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Moving Iranian Ballistic Missiles into Iraq Is Extremely Destabilizing
(Liberty Unyielding) J.E. Dyer - Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to its Shi'ite proxies in Iraq, Reuters reported Friday. This move is about Iran's geostrategic intentions. Moving a conventional, tactical strike capability forward would form a deep-strike element for the advance of a ground force. Putting the capability in Iraq portends dragging Iraq into any future conflict. Iran is building up assets in Iraq to improve the forces surging to make an Iranian "land bridge" across Iraq and Syria a reality. The current stock of missiles, if they are tolerated, will simply lead to Iran stockpiling more prepositioned assets in Iraq such as air defense batteries and assault helicopters. It will also mean that troops in the U.S. coalition, along with Saudis, Jordanians, and Israelis, will be held at risk by the forward-deployed missiles. It's destabilizing in the extreme. The writer is a retired U.S. Naval Intelligence officer.