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Vox
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Vox
Why the US just can't quit Middle East wars
is a senior correspondent at Vox covering foreign policy and world news with a focus on the future of international conflict. He is the author of the 2018 book, Invisible Countries: Journeys to the Edge of Nationhood , an exploration of border conflicts, unrecognized countries, and changes to the world map. A view of the famous anti-US mural in central Tehran, Iran, that depicts the US flag with bombs and skulls on April 10. Hossein Beris/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images In April 1980, President Jimmy Carter authorized Operation Eagle Claw, an ill-fated military operation to rescue the American hostages held at the US embassy in Iran. Since then, every US president has ordered at least one — usually more than one — military intervention in the Middle East and North Africa. Under Ronald Reagan, there was the bombing of Libya and the deployment of Marines to Lebanon. Under George H.W. Bush, there was Operation Desert Storm. Under Bill Clinton, airstrikes against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq and against al-Qaeda in Sudan. Under George W. Bush, the invasion of Iraq. Under Barack Obama, a multicountry counterterrorist drone campaign, the toppling of Muammar al-Qaddafi's regime in Libya, and the redeployment of US troops to Iraq to fight ISIS. Under Donald Trump's first term, an expanded campaign against ISIS, missile strikes against the Syrian regime, and the targeted assassination of Iran's most powerful military leaders. Under Joe Biden, the deployment of US troops to the region following the October 7, 2023, attack and the airstrikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels. Now, in his second term, Trump has crossed another Rubicon, becoming the first US president to use military force on the soil of America's longtime adversary, Iran. Though a ceasefire has now been declared, it's very possible this crisis is only beginning, particularly if, as US intelligence agencies reportedly believe, much of Iran's nuclear program is still intact after the strikes. Trump's pivot toward the Middle East is a surprising turn from this president. This is a very different message from the one he delivered in Saudi Arabia just last month when he decried 'neocons' and 'interventionists' for ill-considered attempts to remake the region through force. Trump has said in the past, in reference to the Iraq war, that 'GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY,' and he has generally appeared to view the region — apart from wealthy Gulf States — as a hopeless war zone with little to offer the US. While he was often stymied in his attempts to withdraw troops in his first term by hawkish advisers, this time many of his senior appointees have been so-called 'restrainers,' who advocate pulling back from US military commitments overseas or 'prioritizers,' who want to shift attention to what they see as the more important challenge posed by China. Until very recently, they appeared to have the upper hand. But in the current crisis, the US actually relocated important military assets from the Pacific to the Middle East to the consternation of some Pentagon officials. The stated desire to end 'endless wars' in the Middle East and shift to bigger priorities is something the Trump administration has in common with the other two post-Iraq war presidencies. Barack Obama was elected in large part because of his opposition to the war in Iraq. In 2011, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, promised a 'pivot' to Asia and the Pacific for US foreign policy priorities. The Arab Spring and the rise of ISIS got in the way of that, and the phrase 'pivot to Asia' became a running joke in US foreign policy circles. Joe Biden withdrew US troops from Afghanistan — not a Middle Eastern country but very much the archetypal 'endless war' of the post-9/11 era — and put forward a foreign policy vision emphasizing great power competition with China. His national security adviser infamously described the Middle East as 'quieter than it has been in decades' just days before the October 7 attacks shattered that quiet and shifted his boss's priorities. 'Right now, President Trump is having what I call his 'Michael Corleone' moment, and at some point, every president has one,' said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, referring to Al Pacino's famous line in The Godfather III, 'Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.' But why does this dynamic keep repeating? Why, 45 years after Operation Eagle Claw and 22 after the invasion of Iraq, can't the US military 'get out' of this region? The Middle East is still important…and still has a lot of problems One big reason why the US keeps getting drawn into the Middle East's crises is that those crises keep happening. 