TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has vowed “harsh retaliation” for a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport overnight that killed Tehran’s top general as tensions soared in the wake of the targeted killing.
The killing of General Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, marks a major escalation in the standoff between Washington and Iran.
The reactions from Iran and around the region have been coming in fast and furious to this paradigm-shifting escalation and we’ve seen tweets from an obviously furious supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamanei and the president and other senior regime officials pledging what they call severe revenge.
The Ayatollahs may feel the need to demonstrate to the Iranian public that they can do the one thing that has justified their regime’s existence for a generation. Ever since the Iranian Revolution swept aside the Shah they can show that they are standing up to the United States and Israel.
But on the other hand, the reasons for Iran’s defensive posture are also the very same reasons why it probably won’t be able to sustain a muscular response to this provocation. But Iran’s military has soldiers and fervent passion it lacks in technology and other resources so that wouldn’t be such a problem if Iran had friends in the region. It’s alienated so many of its neighbors and that’s thanks in large part to Soleimani’s own aggressive policy.
There’s simply no telling how Iran will react or where they will point their guns.
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