Nadene Goldfoot
The anti-shipping campaigns during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) are known as the Tanker War[i]. In 1981, Iraq began attacks on ships to weaken Iran’s ability to fight, initially attacking ships carrying military supplies to the groundwar front and later attacking ships carrying Iran’s exports. Iran retaliated by attacking ships belonging to Iraq’s trading partners and to countries that loaned Iraq money to support its war effort.
To go to war or not, that is the question burning on many lips today. There is picture to consider as to why do it.
"For nearly half a century, the Islamic Republic of Iran — the world’s
leading state sponsor of terrorism — has killed and maimed American
citizens and service members through its own forces and proxy militias.
More Americans have been killed by Iran than any other terrorist regime
on Earth.President Donald J. Trump is doing what Presidents over the last
five decades have refused to do — eliminate the threat once and for all.
By destroying Iran’s missiles, annihilating their navy, and ensuring they
can never obtain a nuclear weapon, the Trump Administration’s bold and
decisive action is protecting American lives and advancing American
interests."
Remember Benjamin Netanyahu first warned of an Iranian nuclear
threat at a United Nations meeting on September 27, 2012. During his address to
the UN General Assembly, he famously used a cartoon-style diagram of a bomb
and drew a red line to show when Iran would reach weapons-grade uranium
enrichment.
Iran ousted the king, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and shifted power to the religious leaders led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in early 1979, with the key milestones occurring on January 16, February 1, and February 11, 1979. The military declared neutrality, the monarchy was officially overthrown, and the Islamic Republic was established shortly after on April 1, 1979.
The goal of the Ayatollahs has been to establish absolute clerical rule, enforce strict Islamic law, and rid the region of Western and Israeli influence.
This goal was founded on the 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and it's core objectives which focus on maintaining a theocracy and exporting its revolutionary ideology.
To do that, attacks began on the USA and Israel. Over the past four decades, the primary direct and proxy attacks or major hostile actions linked to Iran against U.S. military personnel, diplomats, and citizens include the Iran Hostage Crisis, the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, and the :
1996 Khobar Towers bombing. The 1996 Khobar Towers bombing was a devastating terrorist attack on June 25, 1996, which targeted a U.S. military housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. A massive truck bomb detonated outside Building 131, killing 19 U.S. Airmen and injuring nearly 500 people. This happened only 30 years ago.
Iran uses a network of regional proxy groups—namely Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and Iraqi/Syrian militias—to target the U.S. and Israel. Following major joint U.S. and Israeli military operations and airstrikes launched against Iranian leadership, nuclear sites, and infrastructure starting in February 2026, Tehran and its allies retaliated by striking U.S. bases, shipping lanes, and Israeli territory
- November 1979 – January 1981: Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
- April 1983: A suicide truck bombing targeted the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 17 Americans.
- October 1983: A truck bomb hit the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. service members; courts later held Iran liable for supporting the perpetrators.
- September 1984: A Hezbollah car bomb struck the U.S. Embassy annex in East Beirut, killing two American military personnel and several others.
- The United States' first direct military attack on Iranian state targets occurred on October 19, 1987, codenamed Operation Nimble Archer. U.S. Navy destroyers attacked and destroyed two Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf as retaliation for an Iranian missile strike on the reflagged Kuwaiti oil tanker MV Sea Isle City.
- April 18, 1988 (Operation Praying Mantis): A larger-scale U.S. naval offensive destroyed two Iranian oil platforms, sank several Iranian vessels, and crippled a major warship in retaliation for the mining of the USS Samuel B. Roberts.
- June 1996: A massive fuel-truck bomb exploded outside the Khobar Towers housing complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. airmen.
- 2003–2011: Iran-backed Shia militias in Iraq supplied deadly explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that killed over 600 U.S. military personnel during the Iraq War.
- January 2007: Iranian Quds Force operatives allegedly coordinated a complex attack on a coordination center in Karbala, Iraq, killing five U.S. soldiers.
- December 2019: A rocket attack by Kataib Hezbollah on the K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq, killed one U.S. civilian contractor. Hezbollah,, shi'ites are the arm of Iran.
- January 2020: Iran launched ballistic missiles at Ain al-Asad Air Base in Iraq, injuring over 100 U.S. service members with traumatic brain injuries following the U.S. strike that killed General Qasem Soleimani.
- March 2023: An Iran-backed drone strike hit a coalition base near Hasakah, Syria, killing a U.S. contractor and wounding several troops.
- January 2024: A drone attack by Kataib Hezbollah targeted Tower 22 in Jordan, killing three U.S. Army soldiers and wounding more than 40 others.
- 2025–2026: Hundreds of drone, rocket, and missile strikes by Iranian proxies continued to target U.S. positions across Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, culminating in direct U.S. military campaigns within Iranian territory. This was the attack that broke the camel's back and Trump's attention was alerted.
- The problem is: the Shi'ite goal is not a hurried one. They love to take their time; and we Westerners are in a hurry; our gas prices are going up. We don't like to be picked off one by one. This background of where we are has never hit our history classes, evidently or our interests; too far away. Is it too late to study it? It's not the war of the past but a new kind of war, a futuristic war.
