'The game has changed': Defense Secretary Esper threatens preemptive strikes on Iranian group

Wesley Morgan
Politico
Thu, 02 Jan 2020 10:55 UTC

Comment: US Defense secretary's comments are interesting in light of what took place in Baghdad just 24 hours later:

Extrajudicial Murder: Trump Assassinates Iranian Quds Commander Soleimani at Baghdad Airport

© Jeon Heon-Kyun/Pool/Getty Images

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper

The U.S. may conduct preemptive strikes against Iranian-backed militias, Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned on Thursday, adding that he expects those groups are planning further attacks against U.S. bases in Iraq.

"Do I think they might do something? Yes, and they will likely regret it," Esper said of Kataib Hezbollah, the militia group that attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad this week following U.S. airstrikes on the group in Iraq and Syria. The U.S. conducted the strikes after the group struck a base in Iraq, killing a U.S. contractor.

"There are some indications out there that they may be planning additional attacks. If we get word of attacks, we will take preemptive action as well to protect American forces, protect American lives. The game has changed."

With the deployment of Marines from Kuwait to the embassy and an Army battalion from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Kuwait, the Pentagon has enough forces in and around Iraq to fend off further assaults on the embassy or outposts where U.S. troops are training the Iraqi military.

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said.

"We are very confident that the integrity of that embassy is strong and it is highly unlikely to be physically overwhelmed. Anybody who attempts to overwhelm that will run into a buzz saw."

The Marines from Kuwait reinforced some 200 contractors and 50 to 100 U.S. troops who were already at the embassy, he explained. The Army battalion — a global response force of 750 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division — stands ready to move from Kuwait to reinforce other bases.

Kataib Hezbollah had been escalating the frequency and size of its rocket attacks against U.S. bases since at least October, Esper and Milley said, culminating in last week's strike. "We know that the intent of this last attack was in fact to kill" Americans, Milley said, unlike a string of smaller rocket attacks throughout the year. He did not say how he knew that or whether Iran directly ordered the lethal attack.

Esper warned Iran against allowing or ordering further Kataib Hezbollah attacks, and scolded the Iraqi government for not doing more to curb the militia group, which Iraq considers part of its paramilitary "popular mobilization forces" even though the U.S. has designated it a terrorist group.

"I've made the point over and over again that they need to do more internally, within Iraq, to stop these Iran-sponsored militia groups," Esper said, referring to calls with the prime minister and other Iraqi officials. "They need to get left of the problem and stop these attacks from happening and get the Iranian influence out of the government."

Comment: That's like ordering the US to get its cultural, political, financial and military influence out of the UK. It's impossible because the two countries are so interdependent.

The U.S. has "clear goals in the region," he added. "One of them is that Iran become a normal country and behave like a normal country."

Comment: 'Normal' meaning 'submit to the US World Order'.

'We can break America, but won't lead Iran to war' says the IRGC

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are not leading the country into a war with the US, but will not hesitate to wage one if forced to, the commander of the elite force said amid a row over US embassy in Baghdad.

The US blames Tehran for orchestrating mass protests at the US embassy in the Iraqi capital, which involved a partial takeover of the massive compound. The protest was led by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia group, in response to US airstrikes on its forces. Speaking on Thursday, Brigadier General Hossein Salami said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was not moving towards an open war with the US, but would not shy away from one.

"We are not leading the country to war, but we are not afraid of any war and we tell America to speak correctly with the Iranian nation. We have the power to break them several times over and are not worried."

Kataib Hezbollah ordered its supporters to pull back from Baghdad's Green Zone on Wednesday, claiming a 'psychological victory' over Washington. The angry crowds, which acted under the Iraqi government's non-involvement stance, didn't break into the main embassy buildings during the two-day standoff.

The US response to the security crisis was to deploy additional troops to Iraq.

'A grave mistake' says the Israeli FM (any excuse leads to Iran).

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday denounced what he described as an "attack" on the US Embassy in Baghdad by Iraqi protesters, and accused Tehran of supporting the protests.

Katz tweeted that his country supports the United States and urged the international community to stand against "the crimes of the murderous regime in Tehran".

Tweet Israel Katz:
"Israel supports the United States and strongly defends the attacks on the United States Embassy in Iraq by the envoys of the Ayatollah regime in Iran. Iran has made a grave mistake in attempting to strike US diplomats in Iraq. We call on the international community to stand firmly against the crimes of the murderous regime in Tehran".