The United States has recently made headlines for its military strike on Iran, in response to the country’s ongoing attacks on American military bases in the region. However, what many international media outlets fail to recognize is that this is just the latest in a long history of aggression from Iran and its proxies towards the U.S. For over two decades, the U.S. has been a target of Iranian-backed attacks, including those carried out by its terrorist proxy groups such as Hezbollah and the Houthis. It is high time that the international community begins to acknowledge this fact and understand the true nature of this ongoing conflict.
The recent tensions between the U.S. and Iran may have escalated in the past month, but the roots of this animosity can be traced back to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. After the overthrow of the Shah, Iran’s new regime, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, made it clear that they viewed the U.S. as their main enemy. This deep-seated animosity has led to decades of hostility and aggression from Iran towards the U.S. and its allies.
One of the primary ways that Iran has targeted the U.S. is through its use of proxy groups. These are groups that are funded, trained, and armed by Iran, but operate independently in different parts of the world. These proxies act as a cover for Iran’s actions, allowing the regime to deny any involvement while still carrying out its attacks. One of the most notorious of these groups is Hezbollah, a terrorist organization based in Lebanon that has been responsible for numerous attacks on American and Israeli targets.
In 1983, Hezbollah carried out a suicide bombing on the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. service members. This was just the beginning of a long series of attacks that Hezbollah has carried out on U.S. interests, including the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847 and the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. More recently, Hezbollah has been involved in the ongoing conflict in Syria, fighting alongside the regime of Bashar al-Assad and targeting American troops in the region.
Another proxy of Iran, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, have also been carrying out attacks on U.S. interests for years. The Houthis, who are primarily funded and armed by Iran, have been fighting a civil war in Yemen since 2015. In this conflict, they have targeted American ships in the Red Sea with missiles and drone attacks, and have also been responsible for the attack on the U.S. embassy in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital.
Despite these acts of aggression, the U.S. has remained relatively restrained in its response. However, this changed in late 2019 when a U.S. contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base, carried out by an Iranian-backed militia. In response, the U.S. launched airstrikes on these militias, which then sparked a chain of events leading to the recent military strike on Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and the subsequent Iranian missile attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq.
It is important to note that the U.S. has always acted in self-defense in these situations, unlike Iran and its proxies, who have been the initiators of these attacks. This recent strike on Soleimani was not a sudden or impulsive decision, but a necessary and justified response to years of aggression from Iran and its proxies. It was a message that the U.S. will not tolerate continued attacks on its personnel and interests, and that there will be consequences for those who threaten American lives.
In conclusion, it is crucial for the international media to start framing the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran accurately. This is not a one-sided issue, but rather a long-standing conflict that has been fueled by Iran’s ongoing aggression towards the U.S. and its allies. The recent military strike by the U.S. was not an act of aggression, but a necessary defense against a country that has been attacking America for over two decades. It is time for the world to acknowledge this fact and support the U.S. in its efforts to protect its people and interests. Only then can we hope to see a peaceful resolution to this ongoing conflict.
