We ended last semester in a time of relative inactivity on the world stage, but we return for the spring semester under the looming threat of a third World War.
At least that is what you might think if you get your news and political takes from Facebook and Instagram.
Social media, and even some mainstream news outlets, have been stoking the fears of war ever since President Donald Trump authorized the assassination of Major General Qasem Soleimani of Iran on Jan. 3.
Soleimani was a high-ranking official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and commander of the Quds Force, a branch of the IRGC responsible for military and intelligence operations beyond Iran’s borders.
Soleimani’s death comes in the wake of several attacks by militant groups, backed by Iran and purportedly at the behest of Soleimani himself.
The White House has cited two attacks as reason for targeting the Iranian leader. First, a rocket attack by the group Kataib Hezbollah killed an American civilian contractor on a military base near Kirkuk, Iraq on Dec. 27, 2019. Next, a mob purportedly organized by Iranian agents attacked the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad on Dec. 31. Soleimani was killed shortly afterward in Baghdad by a U.S. airstrike.
The death of Soleimani represented an extreme escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran, and the world (and social media) prepared for the worst as Iran was poised to retaliate.
As of the writing of this article, Iran’s response was somewhat muted: a ballistic missile attack against two bases in Iraq, in both cases no U.S. personnel were killed.
As it stands, the ball is in President Trump’s court either to pursue deescalation or to continue to ratchet up tensions with the Islamic Republic. His remarks on the evening of Jan. 8 seem to suggest a desire to return to the status quo ante by the U.S., but it remains to be seen what concrete action he might take.
We here at The Pacer don’t feel qualified to second-guess the President or his advisers in his decision to assassinate Soleimani. Nevertheless, college-aged men and women like us would have the most to lose in another Middle Eastern excursion by U.S. forces.
While the conflicts in western Asia are longstanding, we hold out hope for an eventual end to American involvement in nations from Syria to Afghanistan. Iran, despite being a hostile foreign power, does not at this time represent an existential threat to the U.S. or any of its regional allies.
We urge the readership of The Pacer to stay skeptical, stay informed and most of all refrain from premature judgement on matters of state and foreign policy.
