United States in Conflict with Iran
January 24, 2020
Over the course of the past month, a lot has happened between the United States and Iran.
The United States killed top Iranian military general Qasem Soleimani in a missile strike in early January.
In a statement, the United States Pentagon said that they viewed Soleimani as a threat to America. Additionally, they stated that he was planning multiple attacks on United States embassies in the Middle East. The strike caused Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to threaten the United States publicly, to which President Trump took to Twitter to reply; he said any attack on American citizens would be met with a retaliation multiple times as deadly. News publications across the country were warning of a future large scale conflict between the two countries if tensions did not calm.
“I don’t think WW3 is going to end up happening,” senior Sophia Giltner said.
Iran launched an attack on a United States military base in Iraq. Iran reported on their national media that they killed over 30 Americans, to placate their citizens, however, in reality zero American’s were killed in the attack. The coordinated plan helped to ease tensions and stop a conflict that could fester into something much larger; Iranians got their retribution, while the United States suffered no casualties.
“The play… to stop a likely war was incredibly smart,” senior Harrison Reibow said.
Just days following the strike, a commercial airplane was shot down by Iran, initially they claimed that it was an issue with the plane at first. Hundreds of people were killed as a result, including over 80 Canadians. As of now, there have been no reports of raised tensions between Iran and Canada.
“If I were Canada, I’d stay out of a conflict with Iran,” senior Blake Ebner said.
In a speech, President Trump said he is working towards peace with Iran.