Opinion | Trump’s impulsive strike on Iran’s Qassem Soleimani lays bare America’s dangerously incoherent Middle East strategy

The strike, which achieved no strategic purpose, emboldens hardliners, destabilises the region and greatly raises the risk of war. Meanwhile, officials in Trump’s administration are already contradicting each other. This is how countries stumble into war

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A funeral procession for the assassinated general, Qassem Soleimani, on Monday. Trump’s surgical strike has drawn Iran and Iraq closer, rejuvenated support for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime and sparked anti-US protests from Pakistan to the Philippines. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:00am, 9 Jan 2020Updated: 11:16am, 9 Jan 2020

A drone targeted and destroyed a vehicle travelling near Baghdad airport last week. Inside was Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and architect of terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East. The United States claimed responsibility for the targeted assassination, sparking fears of reprisals and an ordered evacuation of US personnel from the country. The embassy in Baghdad closed with a warning to Americans – diplomats cannot help you now.

Almost immediately, arguments erupted in Washington about the purpose of the attack, whether there really was an imminent threat, as President Donald Trump later said, and what, if any, strategic goal was attained. The brutal truth is that there is no strategic gain because the Trump administration has no strategy. This was an impulse attack, a “gut” reaction, a farce of foreign policy that endangers more than it protects.

There is more clarity about what the drone attack did not do. It did not eliminate the threat of Iran attacking again, through proxies or directly. It did not destroy the Quds Force, which already has a new leader. And it did not reverse the tide of growing Iranian influence in Iraq.

If anything, the assassination further destabilises the region. Rather than bringing troops home, thousands more US soldiers are on their way to the Middle East. Another Trump promise broken.

Soleimani was clearly a threat to US forces and interests throughout the region, but he has been for years. Why was he killed now when he could so easily have been targeted in the past? He certainly made his whereabouts obvious in flamboyant displays of his travels and meetings on social media.

The attack sent a message to Iran that the Trump administration is willing to risk all-out war if the violence against US troops and citizens does not stop. The problem with White House messaging is that it so often contradicts itself. Trump tweeted that not only would the US respond with more attacks if Iran retaliated, but cultural sites would be in the crosshairs as well.