Iran has waged a violent war of aggression against the United States since the Islamic Republic’s foundation in 1979, through a combination of direct attacks and proxy warfare.
American forces have been targeted repeatedly, from the bombings of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, to Iranian-backed militias attacking US troops with Iranian-made weapons in Iraq.
Israel has faced even more sustained violence. Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank, and various militias elsewhere in the region have all received Iranian funding, training and weaponry explicitly to attack Israel. And, in 2024, Iran twice directly launched huge salvos of missiles and drones against Israel, removing the shield of deniability it had employed as it waged a war the regime openly declared was intended to wipe Israel off the map.
The current operations should thus not be viewed as beginning a new war but as another phase in a long-running one. To pretend the conflict somehow begins only when Israel or the US respond directly to Iran’s aggression turns the spirit of the laws of armed conflict on its head.
What’s more, the Islamic Republic has, for decades, been one of the most determined and disruptive opponents of the international order.
It has not merely attacked Israel and American interests via proxies, it has also systematically undermined the sovereignty of the states where those proxies operate. Hezbollah’s long domination of Lebanese politics and security have almost completely hollowed out the Lebanese state’s authority. Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have similarly eroded Baghdad’s ability to exercise control over its territory. In Yemen, the Houthis have prolonged a devastating conflict that has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/irans-long-war-of-aggression-made-us...So no new war. Long war continuing.
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