The USS Truxtun, right, and Canadian ships MV Asterix, middle, and Montreal in the Red Sea, May 3, 2023. [Photo: Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Kenneth Blair ]
On Friday, the United States carried out airstrikes on seven locations throughout Iraq and Syria, in what US officials said were the beginning of weeks or even months of attacks throughout the region. Over the next two days, Saturday and Sunday, the US and UK launched further airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The attacks mark “the beginning of our response and there will be more steps to come,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
In other words, the United States’ “endless war” in the Middle East, which has killed millions of people and destroyed entire societies over the course of the past three decades, is entering a new and more deadly stage.
US officials have made it clear that a central target of the US military offensive is Iran. Appearing on “Meet the Press” Sunday, Sullivan was asked directly if the United States would rule out strikes “inside Iran.” Sullivan declared he would not do so, stating, “I’m not going to get into what’s on the table and off the table when it comes to the American response.”
When Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson followed Sullivan on the same program, he made an even more explicit threat to attack Iran. When asked, “Do you want to see strikes inside Iran?” Johnson replied, “It should not be off the table.”
The back-to-back appearances by officials of both the Democratic-controlled White House and the Republican-led House of Representatives were meant to convey the unanimity within the US political establishment for the escalation of the war in the Middle East.
The Biden administration is proceeding with staggering recklessness, inflaming a regional war that threatens to draw in the entire world. A full-scale US war with Iran would have catastrophic human, political and economic consequences, eclipsing even the bloodbath caused by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.