'The Middle East is an area of enduring national security interest of the United States, and it's far from stable,' said Emily Harding, a former CIA analyst now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 'And as a result, we're going to keep getting dragged in until it reaches something resembling stability.' Why is it an important interest? The simple answer is economics. The Middle East contains two of the global economy's most important chokepoints: the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of global oil flows, and the Red Sea, through which 12 percent of global trade flowed until shipping was disrupted by Houthi attacks. The 'no blood for oil' slogans of Iraq War protesters were an oversimplification, but it's undoubtedly true that keeping the region's oil and gas flowing to the world has been a US priority since Franklin Roosevelt met with the king of Saudi Arabia aboard a cruiser on the Suez Canal in 1945, kicking off the modern US-Saudi relationship. In the 1970s, the principle that the US would use military force to prevent any country from a hostile takeover of the Gulf region, and its vast energy supplies, was enshrined as the 'Carter Doctrine.' Today, thanks to domestic production, the US is much less directly dependent on Middle Eastern oil than it used to be, but disruptions in the region can cause global energy prices to spike. Beyond economics, events ranging from the 9/11 attacks to the Syrian refugee crisis have illustrated that the Middle East's regional politics don't always stay regional. America's unique relationship with Israel is another reason why the US is continually involved in regional crises. For decades, the US has supported Israel and attempted, with mixed success, to help mediate its relationships with its neighbors and with the Palestinian territories. But the US military actually actively participating in Israel's wars rather than just sending weapons — as happened to some extent under Biden and now much more explicitly under Trump — is a fairly new dynamic. America is still the region's preeminent outside power Ever since the 1960s, when Britain withdrew many of its 'East of Suez' troop deployments, America has been the preeminent military power in the region. That remains true despite growing concern in Washington about China or Russia's influence. When crises do erupt, the US, with more than 40,000 troops in bases throughout the region and close security and political partnerships with key powers in the region, is often the outside power best positionedto intervene. When the Houthis began attacking shipping traveling through the Red Sea, there was little question of what country would lead the operation to combat them, much to the irritation of America Firsters like Vice President JD Vance. Michael Wahid Hanna, director of the US program at Crisis Group, says another reason the US often feels compelled to intervene in Middle East crises is that it 'had a major role in fomenting' something. He pointed to what he called the 'two great sins of the post-Cold War era for the United States,' the failure to secure a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the 1990s, when the US enjoyed far more leverage than it does today, and the invasion of Iraq. Both continue to drive instability in the region today. As Secretary of State Colin Powell's famous 'Pottery Barn rule' warned in the run-up to the war in Iraq, 'if you break it, you own it.' What if we're the problem? Advocates of US engagement in the Middle East argue that if we pull back, it will create power vacuums that will be filled by malign actors. Obama felt compelled to redeploy US troops to Iraq just three years after withdrawing them when the country's military collapsed in the face of ISIS. But advocates of foreign policy restraint argue that the US isn't doomed to keep intervening, and that its presence isn't actually helping. Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, believes that US security partnerships can actually embolden governments in the Middle East to escalate crises, knowing that they can count on US support to deal with the consequences. The most recent illustration is Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to attack Iran, made under the correct assumption that he would have backup from the Trump administration. 'What we have is a delusion in which we think that we can continue to maintain close security partnerships with states in the Middle East, station hundreds of thousands of US service members around the region indefinitely, and that somehow the next bombing will restore deterrence, and we'll get to peace and stability,' he said. 'That hasn't worked for my whole lifetime. Taking the long view Whether you think America is uniquely positioned to provide stability or that it's the cause of the instability, voters should probably treat promises of pivots away from the Middle East with skepticism. Promising to bring American troops home is always going to be a political winner. And whether it's a rising China or America's own borders, one thing there's agreement on across the political spectrum is that America's core security interests are not in the Middle East. That's especially true as the country's post-9/11 focus on terrorism has faded. But, says Michael Rubin, senior fellow and Mideast specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, 'Most Americans understand history through the lens of four-year increments. We believe each administration starts with a tabula rasa.' Administrations are often optimistic that one military campaign (such as Israel's recent decimation of Iran's Axis of Resistance) or one grand bargain (such as the Biden administration's attempts to reach a Saudi-Israel normalization deal that would also revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process) will resolve the region's issues enough that America can move on to other things. The region's leaders, many of whom have been in power for decades, often take a longer view. More likely is that the regional crises, some of which we've played a role in creating, will be occupying America's attention for administrations to come.


