“We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war,” said Donald Trump on Friday, after Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani had been assassinated on his orders. Be that as it may, his own military chiefs are getting ready for a fight. Even after the earlier attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, on New Year’s Eve, it was widely reported that the Pentagon was hurriedly increasing its forces in the region.
Four thousand troops from the 81st Airborne Division were due in Kuwait last week. More recently personnel from the 75th US Ranger Regiment have also been despatched. And, not surprisingly, a detachment of the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Forces Crisis Response group from US Central Command is also on its way to reinforce embassy protection.
This last move is to be expected given what happened in Iran forty years ago. During the 1979 revolution, student activists took 52 US diplomats hostage and held them for 444 days: President Jimmy Carter’s attempt to rescue them, Operation Eagle’s Claw, failed with eight US troops killed, and the crisis did much to ensure Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980.
