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In Trumpland: War = Peace & Sending Thousands of US Troops to the Middle East = Withdrawal

Time to reflect upon Trump and Giuliani’s connection to Iran: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2020/01/03/hit-against-qasem-soleimani-the-trump-giuliani-connections-to-major-iranian-sanctions-evasion-scheme/

From VOA News:
“Troops in Kuwait
The comments by senior U.S. officials came as fresh U.S. troops were setting up in Kuwait, part of Washington’s plan to protect bases and personnel across the Middle East in anticipation of Iranian-directed violence. 
 
About 750 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division’s Immediate Response Force touched down at Salem Air Base on Friday, with U.S. defense officials confirming the force’s remaining 3,000 troops were on their way. 
 
A Defense Department spokesperson called the order for the additional soldiers “an appropriate and precautionary action,” citing “increased threat levels against U.S. personnel and facilities.” 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper said the 3,000 soldiers had been put on notice earlier in the week, telling reporters Thursday that the Pentagon would deploy more forces “as needed.” 
 
The deployment came as Iranian officials and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq amplified their calls for revenge after the U.S. airstrike that killed Soleimani…

Meanwhile, Kataeb Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia that sparked the recent escalation with a rocket attack on a military base in Kirkuk, Iraq, that killed an American contractor, warned the U.S. “will pay a heavy price.” 
 
“Grave consequences will be borne by America, the Zionist entity, and the kingdoms of evil,” the militia said in a statement translated by the SITE Intelligence Group. “Are they unaware that we will become a thousand Soleimanis and a thousand Abu Mahdis?” 
 
How or when Iran might respond to the strike was unknown. U.S. defense and intelligence officials have long warned about Iran’s penchant for using asymmetric techniques, like terrorism and cyberattacks, to target the U.S. and Western nations. 

‘Asymmetric strikes’
 
“What we are very likely looking at is a series of tit-for-tat escalations and asymmetric strikes that probably won’t be limited to Iraq or to the Middle East,” Kirsten Fontenrose, director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told VOA via Skype. 
 
“Iran isn’t opposed to kind of hitting us in the belly,” Fontenrose added. “And I think it will mean a little bit of vulnerability at our embassies and for our diplomats who live on the economies and countries where they are posted.” 
 
The United States has about 5,000 troops in Iraq and another 55,000 across the Middle East, all of whom could be targeted by Iran. 
 
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad told Americans Friday to “depart Iraq immediately” because of the heightened tensions.
 
Some U.S. cities have also heightened their alert status, concerned that Iran could use its ties with terror groups like the Lebanese-based Hezbollah in an attempt to strike the U.S. homeland. 
 
“We have never confronted in recent decades the reality of a war with a government of a large country with an international terror network at its behest,” New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday. “New Yorkers deserve to know that we have entered into a different reality.” 
 
But Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement Friday, “there are currently no specific, credible threats.” …”
Excerpted from: “VOA News on Iran Trump Hails Death of Iranian General, Says ‘Reign of Terror is Over’” By Jeff Seldin Updated January 03, 2020 08:27 PM https://www.voanews.com/middle-east/voa-news-iran/trump-hails-death-iranian-general-says-reign-terror-over

While the US sends 3,000 troops to the Middle East, Australia is sending 3,000 to fight fires: “Australia Calls up 3,000 Reservists as Fire Threats Escalate January 04, 2020 03:27 AM https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/australia-calls-3000-reservists-fire-threats-escalate