, that they go to such a point with their mistaken agenda that it just collapses completely.

So that's seems to be what's going to happen. I don't know when it will happen. But there seems to be very little possibility of a rational US government.

Eric Walberg, Writer and Political Analyst

Despite the repeated threats by the United States and its allies, Iran has proven its ability to make good on its promise to mete out a crushing response to any possible aggressor with overwhelming “accuracy and volume”.

 


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