“Incoming! Incoming! Incoming!”, alarms in the Ayn al-Asad airbase in Al Anbar Governorate, Western Iraq, as well as another airbase in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan sound off as Iranian ballistic missiles fall out of the sky. As soon as the missiles get near the airbases, the night sky is filled with US C-RAM (Counter-rocket, artillery, mortar) tracer fire. Red streams of air defenses smash into the few Iranian missiles that are on target. 

A few days before the attack on the US and coalition air bases, the US launched a drone strike in Baghdad. The drone attack was targeted at Iranian Qud leader and one of the top Iranian military brass, Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. 

The drone strike was conducted because of the Iranian backed attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis was an Iraqi terrorist militia leader, in part responsible for the attacks on the US embassy. 

Students have their own opinions about what’s happening in the middle east. “Well considering the higher and higher chances of us going to war I’m not feeling so great,” said sophomore Micheal Beym. 

No US or coalition lives were lost in the attacks at the Iraqi air bases, even though Iranian state media claimed that “over 30 US lives were taken,” which is completely false. 

Previously this week, Donald Trump warned Iran that any retaliatory strike against the US after the killing of Soleimani would result in the US destroying 52 significant Iranian sites, which included prominent religious sites. Even though deliberately targeting cultural/religious sites is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. 

No further actions have been taken in the region since the Iranian missile attack on the airbases. Wednesday morning President Trump addressed the nation and said, “The fact that we have this great military and equipment, however, does not mean we need to use it. … We do not want to use it.” The president also said: “The U.S. is ready to embrace peace with all who seek it.”