HOW IRAN BECAME OUR ENEMY

The year 2020 was barely a day old when the U.S. became embroiled in a foreign policy crisis of potentially catastrophic proportions. In apparent retaliation for an assault on the U.S. embassy in Iraq by militia forces, President Trump approved the assassinat ion of two high-ranking Iranian officials at the Baghdad airport, including Major General Qassim (or Qasem) Suleimani, considered second only to the nation’s president in seniority. Whatever the specific justification for this assassination, there was an immediate, fiery response by Iran, including violent demonstrations of anger against the U.S. and retaliatory missile strikes on the Ain Al-Assad airbase in Iraq. Although the details of those missile strikes made them seem more symbolic than warlike, and the two nations did not further escalate hostilities at that time, there remains the distinct possibility that the assassination and its ongoing fallout will lead to such escalation not only between the U.S. and Iran, but