America is 100 times as powerful as Iran, but instead of flattening the country and killing millions in a war, as they surely could, they just took out the second most powerful terrorist in Iran without (apparently) killing a single innocent person.
The USA had a 100 times more military power than Vietnam. Throwing trillions of dollars at your military industry isn't going to win a war half across the globe. You also seem to forget that Russia and China wouldn't simply let Iran to the lions. They have mutual interests in Iran's continuity and autonomy, whether from an energy or a geostrategic point of view.
Your statement here:
American troops are in Iraq by congressional authority, and with the permission of the Iraqi government.
... is really quite something. The invader overthrows a government, replaces said government, then you're going to use this new government's approval of the invader's presence as an argument in favour of the invader's occupation and actions. Mind blown.
I personally don't think you're a shill, Thunderian, and I will refrain from ad hominems, but understanding geopolitics in the Middle East without taking into account the Zionist factor that dominates it, is impossible. Don't think your unwillingness to acknowledge that is deliberate, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
1982: The sectarian violence in the Middle East and its balkanization is the means of destabilizing Israel's neighbouring countries, break down Arab unity and have Israel emerge as dominant power. This strategy was described in Israel's
Yinon Plan of 1982.
1996: The "removal of Saddam Hussein" and the "containment of Syria" are plans detailed in the US-Israeli
Clean Break report, led by Zionist American Jews Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Bill Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, who had this to say about it:
Douglas Feith and Richard Perle advised Netanyahu, who was prime minister in 1996, to make "a clean break" from the Oslo accords with the Palestinians.
They also argued that Israeli security would be served best by regime change in surrounding countries. Despite the current mess in Iraq, this is still a commonplace in Washington. In
Paul Wolfowitz's words, "
The road to peace in the Middle East goes through Baghdad." It has indeed become
an article of faith (literally in some cases) in Washington that American and Israeli interests are identical, but this was not always so, and
"Jewish interests" are not the main reason for it now.
A key policy of the Clean Break report:
Rather than pursuing a "comprehensive peace" with the entire Arab world, Israel should work jointly with Jordan and Turkey to "contain, destabilize, and roll-back" those entities that are threats to all three.
1998: Perle, Kristol and Wolfowitz (again) reaffirmed their intentions to overthrow Hussein in the
Project for a New American Century in 1998 where a certain catalyst was required to manufacture popular consent to have the US engage in warfare in the ME.
Everything that happened since is history.
Daesh and Al Qaeda were serving Zionist interests in destabilizing the region Israel had targeted. It was the Syrian government and army, with support of Iran, Russia and Lebanon that defeated them. Soleimani was
the general on the ground responsible for that. That's why, among a plethora of other reasons, Israel wanted him gone; a reckoning for destroying Israel's Jihadi proxies.
Who are the men on Israel's potential hit list?
Senior defense officials have warned that Israel is facing an Iranian storm that is coming closer to her borders. But who are the men behind the storm?
Who are the faces behind the dire warnings from Israel’s top military officer of “multiple enemies on multiple fronts”?
Senior defense officials have warned that Israel is facing an Iranian storm that is coming closer to her borders. But who are the men behind the storm? And what has Israel done to stop them?
1) Qassem Soleimani
Born in 1957 in Iran’s Kerman province,
Qassem Solemani joined Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1979 and advanced rapidly, rising through the ranks during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s to lead the 41st Division while he was still in his 20s.
Considered a military genius, Soleimani was appointed commander of the IRGC in 1997. Until a few years ago, he remained almost invisible to the public eye. But he was busy: In the 1990s, he was responsible for Iran’s anti-Taliban efforts in Afghanistan, and for organizing Iraqi Shi’ite militias following the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. More recently, he rescued the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria.
Considered the head of the snake, Israeli defense officials have named Soleimani as the No. 1 enemy responsible for Iran’s ongoing entrenchment in Syria and its ongoing support for Hezbollah’s precision missile project.
...
They've got 2 out of 3 with Baha Abu al-Ata (right) and his wife being killed by the IDF on November 12.
Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah is next in line.