…get your gun, get your gun. Take it on the run, on the run, on the run. Hear them calling you and me, Every Son of Liberty. Hurry right away, no delay, go today.
The attack on a border-crossing station in eastern Syria, the first lethal operation ordered by the Biden administration against Iran’s network of armed proxies, was “authorized in response to recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats,” according to the Pentagon.
A rocket attack earlier this month on the airport in Erbil [northern Iraq] killed a Filipino contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounded six others, including a Louisiana National Guard soldier and four American contractors.
US officials, this morning, believe our surprise attack – yesterday, local time – killed a number of alleged Iranian-linked fighters, signaling our intent to use targeted military action to push back against violence tied to Tehran.
Purportedly, the strikes were a relatively small, carefully calibrated military response: seven 500-pound bombs dropped on a small cluster of buildings at an unofficial crossing at the Syria-Iraq border used to smuggle across weapons and fighters.
The attack comes as Biden attempts to open a diplomatic door to Iran.
In a part of the globe where NOTHING is as it seems, I’m constantly reminded of the Fable of the Scorpion and the Frog: “A scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, both would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog then agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature.”
h/t: early 20th century song by artist Billy Murray.
Lobster on the Prairie 