Axios
22-06-2025
- Politics
- Axios
"It was a headfake": Inside Trump's secret orders to strike Iran
President Trump told the world last Thursday that he would decide " within the next two weeks" whether to strike Iran. 48 hours later, B-2 stealth bombers were whizzing through Iranian airspace — undetected — on a mission to cripple the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Why it matters: Trump remained open to aborting the mission if a diplomatic window emerged. But his public countdown doubled as a smokescreen — concealing a strike plan that was already in motion, according to multiple officials. "It was a headfake," a Trump adviser told Axios. "He knew the media couldn't resist amplifying it. He knew the Iranians might think he was bluffing. Well, everyone was wrong." "The president wanted to buy time," another adviser said. "He knew what he wanted to do. And he knows he can't look eager for war. So all the folks in MAGA urging restraint gave him some space." Driving the news: The bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities on Saturday marked the most direct and consequential U.S. military action against Iran since the Islamic Republic was founded in 1979. Trump, who praised the operation as a "spectacular military success," came to the decision to join Israel's war after months of failed diplomacy — and one last secret effort to meet with Iranian officials last week. Once Trump decided Thursday that a military intervention was necessary, he tightly controlled the administration's messaging and narrowed the circle of people involved in the planning. Between the lines: As with many moments of geopolitical drama during Trump's two terms, his aides have gone to great lengths to emphasize an image of total command and decisive leadership. "This wasn't a Pentagon operation. This was a Donald Trump operation," a senior administration official told Axios. "He came up with the PR. He chose the plans. He chose the day." "He's no Jimmy Carter," the official said, referencing the last time the U.S. tried direct military action in Iran: Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, a humiliating and failed hostage rescue mission. The complexity of Saturday's Operation Midnight Hammer — which amounted to the largest B-2 strike in U.S. history — required meticulous planning from the Pentagon that likely stretched back years. Behind the scenes: In the first days after Israel launched its unprecedented attack on Iran, Trump hoped a swift nuclear deal could end the war before it escalated further. From the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada last weekend, he began coordinating with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to arrange a high-level meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Istanbul. Trump was prepared to send Vice President J.D. Vance and White House envoy Steve Witkoff — or even travel himself to meet Iran's president, if that's what it would take to reach a deal. Vance and Witkoff had even started packing their bags, but it became clear on Monday afternoon that the meeting was not going to happen, senior U.S. official said. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was in hiding over fears of assassination, couldn't be reached to authorize the talks — and constant Israeli airstrikes made it too dangerous for Iranian officials to leave the country. "The president was ready to go forward with a strike if no diplomatic breakthrough took place. And as the week progressed, he realized that this was the case," a U.S. official told Axios. Zoom in: While still at the G7 summit, Trump gave the Pentagon the order to begin final planning work for a U.S. strike on Iran. On Tuesday, after cutting short his trip to Canada, he convened a Situation Room meeting with his top national security team. Trump pressed for details on the military plans, the reliability of the 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, and the potential risks of the operation. "The military and the Pentagon told the president they were sure it was going to work," a U.S. official said. On Friday afternoon, a day after suggesting the attack could be delayed, Trump gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the green-light to launch the B-2 bombers. Several hours later, the stealth bombers departed their base in Missouri. Some flew west as decoys. The real strike group headed east toward Iran, according to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine. On Saturday afternoon, while still at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump was told the bombers were about to reach the point of no return — the moment they would go into full radio silence. The president gave the final go-ahead. Shortly after, Trump boarded Air Force One and flew back to Washington to be in the Situation Room as the first bombs hit their targets. Sitting in the Situation Room, the president saw that the media was still reporting he was undecided, a U.S. official said. That's when Trump grew confident the operation would be successful. "In the end, it was everything. The timing was right. The Ayatollah gave Trump and the U.S. the middle finger. And that came with a price," said a Trump confidant who spoke with the president in recent days. The intrigue: An extraordinarily small group of officials