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Three acts of ideologically inspired violence in the last week have laid bare the heightened terrorism threat in the United States – is the country equipped to deal with it?

'Suez moment': US missteps in Iran echo across East Asia to the Gulf and Europe Sean Mathews on Fri, 03/13/2026 - 20:57 The US is taking from allies in the Gulf, Europe and Asia to wage an ill-defined war that has raised questions of 'competence,' experts say The Royal Thai Navy shows smoke rising from the Thai bulk carrier 'Mayuree Naree' near the Strait of Hormuz after an attack(Handout/Royal Thai Navy/AFP) Off US air defence systems and troops have been withdrawn from East Asia. Pleas for missile interceptors in the oil-rich Gulf have been "stonewalled". Even an air base in Romania has been roped into the US-Israeli war on Iran. What US President Donald Trump has characterised as a “little excursion” is fast becoming the biggest drain on the security architecture of the world’s foremost superpower since the end of the Cold War. The US is taking a lot from its partners across the globe to wage war on the Islamic Republic, even as lawmakers and world leaders question what the purpose of the conflict is. To make matters worse, the Trump administration has yet to provide answers to tactical questions about how it will break Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz or tame energy prices that have skyrocketed as a result. “The problem the US will need to recover from is the loss of credibility as it opened a Pandora’s box without thinking through what would happen next. Lack of competence is a terrible thing to display in public,” Peter Frankopan, a professor of global history at Oxford University, told Middle East Eye. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Now in its third week, the US-Israel war has shown that Iran can be pummelled from afar. The 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in the war’s opening salvo. The US boasted on Friday that it has hit a staggering 6,000 targets in Iran. But the takeover of government institutions by ordinary Iranians that Trump has called for has yet to materialise, and Khamenei's son, Mojtaba, has been named as the next supreme leader. The US was even rebuffed by Kurdish partners, whom it hoped would rise up in rebellion. There is no sign pointing to the Iranian government's collapse. 'Lack of competence is a terrible thing to display in public' - Peter Frankopan, Oxford University Instead, on Friday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and top security official Ali Larijani felt confident enough to stroll downtown Tehran among thousands of people even as Israeli air strikes targeted the area. Iran’s ability to torment Doha, Manama and Dubai with cheap Shahed drones continues as expensive American missile interceptors are exhausted. An Iranian strike rocked Tel Aviv on Friday. Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s energy passes, was aflame this week with at least six vessels attacked by Iran. All of these tactical strikes have been carried out by a country currently under relentless air strikes, and which has also been under crippling sanctions by the US for four decades. “I think we are witnessing a Suez Crisis moment for the US,” Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations and expert on the Middle East at the London School of Economics, told MEE. In 1956, Britain and France joined forces with Israel to attack Egypt after President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. The US, under President Dwight D Eisenhower, smacked Israel and the European’s into submission. Suez has gone down in history as a textbook case of late imperial overreach. A picture released on 8 November 1956 shows British troops digging trenches, near Port Said, Egypt, during the Suez crisis (STR/Files/Intercontinentale/AFP) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); But there are key differences between the war on Iran and the Suez crisis. Few predict that a battered Iran will emerge victorious from the war, offering an alternative security system to the US. According to Trump’s own admission, Russia is aiding Iranian attacks against the US. MEE was the first to reveal that China has sent air defence systems and offensive weapons to Tehran. An Arab official told MEE that further weapons supplies are continuing uninterrupted. But China and Russia are confined to spoilers in the region, experts say. “There is no superpower to replace the Americans, unlike how the French and British were sidelined,” Gerges said. One lesson to take from Suez, of course, is that even after they are embarrassed, imperial powers can endure for decades. Britain continued to meddle in Yemen and the Gulf for twenty years after Suez. The last British troops left the Trucial States - modern UAE - in 1971. Even today, the UK is helping the UAE shoot down Iranian drones and missiles.  Ships in Strait of Hormuz to be 'set ablaze', IRGC official says, as insurers cancel coverage Read More » The US’s climax in surpassing the old British Empire in the Middle East came after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, when US military bases sprang up in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. Energy-rich Gulf states assumed those bases would give them security. Now, MEE has reported, some are questioning the value of hosting the US. The Gulf states are facing pressure from Washington to join the war on Iran, and have become targets because of their ties to the US. The Gulf states were already on guard over the US’s failure to respond to a 2019 Iranian attack on Saudi oil installations and, more recently, Washington’s inability to rein in Israel, which bombed Doha last year. In response, they started to hedge their bets. Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence agreement with Pakistan and was exploring joint weapons production with Turkey. The UAE has hosted the Chinese military. “When the dust settles from this war, the diversification that was taking place will speed up,” Gerges said. Frankopan said it would take time for those attitudes to mature. “Across the Gulf, I am hearing lots of threats to turn to China and elsewhere for weapons systems, security and defence and even for investment more broadly. I think that reflects the heat and difficulties of the moment,” he said. “[But] the US is an enormous economy, with lots of highly innovative and exciting opportunities. That does not change overnight. But… in football terms, this looks like an own goal,” Gerges added. The crisis of confidence in US power is not just stirring in the Gulf. Missiles and troops out of East Asia The concept of reducing US entanglements in the Middle East to focus on rivalry with China has become so stale in Washington that it’s almost a platitude. But East Asian countries now have reason to be alarmed. The US has reportedly begun moving a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence (Thaad) missile-defence system from South Korea to the Middle East. South’s foreign minister, Cho Hyun, said on Friday that the US was also weighing the redeployment of some US Patriot missile defence systems. This carries deep symbolic weight in South Korea, a key US ally and economic partner, Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow and the Korea chair at the Brookings Institution’s Center for East Asia Policy Studies, told MEE. A decade ago, China and South Korea got into a nasty spat over the deployment of the Thaad system. South Korea endured a Chinese economic boycott that cost it billions of dollars to defend its placement. “The mission of US forces there is to deter and defend against a North Korean invasion,” Yeo said. “If US forces are just going to go in and out, then what does that mean for the US commitment to South Korea’s defence? Those questions are being raised,” he said. On Friday, reporting emerged that the Pentagon is sending the USS Tripoli, a Marine amphibious ready group, and 2,500 US Marines from Japan to the Middle East. 'There is no superpower to replace the Americans, unlike how the French and British were sidelined' - Fawaz Gerges, London School of Economics “By some thinking, anything that keeps US forces outside the Indo-Pacific region is good for China,” Yeo said. Experts say that you can add European countries to the list of US partners bearing the price for the US-Israeli war on Iran. A Patriot air defence system had to be moved from Germany to defend a Nato radar base in Malatya, Turkey. Romanian President Nicusor Dan said on Wednesday that his country will host US refuelling planes, surveillance and satellite communications ‌gear. Greece has also deployed a Patriot missile system on an Aegean island. The military reshuffle occurs against the backdrop of Russia’s war on Ukraine. The Trump administration has long been in a tussle with European allies about the cost of supporting Ukraine. One of the key wins European leaders were able to chalk up was tougher sanctions on Russian oil. Now, in response to rising energy prices, the Trump administration is walking those sanctions back. Europe pays the price “In some ways, it’s Suez in reverse because you have a transatlantic crisis of different shared stakes and policies. Then it was Europe pursuing an assertive policy, and the US not liking it. Now, it's the opposite,” Ian Lesser, the vice president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, told MEE. “Suez is a good example.” “Already most of Nato’s integrated air defence capacity is afloat in the Mediterranean,” added Lesser. European countries are deeply exposed to the closure of Hormuz. They pivoted to purchasing jet fuel and diesel from refineries in the Gulf after sanctioning Russia. Trump has shown little sympathy for their pain, bragging this week that the US - as a net energy exporter - benefited from the rising prices. “There is a fundamental question of what is the American stake in international stability: security and economic. It goes to the question of trust in the US,” Lesser said. “The very fact that there is a debate over whether ties with the US are an asset or liability is disturbing," he added.  For those looking for a sign that the US has already lost some prestige and power, one can look to the Strait of Hormuz. The power to guarantee the safe passage of sea lanes and the flow of trade is a hallmark of being a superpower. But with the US unable to open the strait, France and Italy are now reaching out to Iran to secure passage for tankers carrying energy, The Financial Times reported.  Reuters also reported that India has done the same. “It’s going to be a much more chaotic, multipolar world,” Gerges said. War on Iran News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

