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The bombing of the bases of Al Assad and Irbil has been the first attack against the United States that has carried out a State that was not defending its national territory since in 1988 it concluded - with American victory - the "War of the Tankers", in which Washington and Iran clashed in the Persian Gulf. The others have been terrorist actions carried out by non-state actors, such as Al Qaeda or the Islamic State, or defensive acts of countries attacked by the US, such as Iraq and Libya (the Afghan Taliban regime, which the US overthrew in 2001 after the attacks of 11- Yes, it was not properly a Government, and had only been recognized by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates).

It is not, therefore, an act of little importance, but something that had not happened for 31 years.

But the United States had not officially reacted last night. Four and a half hours after Tehran reported the attack, and after an approximately two-hour meeting of President Donald Trump with several of his top advisors, the only American reaction was a tweet from the head of state and government at a quarter to ten Washington night (a quarter to five in the morning of the Peninsula) that started with a relaxed "Everything is fine!"

The president added that at that time "the assessment of casualties and damages" was being carried out, but that "for now, everything is going well!" According to the US media, the bombing would have caused very little human damage, but the authorities had not issued any information. That is, according to observers, one of the keys that can determine the US response. If there have been US victims, and, even more, if the number of them is high, Trump could be politically forced to launch another attack against Iran, since in recent days the president has launched very hard threats against Tehran. In a sense, Trump has taken his own 'red lines'.

That would open the door to an escalation of unforeseeable consequences. It is not the first time that a war begins that way. The best example is World War I, a conflict that practically broke out without any of the belligerents noticing.

Although the CNN television network had announced that the White House was studying a possible appearance of the president before public opinion, in his message Trump declared that he will be heading to the country this Wednesday morning. No one knows what response the United States can launch, or even if there will be an answer. In June, Washington did not react to the demolition by Iran of an unmanned spy plane RQ-4B valued at almost 200 million euros. The only sign of military movements was the order of the American civil aviation authorities to the airlines of that country not to fly over the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

In any case, the US must carefully calibrate its response, if it carries it out. Iran has used ballistic missiles - that is, they go out into outer space and then enter the atmosphere towards their target - with a seemingly fairly accurate guidance system. According to estimates by US spy services, Iran has 2,000 such rockets, which can reach southern Italy, Poland and the Balkans.

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  • Iran
  • U.S
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