Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed late on Saturday that the US will deploy a THAAD battery and “additional Patriot battalions to locations throughout the [Middle East] to increase force protection for US forces.”
“Following detailed discussions with President Biden on recent escalations by Iran and its proxy forces across the Middle East Region, today I directed a series of additional steps to further strengthen the Department of Defense posture in the region,” Austin said in a press release.
“These steps will bolster regional deterrence efforts, increase force protection for US forces in the region, and assist in the defense of Israel,” the Pentagon chief added.
The defense chief did not elaborate on the details of the supposed “escalations by Iran and its proxy forces.” To date, the Israeli arch-enemy’s statements on the Palestinian-Israeli crisis have remained measured and restrained, with Tehran not only denying having anything to do with the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, but joining Russia, China, Turkiye, and other countries in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The crisis has escalated beyond Palestine and Israel’s borders, with the IDF launching a series of seemingly unprovoked airstrikes in Syria (a key Iranian regional ally), and targeting Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon (also allies to Iran) after they threatened to open a “second front” against Tel Aviv if it moves ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza.
Further afield, illegal US bases dotting northeastern Syria, as well as US military facilities in Iraq, have come under sustained attack by rocket and drone attacks this week. Iraq’s Shia militias are known to have close ties to Iran – which helped train and organize them starting in 2014 to fight Daesh (ISIS).*
‘Message to Iran’
“I think the deployment of THAADs and other air defense systems clearly shows that the United States is in this and [will] back Israel very, very strongly and protect US assets in the region,” Michael Maloof told Sputnik. “The United States is spread all over the Middle East right now. Just surrounding Iran alone there are some 35 US bases, which is incredible,” the observer stressed, recalling the popular Internet meme about Iran "wanting war" judging by "how close they put their country to US military bases."
Pointing to the militia rocket and drone attacks on US troops in Syria and Iraq as signs of an escalation with Iran, Maloof said that the air and missile defense deployments may be an attempt by Washington to send a “signal” to Tehran that the US “will stand up to attacks on US assets.”
“This is running parallel to a commitment that Biden has made to Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel that the United States is going to ‘back them up all the way.’ So this could be a somewhat significant development telling Iran that it’s ‘game on,’” Maloof said.
'Iran Wants War' meme.
© Photo : Anonymous
Dangerous Escalation
The problem with the US strategy, Maloof stressed, is that Washington has been “just reacting to the immediate events” instead of looking at or analyzing how the regional escalation began.
“They’re not looking at what caused all this. And this is the thing that people either don’t know or just want to ignore because of the imminent threats that exist. One Israeli minister just now basically said that if Hezbollah attacks out of Lebanon, [Israel] will go for the ‘head of the snake.’ They have defined the head of the snake as Iran. So this war, this potential war is escalating very quickly, especially if the Israelis not only go into Gaza, but if the war [expands] in the north” into Lebanon, the observer said.
The geographical constraints of the Middle East are also an extremely important factor to consider, Maloof noted, with the deployment of additional US capabilities to the region, and the presence of bases like the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain just across the Gulf from Iran, meaning that in the event of an escalation, the opposing sides will be in “very close proximities.”
“This is something that the Biden administration has been pushing. We saw it first in Ukraine. Now we’re seeing it in Israel to have these external conflicts to protect other countries’ borders, but not our own. It’s just mind-boggling,” Maloof stressed, referencing the crisis unfolding on the US southern border with Mexico.
Finally, commenting on the drama in Congress about the Biden administration’s $105 billion request for more military aid, most of it for Ukraine and Israel, and the looming possibility of another government shutdown crisis, the former DoD analyst said that the US is facing a “very bad situation… both domestically and internationally.”
“The United States really put itself in the middle of a mess. Not to mention the mess that we have domestically in our own economy when it’s fast approaching $34 trillion in debt, and there’s no way to pay that back. So all in all, the Biden administration has handed us a real pile of it, not only to the American people, but also to the world,” Maloof summed up.
* Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and other countries.