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Iran's Missiles Have Become a More Immediate Threat than Its Nuclear Program
(New Yorker) Robin Wright - On Jan. 8, 2020, Iran fired eleven ballistic missiles - each carrying at least a thousand-pound warhead - at U.S. troops stationed at Al Asad Airbase in Iraq. It was the largest ballistic-missile attack ever by any nation on American troops. 110 Americans suffered traumatic brain injuries. Two years later, many are still experiencing profound memory, vision, and hearing losses; 80 have been awarded Purple Hearts. Iran's missile arsenal is the largest and most diverse in the Middle East, the Defense Intelligence Agency reported. Iran can fire more missiles than its adversaries can shoot down or destroy. Iran's missiles have become a more immediate threat than its nuclear program, Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told me. "Iran's strategic capacity is now enormous. They've got overmatch in the theatre - the ability to overwhelm." Underground complexes house Iran's nuclear and missile programs. Most of Iran's "missile cities" are in the west, facing Israel, or on the southern coast, across from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf sheikhdoms. Iran now has enormous reach in several directions from afar. Iran is gambling that it can harass the U.S. into eventually withdrawing from the entire Middle East. Seven American Presidents have failed to contain Iran's political influence and military leverage.