World Socialist Web Site - February 1, 2024
US plans “weeks” of attacks throughout the Middle East
Andre Damon
Seizing upon Sunday’s killing of three US troops in an airstrike by Iraqi militia in Jordan, the United States is planning a protracted military offensive throughout the Middle East.
NBC News reported that US officials said that the strikes being planned by the Biden administration would be a “campaign” that would last “weeks.” The strikes will include “Iranian targets outside Iran,” NBC reported.
White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby appeared to confirm NBC’s reporting in a press briefing on Wednesday, declaring that the US response “won’t just be a one-off … the first thing you see will not be the last thing.”
These plans are being made with no effort to inform or gain the consent of the American population, which is broadly opposed to the US military escalation in the Middle East and US support for the genocide in Gaza.
On Monday, Kirby made this reality clear by declaring, “The commander-in-chief is not looking at polling or considering the electoral calendar.”
In response, Major General Hossein Salami, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that any strikes inside Iran would not “be left unanswered.” He added, “We are not looking for war but are not afraid of war, either.”
On Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked in a briefing, “How is this not a regional war now, between the United States and Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and now Jordan?”
She replied, “We’re not discounting that tensions are high in the region by any means. Since October 17th (sic), we’ve seen repeated attacks on US forces, so we’re not discounting the fact that tensions are high, that these Iranian-backed groups are targeting our military members with the intention of trying to kill them.”
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps on Wednesday to discuss what are expected to be joint strikes throughout the Middle East. The UK’s Telegraph reported that the UK is preparing to send an aircraft carrier into the Red Sea to take part in the operation.
On Wednesday, the US military carried out its latest attack in Yemen, with US F-18 Super Hornets dropping bombs on what the US claimed were drone launch sites.
The deepening US involvement in the war throughout the Middle East comes as Israel, with the support of the United States, is committing ever more brazen war crimes.
On Tuesday, members of the Israeli military, dressed as medical staff, infiltrated the Ibn Sina Hospital in the northern West Bank and executed three people at point-blank range, including one person who was in his hospital bed.
Dr. Naji Nazzal, the director of the hospital, told Reuters that the soldiers “executed the three men as they slept in the room. … They executed them in cold blood by firing bullets directly into their heads in the room where they were being treated.”
This was a flagrant war crime on multiple levels, including the execution of unarmed people and an attack on a hospital facility.
In a statement, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said, “Israeli forces have committed a complex crime in which there are multiple violations of the rules of international humanitarian law. These crimes include storming a protected civilian hospital; committing a crime of treachery by dressing like doctors, nurses, and civilians; carrying out an extrajudicial execution against people who did not pose any danger to anyone, including a seriously injured person, at a time when the perpetrators could have been arrested for the aforementioned crimes; as well as torturing and harassing medical personnel.”
On Wednesday, the bodies of 30 Palestinians were found in a school in northern Gaza. Many were bound and blindfolded, suggesting that they were killed by Israeli forces in a mass summary execution.
In a statement, Hamas said, “The occupation regime’s ongoing crimes against our Palestinian people unfold day after day, the latest of which was documented by the Palestinian Prisoner Society and reported by Palestinian citizens about the executions of about 30 Palestinians, whose bodies were found dumped inside a schoolyard in northern Gaza while being handcuffed and blindfolded.”
The statement continued, “This indicates that the occupation army carried out a massacre against civilians through executing them on-site after brutalizing them.”
Amid deepening starvation in Gaza caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the shutting down of the largest humanitarian agency in Gaza, the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).
“It’s time the international community and the UN itself understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end,” Netanyahu said, declaring that the organization must be shut down “if we are going to solve the problem of Gaza as we intend to do.”
Earlier that day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said UNRWA was “the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza.”
Netanyahu’s comments followed the termination of funding for UNRWA by the US and other imperialist powers, pointing to their complicity in Israel’s mass starvation of the population of Gaza.
In a statement on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch called on the US and other countries to reverse the cutoff of aid to UNRWA, declaring the move “could hasten famine in Gaza.”
“Withholding funds from the UN agency most able to provide immediate lifesaving food, water, and medicine to the more than 2.3 million people of Gaza shows callous indifference to what the world’s leading experts have warned is the looming risk of famine,” said Akshaya Kumar of Human Rights Watch.
On Wednesday, World Health Organization’s Emergencies Director Michael Ryan declared, “This is a population that is starving to death,” adding, “This is a population that is being pushed to the brink, and they are not parties to this conflict.”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/02/01/tbzx-f01.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
The Intercept – January 30, 2024
U.S. military personnel in Iraq put on standby
to support ground involvement in Israel’s war on Gaza
Despite Biden’s promises of no boots on the ground, documents obtained by The Intercept suggest the military has prepared for the possibility.
