How Many More Americans Do the Iranians Get to Kill?
How Many More Americans Do the Iranians Get to Kill?
Plus, Kate K on SCOTUS Reform
Howdy,
Everyone is talking about VP Harris’ pick, Tim Walz.
likes the pick, but I loathe it. We’ll discuss it later this week, but at the end of the day, reasonable people can disagree about politics.But let me ask another question: Why isn’t a successful Iranian proxy attack (not verified, but highly likely) on American forces the biggest news of the day? Why do the Iranians get to do this at will?
Here’s the 411 via Reuters:
WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - At least five U.S. personnel were injured in an attack against a military base in Iraq on Monday, U.S. officials told Reuters, as the Middle East braced for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week's killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
Two Katyusha rockets were fired at al Asad airbase in western Iraq, two Iraqi security sources said. One Iraqi security source said the rockets fell inside the base. It was unclear whether the attack was linked to threats by Iran to retaliate over the killing of the Hamas leader.
Maybe you think this is just a one-off.
Sorry, that shit ain’t true. US forces have been attacked at least 170 times in the Middle East since October 7th.
There was also this attack that killed 3 US soldiers from Iraq in January.
While an Iranian proxy group hasn’t taken responsibility for today’s attack—yet—that’s where my money would land. There are tons of Iranian proxies alive and well in Iraq. Remember that when someone tells you that we won the Iraq War.
Throughout my slightly above-average military career, the Iranians were always trying to kill me. Always. I’ve written about it before.
THROUGHOUT MY TWENTY-YEAR military career, one thing was constant: The Iranians were always trying to kill us. The only change was where, when, and the kind of weapons used. For me, it started in the summer of 2006.
“This place right here, Amil District,” said the sergeant, pointing to his map. “This place is EFP alley. You drive through this area, and everyone needs to have their head on a swivel.”
I was in Baghdad, set to go outside the wire for the first time with the unit we were replacing. My squadron was learning the ropes from the old hands, something the military calls “report in place/transfer of authority.”
On my first patrol, the topic was—and remained—explosively formed projectiles (EFP), advanced improvised explosive devices that could penetrate our Humvees with a hot jet of molten metal. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps provided this technology to its Shia proxies, like Muqtada al-Sadr’s Jaysh al-Mahdi.
Everyone feared EFPs, and for good reason. EFPs killed hundreds of Americans. If an EFP hit your vehicle, you could almost guarantee a casualty. Every time we drove through Amil District, the pucker factor increased. It was common for some troops to wear pre-positioned tourniquets on patrol. One of my troops awkwardly hiked his legs up against the seat in front of him because he was convinced the Iranians were aiming to make us amputees.
So, ya know, why do the Iranians get to kill and wound our sons and daughters for no cost?
Some will say, hey, we returned the favor by killing their proxy leaders.
That’s fair, I suppose. But the Iranians don’t give a shit about their proxies. They’ll gladly trade another proxy leader for three dead American soldiers.
At the end of the day, American soldiers are pawns on the board. That’s fine. That’s what soldiers do - they fight and die for their country. But, you know, at some point, it would be nice if we killed the people who are killing our soldiers.
Many people with fancy academic degrees and stars on their shoulders will tell you about escalation, deterrence, and proxy warfare theory. Go ahead and read that stuff. It’s important.
But you know what they don’t talk about?
Honor.
That’s because they’ve forgotten what that word means. That’s because we’ve become so detached from war’s essence—killing—that we talk of war like it’s a math problem.
It’s not. It’s killing. And killing takes passion. And if that passion is to be tempered, it must be encased in honor.
Honor, Vengence, Wrath, and Primordial Violence. That’s what it takes to kill.
So when you’re a soldier sent to kill for your country, there’s a hope that, at some point, you will honor your dead friends by actually killing the very people who are killing our sons and daughters.
Put another way: How many more Americans do the Iranians get to kill before we punch back in Iran?
What would you tell the families of service members who are deployed across the Middle East? We have 2,500 troops in Iraq, and there are tens of thousands scattered across the Persian Gulf.
What should we tell these families? And why should anyone encourage their sons and daughters to serve if America doesn’t extract a heavy price for failing to return their greatest treasures?
Military families lend you their sons and daughters. When we renege on that loan, it should fill us with sorrow.
Instead, it’s a meh.
Honor is a real thing. We should start talking about it more.
Kate K Off The Top Rope!
My BFF and Co-Founder,
, is out with another scorcher on SCOTUS reform.Two weeks ago, I published this somewhat controversial piece which broadly challenged the ethical standing of our current Supreme Court. It caused quite a stir (in our little corner of the Internet, anyway), but I’ll say this: I stand by every word I wrote. As an attorney, it has been exceptionally demoralizing to continue practicing under the dark cloud of a legal authority which largely defies precedent, disregards impartiality, and declines to ensure the fundamental promise of equal justice.
Old though he may be, President Biden heard my cries for help and recently proposed three methods of Court reform, as outlined below.
Kate K and I disagree on this topic and many others, but you know what? For every Scalia, you need an RGB or Kagan. Reasonable people can disagree and be BFFs.
We used to be able to do that in this country. When did that stop? I missed that during my 20 years in service.
There are things to think about in Bob Dylan's song; Masters of War. It was written many years ago, but still relevant.
When I read about the casualties this morning I felt outraged. It defies belief that this is happening and seems to go unnoticed. I think I said the words “leadership failure” out loud several times. It’s appalling. How did it come to this?
Here we stand at the apex of our decisions.
It takes integrity to act with honor. At the levels where it matters most, there is none. There has been none since dishonesty was re-normalized as part of our military culture after 9/11. Nobody tells the truth when it matters. Nobody wants to make the hard decision and take ownership.
Our adversaries will keep killing Americans as long as they don’t have to pay a real price for doing so. Until we can have an honest, earnest conversation about the importance of things like honor and integrity this is going to keep happening.
When I deployed for OIF the second time in 05/06 we took two casualties in the first month from an EFP that was detonated from an overhead position. The components of that device, and all the others that we encountered later, were largely sourced from Iran. At one point I wondered aloud why we weren’t conducting kinetic strikes on the facilities in Iran that manufactured critical components. Why not confront the threat more directly in an attempt to eliminate it, instead of faffing about?
Nobody had an answer then, either.