After Hamas launched the "Al-Aqsa flood" operation, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict escalated rapidly. At first, the United States tried to confine the conflict between Israel and Palestine to avoid the outbreak of a sixth Middle East war, and at the same time did not want the US military to get bogged down in the quagmire of war in the Middle East.
However, the situation has become increasingly tense with the resumption of fighting in Gaza and the army's full-scale military operation in Gaza. At the same time, Israel showed merciless blows to Iranian soldiers in the war. The army's military operations are not limited to Gaza, but also involve Syria and Lebanon. Last week, an Israeli attack on Syria killed two Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps soldiers. It is reported that Iran deployed an advisory mission at the request of the Syrian side.
It was the two Iranian military advisers who were killed by the army. This Israeli action may have been deliberate. Before the "Al-Aqsa flood", the Iraqi army did not carry out air strikes on Syria, and its target was precisely Iran. Israel is pointing at Iran for the first time after the Houthis targeted Israeli merchant ships at sea. In addition, several ** and ships were specially dispatched to monitor Iranian activities in the region.
The army's actions appear to have angered Iran, which not only publicly acknowledged the death of Revolutionary Guard members at the hands of Israel, but also vowed to fight back. According to Reuters 4**, Iran's *** spokesman Nasser Kanani said on the same day that there would be no response to the strike on Iran's Western adviser forces.
Of course, Israel has always been unscrupulous in front of Iran, even sending drones to Iranian soil to attack Iranian military factories, and Iran has not directly declared war on Israel, nor has it directly attacked Israel. This raises suspicions that, with Iran's restraint, Iran's countermeasures will incite pro-Iranian forces and intensify the blow to Israel. Recently, Yemen's Houthis have rarely attacked US troops and Israel, and have even begun to try to seize Israeli merchant ships.
But the army has humiliated Iran by beating its soldiers, so Iran is afraid of retaliating with new means or expanding aid to the counterforces. In particular, the more Iran evades the war, the more Israel contributes to the temperament of striking Iran, and it is worrying whether the "pull" between Israel and Iran can reach a tipping point that will allow Iran to retreat and be forced into the war, even if Iran does not want to fight a sixth Middle East war now.
At the same time, the US military operations in the Middle East are becoming more and more frequent, and even air strikes against Iraq have begun. In response to the death of five Iraqi pro-Iranian fighters in airstrikes that night, the U.S. military responded by acknowledging that it had struck Iraqi territory and claiming it was a self-defense strike by U.S. forces, AFP reported.
It is reported that the pro-Iranian forces are the "Islamic resistance groups" affiliated with the "popular mobilization" paramilitary forces. After the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, US troops in Iraq were frequently attacked, and it was this armed declaration that was responsible for these attacks. It is reported that since 17 October, the US military in the Middle East has suffered more than 70 attacks one after another.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded that Iraqi authorities protect US military personnel in Iraq. However, Blinlon's demands were not met, and Blinlon made demands on Iraq, and the US troops in the Iraqi reservoir areas and Syria were again attacked by the Iraqi "Islamic Resistance Group". The United States recognizes that protection cannot be expected from the Iraqi authorities, and that the US military can only do it on its own. This suggests that the situation is increasingly out of the control of the United States. In the face of repeated attacks by US forces in the Middle East, the United States has shown that it has made "concessions" and has not taken the line that must be reported, and its retaliatory measures can also be said to be restrained, and even more so, it has taken interception measures.
The United States does not want to see an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East. The United States tends to abandon support for Ukraine, concentrating on the Asia-Pacific region. However, the development of the situation in the Middle East has repeatedly disrupted the strategic plan of the United States, and the US military in the Middle East must deal with constant attacks. The United States did have a problem this time. If the United States maintains the current power and frequency of retaliation, the United States will not be able to prevent the Middle East armed forces from attacking the US military. This can only be feared that the United States threatens its military presence in the Middle East. If the United States increases its military investment in the Middle East and turns to pro-Iranian forces in the Middle East, the United States is worried about getting bogged down in a quagmire of war that will not be able to get rid of.
It should be said that a quick Israeli victory is in the best interest of the United States, but the problem is that with Israel's current style of play moving further and further away from a quick one, the Pentagon fears that Israel will face a strategic defeat. The United States itself has not come up with a credible plan for how to turn the tide.