A drone has struck a tent of sleeping troops in Jordan, killing US troops in the Middle East for the first time since the war in Gaza began. The US has blamed Iran-backed militant groups, but is yet to identify who specifically they believe is responsible.
Three American troops have been killed and 34 injured in a drone attack in Jordan.
Those killed in the attack were sleeping in a tent at a place called Tower 22 in northeast Jordan, near the Syria border.
US President Joe Biden said the attack was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups” in Syria and Iraq.
What were they doing in Jordan?
The US and Jordan have been allies for decades, and the US has military bases in allies around the world.
This particular base is located near Syria, so it might be because of the Syrian civil war.
Also, fun fact - the king of Jordan appeared as an extra on American TV. Specifically, on Star Trek Voyager.
We have people stationed pretty much globally for intelligence after that whole plane situation in New York.
But they already had the intelligence necessary to prevent that attack, it’s just that bush ignored it.
Yes.
That and the whole WMD thing shortly thereafter led to some sweeping changes to how the US handles intelligence.
Oh shit. Hate to be working for a drone factory.
If, on the other hand, we were to immediately launch an all-out and coordinated attack on all their air fields and missile bases, we’d stand a damn good chance of catching them with their pants down. Hell, we’ve got a five-to-one missile superiority as it is. We could easily assign three missiles to every target and still have a very effective reserve force for any other contingencies.
Now, six, an unofficial study which we undertook of this eventuality indicated that we would destroy ninety percent of their nuclear capabilities. We would, therefore, prevail and suffer only modest and acceptable civilian casualties from their remaining force, which would be badly damaged and uncoordinated."
- General Buck Turgidson
General Buck Turgidson
General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.
Considering you can build a drone out of some electronics and a couple sticks, anywhere can be a drone factory!
better hit every hospital just to be sure /s
Ah the Israel playbook.
Also the Hamas.playbook, right?
Sure but primarily the Israel playbook first and foremost.
They make a good team though, one makes a civilian installation a military target by conducting military operations from it, the other blows up said military target. That is unless the jihadist rockets misfire and kill everyone on the hospital parking lot, then it becomes a solo mission
one is a nation another is a terrorist group, are they supposed to look the same?
They learned that from us, definitely, but forgot the lesson we learned on optics.
Can’t just call everything an enemy base without like at least a hazy picture of a dude with two sticks and a circuit board in the building first.
Walking into ww3 for fucking Israel? No thanks, fuck them.
Iran has jumped the shark with their level of fucking around.
It’s hard to make much analysis without knowing the exact culprit, but I think it’s certain to say they made a very bad choice.
While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.
That seems like a reasonable guess, but they shouldn’t be presenting it as knowledge if they haven’t yet identified the attackers.
Biden seems to be making a habit of making statements that contradict US intelligence and then having to backpedal so we’ll see.
This being the most high profile example of Biden doing this: https://theintercept.com/2023/10/31/gaza-death-palestine-health-ministry/
good vs bad narrative works exceedingly well. they ain’t saying they know it’s Iran. They saying Iran it’s the bad guy. and in USA this is much more than sufficient.
Poking the bear won’t turn out well for Iran.
Ask Saddam Hussein.
Ask Muammar Gaddafi.Because those wars went so well. Iran has a population of almost 90 million compared to Iraq’s 2003 population of 27 million or so and Libya’s was like 6 million before that war. And those only created more instability. There’s not usually a winner in a war in the modern era.
I’m an American and, emotionally, I obviously get the desire to retaliate for the attacks but a real war with Iran would be catastrophic. It would probably weaken America in the long run. As bad as these tit-for-tat strikes are, we’re better off supporting Iranian protesters than taking aggressive military action.
The Saudi and UAE oil fields would be set alight overnight.
People don’t seem to realise that the various Iran supported militias throughout the Middle East have been holding back.
It has been low level skirmishes on the Lebanon border with Israel, the Houthi blockade of Israeli shipping and drone attacks throughout the middle east with US retaliation strikes.
This would escalate very quickly and the damage to the world economy, America and its allies would be immense.
Not saying Iran and their allies wouldn’t feel any pain but it’s a lose / lose for everyone.
Yep between the mountainous terrain and Iran’s advanced missile program it’d be a disaster. If a president got involved in a war like that, the opposition party might end up with 70 senate seats instead of the 60 the dems got after the Iraq war fell apart.
ETA: the other problem is that Iran has a much, much stronger central government than Iraq or Libya did in terms of control over the population.
It was only a few months ago that that population was risking their lives in the streets to protest the ruling regime.
Could do a few strikes on the leadership and leave the rest in the hands of the people.
Problem with this is external threats can solidify the regime’s hold.
Does anyone else want to get all the American troops out of the Middle East?
The host nations for these military installations sure as hell don’t.
Their people do. Their governments are receiving billions from the US so they don’t.
You can almost set your clock to the protests outside of US military bases in South Korea.
Like there are US personnel whose entire mission is to die as a speed bump during a North Korean invasion and yet many South Koreans want them out.
People are dumb.
Jordon is as much as an ally the US has in the Middle East.
I’d settle for American money and arms out of Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Iran has been doing this a while on the theory they can keep the escalation controlled. Up until now though they’ve gotten lucky with not killing any US soldiers. From a domestic political situation the Biden administration will probably need to retaliate. Hopefully this won’t get too much further out of hand.
