US military installations in Iraq and Syria have been attacked by Iranian proxies nine times since Friday. According to senior defense officials, this brings to 84 the number of attacks on US forces since October 17, resulting in injuries to 66 American servicemen. The highest profile of those attacks was an attack on the US embassy in Baghdad. It was hit by a volley of 60mm mortar rounds on Thursday, and there were no casualties (see US Embassy in Iraq Attacked - Believed to Be by Iranian Aligned Militants).

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin used the occasion of his phone call with Iraqi President Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to condemn the attacks as "acts of terrorism" that "endanger Iraq's internal security."  He also "made clear that attacks against US forces must stop."

As Austin made clear, it is no secret that Iranian proxy groups are behind the attacks (New Drone Attacks on US Forces in Syria, Iranian Proxies Claim Responsibility).

The same provocations are taking place in the Red Sea by the Iranian-back Houthis in Yemen. A US Reaper drone was shot down over international waters (Yemeni Houthis Shoot Down US Reaper Over Red Sea, the White House Response Is Crickets). Houthi drones targeted a US destroyer.

I'm sure that the usual isolationist fringe will say, "Why do we have troops in those countries? Why are our ships sailing in international waters? Shouldn't they be on our southern border?" Those may be fair questions, but it is also immaterial and a shameless dodge. The National Command Authority has ordered our military to those locations to carry out American foreign policy. But in an environment where our troops have been attacked on 84 separate occasions in 52 days, we have launched a grand total of six airstrikes in the same time frame.

U.S. military has carried out six airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since Oct. 17—one for every 14 attacks.

No strikes in Yemen after attacks on shipping in Red Sea or after $32 million U.S. Reaper drone shot down. https://t.co/kzr3YugpYa

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) December 8, 2023

We allow Iranian proxies to lob rockets and mortar rounds at our troops. We've accepted, on average, one American casualty per day since October 17, and It is only a matter of time until Americans get killed. And the reason they do it is that there is zero risk attached to attacking Americans or American ships or aircraft because Joe Biden is so afraid of offending the Iranians that he'd rather see the coffins arrive at Dover AFB than have panties soiled under the man-dresses in Tehran.

There is an Australian "comedy" of which I'm something of a fan called Mr. Inbetween. The "hero" is an enforcer/hitman for a mob boss. I can see you're wondering about the comedy part. In one episode, he's in court-ordered anger management counseling for thrashing a couple of street thugs. 

My point is at 1:59. (Be sure to watch the whole video.) The Iranians are doing this because they know we'll let them get away with it. At worst, they lose a carload of instantly replaceable meat to an AC-130 or a missile. They only have to be successful now and again to drive us from the region. We have to be lucky 100% of the time not to have men killed. I talked about this in my post, BREAKING: US Destroyer and Several Other Ships Attacked in Red Sea - Biden Prepares to Do Nothing.

Just yesterday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hectoring Israel over civilian casualties and "strategic defeat" (Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Wags Finger at Israel, Warns of 'Strategic Defeat'), a subject on which he may be one of the world's greatest living practitioners. He also crowed about the importance of "America's strong and steady leadership."

Sorry, letting barbaric, lice-infected nations lob missiles at your warships and neutral shipping in international waters says anything but "strong and steady leadership." His actions have made us the fat, left side of the IQ Bell Curve kid with a "kick me" sign on our back. It's time to take a lesson from Caligula, Oderint dum metuant: "Let them hate us, so long as they fear us." Maybe they should go to Amazon and buy a copy of Machiavelli's "The Prince." Without fear and respect, leadership is impossible, and we have neither going for us.

Until they learn to respect us, our troops, ships, and aircraft will always be in danger. And they will only learn respect if they learn to fear us along the way.