In the past six months, the US has been playing up the idea of threats posed by Iran, and has been steadily announcing new deployments into the Middle East, mostly to Saudi Arabia and the vicinity, and very publicly aimed at Iran.



With over 10,000 US troops already deployed, the Trump Administration is now considering an even larger deployment, again aimed at “countering Iran,” and potentially more than doubling the US footprint.



The new plan would include dozens of additional US warships, substantial military hardware, and as many as 14,000 more US ground troops. It’s not clear where exactly these troops would be sent, but with Iraq already saying they don’t want any more, Saudi Arabia would likely be taking some of them.



Each new deployment just adds to the tensions, and with Pentagon officials openly talking about the possibility of Iran attacking the US presence in the region, constant additions to that presence only raise the risk of war.



Deployments raising the threat level seems to be very much the point, as recent comments from generals have repeatedly indicated that they don’t believe the many deployments have acted as any sort of deterrent, and they don’t appear to be presenting these new deployments that way either. Instead of deterring, the deployments are said to “counter” Iranian capabilities, seemingly on the assumption that the war is only a matter of time.

Author: Jason Ditz Jason Ditz is news editor of Antiwar.com. View all posts by Jason Ditz