Economic and social activity may be slowly grinding to a halt in the United States, but geopolitics waits for no public health crisis. Despite the global outbreak of Coronavirus, the simmering conflict between Iran and the United States has not cooled.
Following the strike that took Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qasem Soleimani off the battlefield in January, the tempo of audacious attacks on U.S. assets and allies from Iran and its proxies quieted down. Despite Iran’s retaliatory (and face-saving) ballistic-missile attack on American positions in Iraq, it soon became apparent that Iran had stepped back from the brink of direct hostilities with the United States. But the status quo ante, while less dangerous than all-out war, was by no means peaceful. In the months that followed the Soleimani strike, Iran-backed militias in Iraq continued to launch sporadic missile attacks on U.S. positions. This week, one of those attacks killed two Americans and a British service member. The White House advertised its intention to respond, and, on Thursday, it did just that.
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