Middle East: US media outlets have been discussing increasing American concerns about the escalation of war in the Middle East.

 "The rising possibility of US combat deaths and the worsening security situation from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and stretching through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel represents an unwelcome new foreign crisis as President Joe Biden’s reelection year dawns," CNN website said.

The network emphasized that it is becoming a petri dish for a new geopolitical trend endless tests of America’s will and credibility by its adversaries and their proxies. Warnings by Israel that its war against Hamas in Gaza will last for months threaten to heighten the chances war could spin out of control and drag the US further in.

It pointed out that the attacks and escalations in recent days appears to be gaining its own deadly momentum, fueling fears of further rising tensions in Syria and Iraq.

The spate of fresh incidents underscores the potential for a dangerous escalation of the war, reveal the extent to which US forces are directly exposed and help explain increasingly urgent entreaties from Washington for Israel to scale down the war in Gaza.

American occupation bases in Iraqi and Syrian territories have been targeted in over 110 attacks since October 7.

It added that the situation for US troops in Iraq and Syria is especially dangerous as they are within easy reach of resistance factions. The line between proportional responses and effective deterrence is getting increasingly thin. The attack on the airbase raises questions about how the installation was so vulnerable to being penetrated by a drone. And a deeper issue is now whether the latest US air strikes — which were blasted by Iraq as a hostile act — have done anything to deter future attacks.

The CNN explained that the possibility of military action in the Middle East is the last thing that Biden — who is already deeply invested in trying to save Ukraine from a Russian onslaught — would have hoped to be dealing with as 2024 begins.

Meanwhile, the Responsible State Craft magazine, issued by the American Quincy Institute, described President Joe Biden's foreign policy for 2023 as a failure.

The magazine highlighted a series of setbacks and losses for the US under Biden's leadership, arguing that these developments do not bode well for the president as he approaches the 2024 presidential election.
 

#Yemen #Iraq #US #Israel #Syria #Middle East About 4 months