Crescent International
America’s deployment of additional troops to the Red Sea to counter growing Iranian influence is a tactical and geopolitical gamble.
It will overextend the empire in decline, and increase uncertainty in an already volatile global environment.
It seems the US wants to implement what is generally known as the salami tactic.
Texas National Security Review describes the salami tactic as follows: “repeated use of limited faits accomplis to gain influence within some competitive arena at an adversary’s expense without provoking major retaliation. Instead of pursuing a single decisive victory, the object is to advance slice by slice, securing cumulative gains at minimal cost. The concept resides at the tactical level (as a method for pursuing expansionist strategic objectives), and its potential amplifies the significance of otherwise minor actions.”
At the strategic level, Washington assumes that its salami tactics will keep Islamic Iran under constant pressure.
At the same time, it uses the threat of potential escalation in the region as a scaremongering tactic against its currently disobedient vassals in occupied Arabian Peninsula.
If by moving additional troops near Iran’s borders Washington assumes that it will discourage Tehran from actively protecting its interests in the Persian Gulf, US policy makers must be suffering from very short memory.
It should be remembered that in 2016 Iran detained US marines who dared to venture into Iranian territorial waters.
The history of the past 43 years shows that Iran does not view confrontation with the US as a redline.
Regarding the recnt US escalation, the Qatari media outlet Al Jazeera reported that Iran has deployed additional state of the art military hardware.
It will be utilized, if needed, to “greet” the American intruders.
Thus, at the tactical level, recent American warmongering is unlikely to achieve any concrete results.
Over several decades, Islamic Iran has shown that it is a superb performer of hybrid military operations.
This reality has been confirmed by American military officials as well.
In 2002, the US conducted an expensive wargame called the ‘Millennium Challenge’ designed to simulate what war with Iran would be like: the US lost badly.
The question is: what do the Americans want to achieve in the grand scheme of things?
With the recent Beijing-facilitated rapprochement between Islamic Iran and Saudi Arabia, Washington’s security architecture built over decades has become exposed.
It is no longer relevant.
This became quite clear when the UAE withdrew from the US-led Coalition Maritime Forces.
By attempting to reignite troubles in the Persian Gulf, the US wants to send a message to its vassal regimes in the GCC.
Even if they believe that regional troubles can be avoided via diplomacy with Iran, Washington can always come up with new ways to create hostilities.
While this is true and can appear to serve US interests in the immediate term, in the long run it will push American vassal regimes in the GCC bloc even further away from Washington.
If military might was the key to Washington’s efforts to defeat Islamic Iran, the US would not have suffered geopolitical defeats in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.
In all these theatres, Tehran was pivotal in providing hard and soft power support to anti-imperialist forces.
American deployment of troops to the Red Sea is a political and military bluff.
What policymakers in the US fail to realize is that Islamic Iran does not shy away from calling America’s bluff.
Tehran’s policies in South America, West Asia and even Africa demonstrate this quite clearly.
While the empire-in-decline assumes that by throwing fuel on the regional fire it can arrest its eroding credibility, the reverse is likely to happen.
China’s huge reliance on energy products originating from the Persian Gulf region is likely to irritate Beijing significantly.
It is will see the latest US ploy to create hostilities as a move against its economy.
China will, therefore, increase its regional involvement and render American schemes irrelevant using political and economic means.
This will be similar to what it has done by mediating the Iran-Saudi rapprochement.
While American cowboys are playing checkers in the strategic region, they will soon find out that their global adversaries are playing chess.
US provocations in the Persian Gulf by amassing warships, planes and missiles could easily trigger a war with Islamic Iran
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