We have just learned that hours before the attacks on our troops at military bases in Iraq, we were warned about the incoming attacks and we either flew our troops out or they were moved to bunkers where they would be safe.
The question is how did we know?
It’s altogether possible, if not likely that the Iranians either told us or told someone who they knew would tell us.
The reason I believe this is possible is that we know for a fact that at the end of the second night, the Iranians made sure we knew that they had stopped their attacks and there would be no more.
It appears that the Iranians fired the missiles to save face but they were careful not to inflict any casualties on our troops that would spur retaliation on our part.
CNN reported Sunday:
“The attack lasted around two hours, only targeting the US areas of the air base, which comprise around a quarter of the Iraqi base. Officers called it a ‘miracle’ that there were no casualties at the blasted site, with missiles landing just a few meters from bunkers, and some essential personnel remaining outside throughout.”
Neither the Americans nor the Iraqis suffered casualties in the attack, though Iran trumpeted the strike as “revenge” for the United States’ decision to kill the head of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, in a drone strike just days before. Soleimani had been, until that fateful Friday evening, Iran’s chief architect of dysfunction in the Middle East, working with allied forces in the region to destabilize areas under American control.
According to the Trump Administration, Soleimani was responsbile for at least 600 American deaths. President Donald Trump justified the drone strike that killed Soleimani by noting that the Iranian general was involved in plans to launch “imminent and sinister attacks” against American targets in Iraq, including, potentially, American embassies. Just days before his death, Soleimani reportedly orchestrated a “protest” at the American embassy in Baghdad, which left the embassy in ruins.
As it turnsm out, the Iranians warned the Iraqis and the Iraqis warned us.