Iran Daily – Last Saturday’s missile strikes by the US and its allies in Syria were a conspicuous violation of international laws and an invasion of a country’s territory.


Prior to this, similar attacks had been launched on the West Asian nation as well as Iraq and Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism and tyranny and had only gifted the people of these countries with war, death and vagrancy.

The crimes perpetrated during World War II and the US arrival as a savior to save the world from the morass created by Adolf Hitler was a turning point in the US government’s so-called mission to rescue the world.

Concurrent with the formation of international organizations, the US assumed the role of the godfather of these councils and entities and became a power on the back of the economic growth it had achieved, thanks to not being involved in this worldwide battle, aspiring to name itself the guardian of the world and gain dominance over it.

Fighting warmongering was the most important mission US officials used as an excuse to wage many bloody wars over the past century. They caused bloodshed in a large number of countries and dislocated many people on the pretext of fighting despotism and terrorism. One day, they cited combating the spread of communism as their reason to wage war against Vietnam, whereas, in 2003, they claimed to be preventing Baghdad from proliferation of nuclear weapons to justify their invasion of Iraq and creation of a catastrophe.

On September 11, 2001, the world witnessed one of the most peculiar terrorist attacks. A total of 19 individuals affiliated to Al-Qaeda Takfiri terror group hijacked four passenger planes and crashed two of them into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The third plane, American Airlines Flight 77, was crashed into the Pentagon (the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense) in Arlington County, Virginia, leading to a partial collapse of the building’s western side, and the fourth one, United Airlines Flight 93, was initially steered toward Washington, D.C., but crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Some 3,000 people were killed during these terror operations. Close to 17 years have elapsed since these attacks, and yet the reason and method of performance remain among the puzzles of the US and its allies. Nevertheless, the then US president George W. Bush was waiting for and, in fact, needed such a disaster to lead a military expedition against a country in the Middle East and start its warmongering in the region.

On October 7, 2001, the US military forces launched air and land strikes against Afghanistan under the pretext of liberating the country from Al-Qaeda as part of the so-called ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ to start one of the most devastating wars in West Asia.

A few months later, Al-Qaeda was defeated and the war should have come to an end. However, the White House’s avarice for its continued presence in the Afghan territory has significantly prolonged the war which has led to the dislocation of millions of people and massacre of thousands.

Domestic and international reports indicate that the US presence in Afghanistan has led to nothing but the destruction of Afghan infrastructure and the country’s sluggish economy.

Bush’s warmongering machine was still operating when, this time on the pretext of preventing Baghdad from proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, he attacked Iraq on March 20, 2003.

Although Iraq’s former dictator Saddam Hussein, who was Washington’s former partner and then enemy, gave the US the excuse for an attack by invading Kuwait in 1991, the destruction of the Ba’ath Party’s nuclear weapons was the main pretext for the start of this war.

This war ended in 2009 and Iraq is still occupied by Western powers. Years after this invasion, many US officials acknowledged that they had failed to find any nuclear weapons in Iraq.

The US failed to ensure security and stability in Iraq

Despite warnings by analysts of international issues against the dangers of the religious and sectarian strife in Iraq caused by policies adopted by a number of regional and trans-regional players, the implementation of tension-creating ethnic and religious policies in the country led to the emergence of Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Although crimes committed by the terrorist group were the main reason for the US to prolong its military presence in Iraq, Iran and Iraqi pro-government forces were the only ones to really fight Daesh.

Some 15 years have elapsed since the statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Iraq in April 2003, and international reports indicate that the US deployment and withdrawal of its forces from Iraq has only led to the carnage of between 150,000 and 500,000 people and dislocation of close to three million.

Syria is the third nation for which the US decided to play the role of a godfather to end the country’s internal conflicts. Since the beginning of the conflicts in Syria in 2011 until the end of Obama’s term in office, the US narrowed down its activities in Syria to issuing and passing resolutions and condemning the country’s President Bashar al-Assad. However, with Donald Trump coming to power, the White House has been adopting more aggressive policies on Syria and has recently targeted Damascus with missiles on the pretext of a suspected chemical attack on Douma in the Eastern Ghouta region.

Nonetheless, whispers of another military presence by the US in the Middle East are being heard more seriously than ever.

Syria is currently struggling against foreign-backed terrorist groups and has suffered a great deal due to this. The US direct involvement in this turmoil will only worsen the situation in the West Asian state, given Washington’s background in the region and attacking other nations, and will only further procrastinate the process of establishing a lasting peace in the country.