Re: Whatever you call it, it’s war, published in the Jan. 14 edition of the Mountain View Albertan.
Columnst Frank Dabbs say that the Iranian-American standoff was started by President Donald Trump when he ordered the assassination of Iranian General Soleimani.
The start of this conflict goes back before the First World War, and reached its peak when the U.S. supported the Shah of Iran. The Iranians attacked the U.S. embassy in Iran and held its occupants hostage, horrifying the entire diplomatic community.
This was followed by many issues, but recently the U.S. under former president Barack Obama supported rebels in Syria, trying to overthrow the Syrian government. Iran provided troops and weapons to fight the US and some of its allies.
Very recently, the Iranians backed Hezbollah, fired missiles into an Iraqi base, killing an American, and wounding others.
The commander of the Hezbollah was an Iraqi who had been trained by the Iranians to fight the Iraqi government.
He was convicted of terrorism, and sentenced to death by the Kuwaiti government after bombing the French and U.S. embassies in Kuwait.
In response to the Hezbollah attack, the U.S. bombed numerous Hezbollah weapons storage sites; this lead to the Hezbollah attacking the U.S. embassy in Iraq.
In response to that attack, the U.S. used drones to kill the Hezbollah commander while he was meeting with the Iranian general.
General/terrorist Soleimani was sanctioned by the U.N. and the E.U., and labelled a terrorist by the U.S. and Canada. He was meeting with the commander of the Hezbollah at the time of the assassination.
Iran then launched a missile attack on U.S. bases in Iraq. The Iranians shot down the passenger jet, while waiting for an American response that never came.
The U.S. claims that General/terrorist Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of 600 Americans in Iraq, and the wounding of thousands more.
As you can see, this conflict goes back decades and Trump was merely reacting to actions taken by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.
It is impossible to say who is responsible for the situation we have today. One thing that is clear is that Trump didn’t start it; at the worst he might have escalated it. At best, the deaths of two terrorists might save many lives in the future.
Bob Wilson,
Calgary