Ken Klippenstein
A JANUARY U.S. Air Force personnel memo obtained by The Intercept describes military orders to be “on standby to forward deploy to support troops in the case of on ground US involvement in the Israel Hamas war.” According to a separate personnel document, the standby order related to personnel deployed last year to Iraq.
While the documents do not suggest that U.S. military ground involvement in the war is forthcoming, the January memo is the latest intimation of the Pentagon’s preparations to support Israel in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack. Days after the attack, the U.S. military reportedlyOpens in a new tab put 2,000 troops on prepare-to-deploy orders for potential support to Israel, though from neighboring countries — orders that were confirmed by a procurement document obtained by The Intercept.
The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment on the personnel memo about preparing for ground involvement, but in the past the White House has stressed that its support for Israel in the Gaza war would not include boots on the ground.
“There are no plans or intentions to put U.S. boots on the ground in combat in Israel,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby saidOpens in a new tab on October 17. “But as we’ve also said, we have significant national security interests in the region.”
Two days after Kirby’s remarks, the White House inadvertently sharedOpens in a new tab a picture of President Joe Biden in Israel posing alongside members of the secretive U.S. special operations units, before quickly deleting it. In late October, the New York Times reportedOpens in a new tab that American special operations personnel were in Israel to help with hostage rescue efforts.
U.S. Still in the Middle East
The documents obtained by The Intercept provide a stark reminder of the pervasive U.S. military presence in the Middle East, with personnel deployed to theaters where many Americans think the mission ended long ago — and how quickly those orders can be repurposed for new conflicts.
The records, for instance, involve personnel deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S. military’s name for the war against the Islamic State group. Though ISIS was driven from its last strongholds years ago, the war persists, providing a legal basis for continued U.S. military presence in Iraq and Syria.
Israel’s War on Gaza
“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency,” former President Donald Trump tweeted in December 2018. Shortly thereafter, Trump announced that U.S. troops in the country are “all coming back and they’re coming back now.” Trump would later announce that all U.S. troops in Iraq would be withdrawn as well.
Despite the announcements, U.S. forces remained in Syria as well as Iraq, where they are still present to this day. The deployments are “part of a comprehensive strategy to defeat ISIS,” the White House informedOpens in a new tab Congress in December, “to limit the potential for resurgence of these groups and to mitigate threats to the United States homeland.”
A grim reminder of the longevity of the anti-ISIS deployment emerged Sunday, when three American soldiers were killed in a drone attack on a secret U.S. base in Jordan, near the border of Syria.
“These three fallen heroes were deployed to Jordan in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and the international coalition working to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS,” Defense Department deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a press briefing on Monday.
The deaths represent the first U.S. troops killed since the October 7 Hamas attack. And they may not be the last, if the militia claiming responsibility for the attacks is to be believed. A senior official from an alliance of Iraqi militia groups claiming credit for the attack tied it to U.S. support for Israel in its Gaza war, as The Intercept previously reported.
“As we said before, if the U.S. keeps supporting Israel, there will [be] escalations,” the senior militia official said. “All U.S. interests in the region are legitimate targets, and we don’t care about U.S. threats to respond.”
With U.S. troops stationed all over the Middle East fighting wars long declared over, there are plenty of targets.
Countercurrent – February 1, 2024
Flashpoint for War: The Drone Killings at Tower 22
by Dr Binoy Kampmark
The BBC’s characteristically mild-mannered note said it all: What is Tower 22? More to the point, what are US forces doing in Jordan? (To be more precise, a dusty scratching on the Syria-Jordan border.) These questions were posed in the aftermath of yet another drone attack against a US outpost in the Middle East, its location of dubious strategic relevance to Washington, yet seen as indispensable to its global footprint. On this occasion, the attack proved successful, killing three troops and wounding dozens.
The Times of Israel offered a workmanlike description of the site’s role: “Tower 22 is located close enough to US troops at Tanf that it could potentially help support them, while potentially countering Iran-backed militants in the area and allowing troops to keep an eye on remnants of Islamic State in the region.” The paper does not go on to mention the other role: that US forces are also present in the region to protect Israeli interests, acting as a shield against Iran.
While Tower 22 is located more towards Jordan, it is a dozen miles or so to the Syria-based al-Tanf garrison, which retains a US troop presence. Initially, that presence was justified to cope with the formidable threat posed by Islamic State as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. In due course, it became something of a watch post on Iran’s burgeoning military presence in Syria and Iraq, an inflation as much a consequence of Tehran’s successful efforts against the fundamentalist group as it was a product of Washington’s destabilising invasion of Iraq in 2003.