The Iran war's looming economic threat: Higher food prices  NBC News

The Pentagon's engagement with the media during the Iran war has been heavy on rhetoric, short on operational detail and characterized by an adversarial approach to mainstream outlets that seek to raise questions about the conflict. While journalists had access to detailed, often-daily briefings as well as embeds with troops during previous wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has taken a markedly different approach to communicating during the Iran conflict.

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Sameerah Munshi called the U.S. war in Iran ‘illegal’ and said it was undertaken without ‘clear constitutional or congressional authorization’

An Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed a dozen medical staff at a clinic, Lebanese health authorities said Saturday, after Iran-backed Hezbollah's leader said his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when the Tehran-backed militant group attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

The Economic Costs of the Iran War, by the Numbers  Foreign Policy

Iran war: If Hormuz stays closed, the world pays the price  DW.com

History as Fuel: Reza Aslan on the latest Iran War  Interfaith Alliance

More than 200 civilians killed in recent days as drone strikes tear through markets, schools and hospitals.

Condemning Unconstitutional and Careless Approach to War with Iran  Congressman Steve Cohen (.gov)

A senior administration official claims Vance ‘opposes’ the war and is ‘worried about success’

Up to 5,000 US marines and sailors dispatched to Middle East: Report Yasmine El-Sabawi on Fri, 03/13/2026 - 18:32 The move suggests the US is not seeking to wind down its war on Iran, despite boasting of success US President Donald Trump, left, and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth arrive in Dover, Delaware, to receive the remains of American soldiers killed in Kuwait, on 7 March 2026 (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters) Off A dispatch of up to 5,000 more American marines and sailors is headed to the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing unnamed US officials.  US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is said to have approved a request from US Central Command (Centcom), the Pentagon's Middle East hub, for an amphibious ready group and an attached Marine expeditionary unit, which includes three warships and some 2,500 US Marines.  The unit, per its dedicated website, contains F-35B Lightning II jets and also MV-22B Ospreys.  The USS Tripoli, based in Japan, is now headed to the Middle East. Such a journey typically takes two weeks.  The move suggests Washington is not seeking to wind down its war on Iran anytime soon, despite repeatedly boasting of operational successes that include killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and sinking 60 Iranian naval vessels.  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); More than 1,400 Iranians have been killed since 28 February.  "We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise," President Donald Trump wrote on this TruthSocial account on Friday.  The war has proven unpopular with the American public, well before the acknowledged US casualties reached double digits. At least 150 Americans have been wounded.  US casualties mount The US announced on Friday that all six of its soldiers aboard a KC-135 refuelling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq a day earlier were killed.  "The aircraft was lost while flying over friendly airspace March 12 during Operation Epic Fury," Centcom said on X.  Hegseth says Gulf states 'going on offensive' against Iran Read More » "The circumstances of the incident are under investigation. However, the loss of the aircraft was not due to hostile fire or friendly fire," Centcom asserted.  "The identities of the service members are being withheld until 24 hours after next of kin have been notified." The deaths bring the total number of US personnel killed since 28 February and the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran to 13. At a press briefing on Friday morning in Washington, Hegseth told reporters that "War is hell, war is chaos." When pressed by a reporter on exactly how many American casualties there have been so far, and also the locations where they were killed, Hegseth hesitated before turning to the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Dan Caine, to answer for him. "A bunch have returned to duty," Caine said. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); "We've had... in Kuwait, Jordan, down across the southern flank... a variety of places, most from one-way attack strikes," he added, not providing any actual figures. Hegseth jumped in to say that for the purposes of "clarity", the Pentagon is not indicating how many personnel are "KIA" (killed in action) or "WIA" (wounded in action), but that "90 percent" have returned to duty. The comments ultimately proved more confusing.  Trump had warned from his very first remarks on the war that Americans would be dying, and potentially in large numbers.  Iran has claimed hundreds of Americans dead from its targeting of US assets in the Gulf region, but has not provided any evidence.  War on Iran News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0

The Dumb Reason Trump Keeps Calling His Iran War a ‘Little Excursion’  Zeteo

Smoke and flames rising beside a road in central Israel after an Iranian missile attack, the Israeli army said.

Opinion: Amherst for Palestine Condemns the U.S.-Israeli War on Iran, Israel’s Wars on Lebanon and Palestine, and U.S. Militarism at Home and Abroad  Amherst Indy

Democrats urge Trump to fire Hegseth over civilian deaths in Iran strikes  Haaretz

Republicans used to condemn Islamophobia. Now, Eric Garcia writes, they tacitly accept it

Opponents of Iran's regime worry two weeks of bombing has backfired  ABC News