inside the Trump administration knew about the planned strike. "There were no leaks from the Pentagon or from the White House," a U.S. official said. Trump himself helped maintain the secrecy, using public statements to keep Washington, Tehran and the rest of the world guessing about his true intentions. On Thursday, he told reporters he would decide "within the next two weeks" whether to join the war — signaling that a strike wasn't necessarily imminent. A U.S. official said the president was willing to abort the mission at any minute if he saw a diplomatic opening, but "his instinct at that point was to move forward with a strike." An Israeli official told Axios that by the time Trump made the "two weeks" comment, he had already decided to authorize military action — and knew exactly when it would happen. On Friday night, as the bombers were already in the air, Trump appeared upbeat and relaxed at his golf club in New Jersey. "POTUS was having the time of his life. None of us had any idea that a bunch of bombers were already in the air ready to rain down hell," said one person who spoke with him that evening. What to watch: As the strike was underway, White House envoy Steve Witkoff sent a message to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to make clear that the operation was a one-off and limited strictly to Iran's nuclear program, a U.S. official told Axios. Witkoff, who has remained in direct contact with Araghchi throughout the crisis, emphasized that the U.S. still seeks a diplomatic resolution — and now wants Iran to return to the table following the destruction of its key enrichment sites, the official said. Several senior Trump officials, including Vance and Hegseth, stressed Sunday that the U.S. does not seek regime change in Iran and called on the Iranians to return to the negotiating table. The big picture: Multiple factors ultimately triggered Trump's decision to green-light the strike and go where no president has gone before, advisers told Axios. The CIA, working closely with Israeli intelligence, delivered fresh assessments on Iran's nuclear progress, though skepticism remains about whether Iran had made the formal decision to build a bomb. A damning International Atomic Energy Agency report underscored the urgency. And Israel's success in degrading Iranian air defenses created a window to act. The bottom line: Trump still wants a deal with Iran — and wanted one before the bombers took off, an adviser to the president told Axios.


Daily Mail
17-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
How America is amassing its might against Iran as aircraft carrier 'strike groups' and fighter squadrons zero in on the region
The might of the world's foremost military superpower was bearing down on Iran last night – an armada of American ships and aircraft that could reduce the country to rubble. If one aircraft carrier 'Strike Group' loitering in the Mediterranean Sea was not sufficiently intimidating, these warships, carrying nine squadrons of combat aircraft, will soon be joined by more. Last night a second 'Strike Group', led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, was steaming towards the region, effectively doubling the US Navy's lethality. The 50-year-old Nimitz is due to be decommissioned next year. Its involvement in any operations against Iran would 'right the wrongs of history', according to US defence sources, because the carrier was involved in Operation Eagle Claw, an aborted mission to rescue US hostages held in Iran in 1980. In addition to these two Strike Groups, the US Navy has directed destroyer USS Thomas Hudner to sail east across the Mediterranean. A second destroyer has also been made ready while two more loitering in the Red Sea could also be called upon. There are also further US Navy assets in Bahrain. The most likely contribution by the US in the days ahead could be provided by its long-range bomber aircraft equipped with bunker-busting bombs. Iranian nuclear facilities are buried hundreds of feet underground but US B-2 bombers can carry GBU-57 'Massive Ordnance Penetrators' – 20ft-long missiles, weighing 30,000lb, which can strike targets up to 200ft underground. Their 5,000lb explosive payloads detonate once they have tunnelled into the ground. White House officials said last night that strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities 'were on the table'. The B-2s are based 3,500 miles away at the joint US/UK military base at Diego Garcia in the Pacific Ocean, the Chagos Island Keir Starmer recently surrendered to the China-friendly Mauritius. At Prestwick Airport in Scotland –which is used by the US to refuel its aircraft for long-distance journeys to places such as the Middle East – aircraft, including the US Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III carrier, which transports troops and tanks, were seen. There are also 46,000 US military personnel stationed in the Gulf and Middle East at eight permanent bases in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The largest US air base in the region is Al Udeid in Qatar – a 60-acre site with almost 100 manned aircraft and a fleet of drones. The largest US Navy facility is in Bahrain, home to its Fifth Fleet. It provides security for commercial shipping under threat of aerial attacks from Houthi rebels based in Yemen.