A January 28 press release from US Central Command notes that the attack was inflicted by “a one-way attack UAS [Unmanned Aerial System] that impacted on a base in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border.” Its description of Tower 22 is suitably vague, described as a “logistics support base” forming the Jordanian Defense Network. “There are approximately 350 US Army and Air Force personnel deployed to the base, conducting a number of key support functions, including support to the coalition for the lasting defeat of ISIS.” No mention is made of Iran or Israel.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh found it hard to conceal the extent that US bases in the region have come under attack. Clumsily, she tried to be vague as to reasons why such assaults were taking place to begin with, though her department has, since October 17 last year, tracked 165 attacks, 66 on US troops in Iraq and 98 in Syria. The singular feature in the assault on Tower 22, she stressed, was that it worked. “To my knowledge, there was nothing different or new about this attack that we’ve seen in other facilities that house our service members,” she told reporters on January 29. “Unfortunately, this attack was successful, but we can’t discount the fact that other attacks, whether Iraq or Syria, were not intended to kill our service members.”
A senior official from the umbrella grouping known as Islamic Resistance in Iraq justified the attack as part of a broader campaign against the US for its unwavering support for Israel and its relentlessly murderous campaign in Gaza. (Since October 17, the group is said to have staged 140 attacks on US sites in both Iraq and Syria.) “As we have said before if the US keeps supporting Israel, there will [be] escalations.” The official in question went on to state that, “All the US interests in the region are legitimate targets, and we don’t care about US threats to respond.”
A generally accepted view among security boffins is that US troops have achieved what they sought to do: cope with the threat posed by Islamic State. As with any such groups, dissipation and readjustment eventually follows. Washington’s military officials delight in using the term “degrade”, but it would be far better to simply assume that the fighters of such outfits eventually take up with others, blend into the locale, or simply go home.
With roughly 3,000 personnel stationed in Jordan, 2,500 in Iraq, and 900 in Syria, US troops have become ripe targets as Israel’s war in Gaza rages. In effect, they have become bits of surplus pieces on the Middle Eastern chessboard and, to that end, incentives for a broader conflict. The Financial Times, noting the view of an unnamed source purporting to be a “senior western diplomat” (aren’t they always?), fretted that the tinderbox was about to go off. “We’re always worried about US and Iranian forces getting into direct confrontation there, whether by accident or on purpose.”
President Joe Biden has promised some suitable retaliation but does not wish for “a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for.” A typically mangled response came from National Security Council spokesman John Kirby: “It’s very possible what you’ll see is a tiered approach here, not just a single action, but potentially multiple actions over a period of time.”
Rather than seeing these attacks as incentives to leave such outposts, the don’t cut and run mentality may prove all too powerful in its muscular stupidity. Empires do not merely bring with them sorrows but incentives to be stubborn. The beneficiaries will be the usual coterie of war mongers and peace killers.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com
https://countercurrents.org/2024/02/flashpoint-for-war-the-drone-killings-at-tower-22/
US troops told to prepare for war in Gaza – media
Washington maintains that there are no plans to put American boots on the ground
US Air Force personnel in Iraq have been ordered to remain on standby in case of “on ground US involvement in the Israel Hamas war,” The Intercept reported on Tuesday, citing a Pentagon memo.
Circulated earlier this month, the memo instructs an unknown number of troops to be placed “on standby to forward deploy to support troops in the case of on ground US involvement in the Israel Hamas war,” the news site reported. The standby order applies to troops stationed in Iraq since last year, according to a separate Pentagon document seen by The Intercept.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
The White House has stated on several occasions since October that its support for the Jewish state would not involve American soldiers fighting alongside their Israeli counterparts.
The US responded to Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel by immediately dispatching two aircraft carriers to the region and preparing 2,000 additional troops for deployment to the Middle East, but White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on October 10 that “there is no intention to put US boots on the ground” in Israel or Gaza.
However, US special forces have been active in Israel since October, with senior official Christopher Maier telling reporters at the time that American commandos were “actively helping the Israelis to do a number of things.” The Pentagon has also admitted to flying spy drones over Gaza “in support of hostage recovery efforts.”
Since the conflict began, US troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan have come under fire more than 150 times, with Iran-aligned Shi’ite militias subjecting their bases to regular drone and rocket barrages. One such attack on an outpost in Jordan on Sunday killed three US soldiers and injured several dozen others.
American ships and warplanes have also launched several strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, in a bid to break the Houthi blockade on “Israel-linked” merchant shipping passing through the Red Sea. The Houthis have responded by targeting US commercial and military vessels in the area. On Wednesday, the militants announced that they had fired multiple missiles at the destroyer USS Gravely.
US Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, said that the Graveley shot down one incoming missile, and suffered no damage or casualties.
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