Belarus Segodnya columnist on US Armed Forces’ strikes on positions of Iran: it’s not demonstration of power, but imitation of violent activity

A dying lion is trying to wave away with its tail – as noted by Andrei Mukovozchik, a columnist of the Belarus Segodnya Publishing House, while commenting on the US Armed Forces’ airstrikes on positions of pro-Iranian groups in some border areas of Iraq and Syria in response to the attack on the American military base in Jordan

In his talk with Alfa Radio, Mr. Mukovozchik stressed that the actions of the world hegemon are not at all surprising, and he compared the United States to a dying lion that is making unconvincing attempts to wave away with its tail.

“Americans have delivered a strike at a cave and a mudbrick building, killed several defenceless civilians or hired people. What is the result of that? This cannot be called a demonstration of power," Mr. Mukovozchik stressed. “This is an imitation of violent activity, someone in the US Congress just needs to make a report. Moreover, any US military operation is a smart-looking writing off the monetary funds. [It seems the US wants to say]: look at the missiles we are launching: they are highly accurate, smart and expensive, and it is hardly possible to count how many of them have achieved their goals. In general, this does not look like a fight, because it is impossible to fight the Middle East in this way,” the columnist noted.

Mr. Mukovozchik mentioned Iraq as an example; this country has never become the state that the US wanted it to be, “The United States can repeat Iraq’s situation and create problems for itself. Americans are just pumping oil from there. They thought they would control the Middle East, but it appears that they need to be careful not to be set on fire at small bases there. That's all they are doing in Iraq.”

The columnist also shared his view on why the European Union is afraid of escalation in the Middle East. “The EU has learned from bitter experience that the United States will make a fire, but Europeans will actually suffer from this. It was exactly the case with the Arab spring. The US made that fire, and the migrant crisis – which has not actually stopped since then – covered Europe later, rather than the United States,” he said.

Mr. Mukovozchik added that – if a war breaks out in the Middle East through the fault of Americans – Europe will have to somehow sort everything out, “Europe is already going through hard times. It's not Americans who have a fire on their territory, they are overseas. If anything goes wrong, they will go away and forget about their allies – as they did in Afghanistan. They will fly away, and – unlike Karlsson – will not even make a promise to return.”