Iran’s retaliation after the strike against their top general Qasem Soleimani is the end of another uproar in the Iran-U.S. relationship. I don’t believe events like these should keep happening for the sake of the citizens living in these nations. Can this really be it though? Will either country be the one to back down or will it be an endless game of chicken? Iran and the United States have a long, rough history and I do not think it is finished just yet. Let’s start with a brief history of the Iran-U.S. relations.
1953: United States and British intelligence helped overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq.
Followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr gather in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020. (AP Photo)
1979: The Iranian Revolution, which forced the U.S.-backed emperor out of the country.
1979-1981: The Iran hostage crisis, in which American hostages were held for 444 days.
1985-1986: The Iran-Contra scandal, in which President Reagan sold weapons to Iran to fund rebels in Nicaragua.
1988: A United States warship shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing hundreds, saying that they mistook it for a fighter jet.
2002: George Bush calls out Iran in a State of the Union address and says they are part of an “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea.
2000s: Iran constructs nuclear facilities and diplomatic tensions rise between the U.S. and Iran.
2013-2016: Iran and the U.S. develop closer ties and an agreement with world powers and Iran is reached to limit nuclear activity.
2019: Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalate amid Trump’s election to office. Trump backs out of the nuclear deal. Iran shoots down a U.S. military drone over the Strait of Hormuz.
Back and forth tensions between the United States and Iran have been occurring for decades. Right now there is a time of peace in this roller coaster of a relationship and it is only a matter of time until tensions start back up. The relations between the two states always depend on the people in power and the views they carry into office. The real question is if this time is any different from the others. Should we be scared or is it business as usual?
Qasem Soleimani was arguably the greatest general for spy intelligence that Iran has ever had. What was in the mind of the United States to kill this general? There is always a reason for each military action committed by the U.S., so why was the Iran intelligence general a target? I think there are deeper questions that need to be asked about this event because maybe we are not getting the full story. If I were to guess why this top general was targeted, I would say that he probably was in the midst of a discovery that would be harmful for the U.S.
The tensions between the United States and Iran have not just begun and are far from over, but I don’t think we need to worry about World War III anytime soon. Both nations’ leaders are playing a game and trying to one up each other to see who will cave and when. I do not believe this is just action in any way, and as seen from the timeline, both parties play with civilian lives. None of this is the right action and the so-called leaders of these nations should not keep putting the lives of their citizens in danger. The leaders do not have civilians’ best interest in mind when they start these aggressions and since it is not the people’s fault, it should not be in the people’s backyard.
Dylan Bottillo-Hesselton is a contributor for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at dylan.bottillo-henderson@uconn.edu
