US military capabilities far exceed the ability of any nation to counter them except for China and militarily superior Russia, its super-weapons unmatched by any other nations.
In response to the Trump regime’s January 3 assassination of Iranian General Soleimani, an act of premeditated hot war on the Islamic Republic, its IRGC retaliated against two Pentagon bases in Iraq on January 8.
Struck with pinpoint accuracy, they penetrated the bases’ air defense systems, causing significant damage, avoiding casualties by warning of the strikes in advance, giving its personnel time to seek shelter.
For the first time since US Southeast Asia aggression in the 1960s and 70s, another nation attacked a US base abroad militarily.
It sent a message that Tehran will retaliate appropriately against the US and its regional allies in response to Pentagon aggression, giving its commanders pause about further attacks.
On Thursday, Iranian President Rouhani said his country alone among world community nations retaliated strongly against US aggression.
Not many countries would dare, fearful of the US response. The strength of the attack likely caught Pentagon commanders on the back foot, intense enough to keep them up all night, Rouhani suggested.
Iran’s Expediency Council chairman Amoli Larijani said the IRGC’s retaliation was “beyond the borders of American belief.”
Iranian ballistic and cruise missiles can accurately strike targets anywhere in the region with destructive force.
The Islamic Republic can’t defeat the US militarily, but it can bloody its nose, cause significant damage to its facilities, and hit back hard against its regional allies, notably Israel and the Saudis.
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Mohammad Bagheri said IRGC strikes on US bases showed its willingness to retaliate against US aggression, harder ahead if it continues.
Iranian Defense Minister General Amir Hatami said “(t)he American commanders who had been used to show to the public their hollow power by heavy fire against other countries, while those countries were in weak conditions, and against the defenseless nations, felt the scorching heat of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)’s missile power,” adding:
“I hope that the enemies never make a decision to test the Iranian nation’s determination because what was carried out was just a warning and a slap.”
Reportedly, Pentagon radar systems were jammed electronically on the bases attacked. No missiles fired were intercepted.
US military personnel lost contact with seven airborne UAVs during what happened, according to AFP News.
One US soldier said when a missile blast sent dust into the bunker where he and others took shelter, they thought they were “done.”
Another US soldier said “(n)o more than a minute after the last round hit, I was heading over to the bunkers on the far back side and saw the fire was burning all through our fiber lines. (Without them), there was no control.”
In the immediate aftermath of what happened, Trump was silent, hours later claiming: “All is well,” clearly not so.
His next day statement on national television showed weakness, not strength, standing down, saying nothing about US retaliation for what happened.
Threats are empty. Actions alone matter. Further aggression against Iran will likely draw a much stronger response.
If Trump wages all-out hot war on Iran, what’s highly unlikely, US regional military facilities, the Hormuz Strait, Israel and Saudi oil fields will likely be prime retaliatory targets, causing havoc to the world economy, possibly risking global war.
Iran wants regional peace, not war. It wants international law and its sovereign rights respected.
Its military is far more powerful than other nations the US attacked post-9/11.
Its retaliatory strikes on US military facilities in Iraq sent a message that if the Trump regime wages war on the country, it’ll pay dearly for its action.
If DJT orders aggression on Iran before US November elections, he’ll likely be a one-term president.
Body bags of US military personnel coming home in large numbers and/or significant economic downturn if Middle East oil supplies are greatly disrupted would likely doom his reelection chances.
As for Pentagon commanders, already bogged down in three unwinnable quagmires (in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen), it’s hard imagining they’d risk a fourth with a nation far more powerful militarily than the other three.
