"The US needs to be proactive in order to break its escalatory cycle with Iran" by Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff

Selected Works of C. Anthony Pfaff

Article

The US needs to be proactive in order to break its escalatory cycle with Iran

Atlantic Council: MENASource (2023)

Dr. C. Anthony Pfaff, US Army War College

Link

Abstract

Here we go again. On March 23, Iran-backed Iraqi militias launched a drone attack that killed an American contractor and wounded another, as well as twenty-four US military personnel. The attack feels very much like a repeat of the one in December 2019, which also killed a US contractor and led to an escalatory cycle, where a US strike killed Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Commander, Qasem Soleimani, and Kataib Hezbollah leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The cycle ended when Iran fired missiles at US forces on the Iraqi base at Ain al-Asad. The missiles overshot the base, causing no casualties, thereby mitigating the need for a US response.

Keywords

Iran,
Iraq,
IRGC

Disciplines

Defense and Security Studies

Publication Date

May 24, 2023

Citation Information

C. Anthony Pfaff. "The US needs to be proactive in order to break its escalatory cycle with Iran" Atlantic Council: MENASource (2023)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/c-pfaff/56/