Iran’s Response Doesn’t Mean Trump Dodged All-Out War
The president’s efforts to scare Iran into submission could have the opposite effect.
In an open session of parliament on Jan. 7, Iranian lawmakers chant slogans while some hold posters of General Qassem Soleimani, who was killed days earlier in a U.S. drone attack in Iraq.
Photographer: Vahid Salemi/AP Photo
The drone killing on Jan. 3 of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the bloody-handed leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force, was an expression of President Trump’s lifelong philosophy: “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard,” as he said in a 2011 speech. The question is whether what works against other real estate developers will work as well against Iran.
Iran’s immediate response to the killing of Soleimani—a Jan. 7 missile attack on joint U.S.-Iraqi military bases that caused no deaths or injuries—seemed symbolic. But that doesn’t mean it won’t strike again, and in the long run, the president’s gambit could provoke escalation and damage America’s standing in the region.