Fox News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
USS Nimitz carrier strike group sailing toward Middle East ahead of schedule, US official says
The USS Nimitz carrier strike group is on its way to the Middle East from the South China Sea, a U.S. official told Fox News. The Nimitz strike group was previously scheduled to replace the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group, which has been deployed for several months, but is now heading to the Middle East ahead of schedule. The two will now be in the Middle East at the same time. USS Carl Vinson was the only aircraft carrier in the region as of last Friday, U.S. defense officials told Fox News. USS Nimitz – commissioned on May 3, 1975 – is the oldest active aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy. This is possibly its final sea voyage, as the Nimitz is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2026. The deployment is significant because the Nimitz was also deployed in 1980 when its helicopters were part of the failed U.S. effort known as Operation Eagle Claw to rescue the American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran. The U.S. has been in a shadow war against Iran ever since. USS Nimitz departed the South China Sea on Monday morning and was heading west, Reuters reported, citing data from the ship tracking website Marine Traffic. Two sources, including one diplomat, told Reuters the carrier had been scheduled to attend a formal reception in Danang City, central Vietnam, on June 20. It has since been canceled. One of the sources said the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi notified him about the reception being called off due to "an emergent operational requirement." The United States is shifting military resources, including ships, in the Middle East amid Israel's preemptive attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities and leadership and Iran's retaliatory strikes that have been ongoing for four consecutive days. American air defense systems and a Navy destroyer helped Israel shoot down ballistic missiles coming in from Iran on Friday, U.S. officials told Fox News. The U.S. has both ground-based Patriot missile defense systems and Terminal High Altitude Air Defense systems in the Middle East capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. The U.S. Navy also had the destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, which is capable of defending against ballistic missiles, begin sailing from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean, U.S. officials told Fox News. They said the Navy also had directed another destroyer to move forward so it could be available if requested by the White House. One of the officials cited the Nimitz, which was in the Indo-Pacific at the time, as well as USS George Washington, which had just left its port in Japan, as assets the Navy could possibly surge to the Middle East if so ordered. American fighter jets were also patrolling the sky in the Middle East to protect personnel and installations, and air bases in the region are taking additional security precautions, the officials said. Typically, around 30,000 troops are based in the Middle East, and about 40,000 troops are in the region now, one of the U.S. officials told The Associated Press. That number surged as high as 43,000 last October amid the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran as well as continuous attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen. Former President Joe Biden initially surged ships to protect Israel, a close U.S. ally, following the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks by Iran-backed Hamas terrorists. It was seen at the time as a deterrent against Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Iran. On Oct. 1, 2024, U.S. Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors in defense of Israel as the country came under attack by more than 200 missiles fired by Iran.


Time of India
02-06-2025
- Time of India
MD drugs valued at Rs 70L seized, major trafficker arrested
Indore: In a significant crackdown on illegal drug trafficking, Indore police on Monday revealed they arrested a major drug trafficker and seized 76 grams of MD (Mephedrone) drugs with an estimated market value of Rs 70 lakh under 'Operation Eagle Claw'. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The accused, identified as Tahir alias Sandy Bala Shah (28), a resident of Aman Nagar in Musakhedi, has a history of MD drug-related offences registered against him at various police stations. Senior police officials said that while patrolling near Ralamandal Road in Tejaji Nagar area, the police team spotted a man walking, who appeared restless upon seeing the police and attempted to flee. With the help of the accompanying force, the suspect was caught. During questioning, he identified himself as Tahir alias Sandy Bala Shah. A subsequent search revealed the 76 grams of MD drugs in his possession. The accused was arrested under Section 8/22 of the NDPS Act, and a case was registered against him at Tejaji Nagar police station. Further interrogation is underway regarding the purchase, sale and transportation of the illegal MD drugs. BOX: Man arrested for trafficking of brown sugar Indore: The Indore Crime Branch team on Monday said that acting on confidential intelligence, they arrested a person involved in the sale and distribution of brown sugar. The Crime Branch team, while checking for suspicious persons near the railway tracks under the MR10 bridge, noticed a person acting suspiciously. Upon seeing the police, the man tried to flee but he was promptly stopped. The accused identified himself as Vishal Pasaya, 30, a resident of North Musakhedi. During preliminary questioning, Pasaya confessed to being a drug addict, who purchased illegal drugs at cheap prices to satisfy his drug needs and then sold them at higher prices to other addicts. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Police seized 20 grams of illegal brown sugar and one mobile phone from his possession. A case was registered against him under Section 8/21 of the NDPS Act at the Crime Branch Police Station and further legal action is being pursued based on the ongoing investigation.