The Brown and White

Rising tensions between the United States and Iran have recently been brought to the public eye. With missiles being fired and a passenger plane being shot down, people are beginning to question possible war between these two countries.

In late December 2019, an Iranian general by the name of Qasem Soleimani made a trip to the Iranian capital for a meeting. Whilst driving to his destination, he was followed by multiple American MQ-9 Reaper drones that ended up dropping missiles down onto the two vehicles tasked with transporting the general. All 20 of the members inside including the general were killed, as the cars were engulfed in flames. Trump later stated that his reasoning for doing this was because “Suleimani was killing his protestors,” according to a tweet he posted on January 12.

A few days after killing Suleimani, a letter from the White House that was commissioned through the Swiss arrived urging Iran not to react aggressively. In response, the Iranian military fired a total over a dozen missiles around a base in Iraq housing American soldiers.

Initially it was believed their were no casualties, but it was later learned that there were 64 soldiers diagnosed with brain injuries.

 It was uncertain whether Iran wanted to cause U.S. casualties in this attack or simply show that they were not afraid to retaliate if they were attacked. The foreign affairs minister of Iran, Mohammad Javad Zarif, confirmed this sentiment in a tweet to President Trump.

“We do not seek escalation or war,” said Zarif. “But we will defend ourselves against any aggression.”

Only hours later, the Iranian regime mistook a Ukrainian passenger plane for a U.S. military plane thinking it was coming in retaliation and shot it down, killing all 176 people inside. Iran began to blame the U.S. due to the rising tensions they caused by the Iranian government as the rest of the country mourned the people who had died. The commander of the strike admitted that he felt great guilt in committing such an act.

Later that week, another letter came through the Swiss directed at Trump that urged him to stand down from any aggression. When the week ended without any further escalation by either country, Trump boasted in an interview with Fox News that he had taken out an American enemy. He also stated that he would place sanctions on Iran to keep them under watch.

“They were looking to blow up our embassy,” Trump suggested, “I can reveal I believe it probably would’ve been four embassies.” 

These events followed the storming of a U.S. embassy in Baghdad by demonstrators on New Year’s Eve. Despite defacing the compounds exterior and setting fires to various structures, no one was injured in these attacks.

Although the hostilities between the two governments appears to be dying down, the opinions of the people in both countries are strong.

The thoughts of CHS students, specifically, have also become a mixed batch. Though, a majority of students are in agreement that Trump’s decision not to retaliate to Iran’s defensive strike was a good idea. Over half of the students who responded to a survey by The Brown and White agreed or strongly agreed with Trump’s decision. Only 13% of the students disagreed or strongly disagreed with the White House decision. Approximately 35% were unsure or unaware of the situation.

Senior Chace Miller said, “I don’t think we should do anything at the moment, but if further aggressive acts are taken by Iran, we should not hesitate to take action.”

“We struck first,” senior Stone Carter states, “We killed the top general in Iran. If anything, they had every right to do more damage than they actually did, but thankfully they didn’t.”

At this point the issue between the United States and Iran is far from resolved, but both sides said they are not seeking war.