Iran is more resilient than Trump expected, explains Susan Page
USA TODAY Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page analyzes the lessons President Donald Trump may have learned from the war with Iran.
Since the U.S. began its war with Iran, military bases on the U.S. mainland have banned service members from wearing their uniforms outside the base, amid growing threats of retaliatory attacks against soldiers.
After the United States and Israel launched their first joint attack on Iran on February 28, U.S. military bases in the Middle East came under heavy fire from Iranian missiles and drones, killing seven U.S. troops stationed in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Then an air tanker crash in Iraq killed six soldiers and injured at least 200 others across the Middle East.
Threats to U.S. forces are not limited to combat zones. Bases in the United States are closed in response to reports of active shooters, suspicious packages, and other unidentified threats. Since the war began, many military bases in the continental United States have tightened security, banning visitors and ordering service members to change out of their uniforms when leaving the premises.
Shooting incident at US military base, suspicious package found
March 16th, report A suspicious package was found near the entrance gate to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, home to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), causing the gate to be closed. Later FBI Tampa office said It is said that “something that may be an energy substance” was found inside the package. macdill issued Two days later, on March 18, a shelter-in-place order was issued citing an unknown and targeted “threat.” CENTCOM is the military branch leading operations in the Iran war. It’s unclear whether the threats are related.
On March 17, officials at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in southern New Jersey announced that a “suspicious package” had been discovered on the base, prompting a lockdown. They later determined that the package posed no threat.
Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico was placed on lockdown the same day due to reports of an active shooter. According to reports, a veteran was killed and an active duty military member was injured.
It is unclear whether these incidents are related to the Middle East wars. Local authorities said an investigation is ongoing. However, several separate U.S. attacks since the beginning of the war have been investigated as terrorism, including the shooting of a Virginia Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) class. On March 12, a man serving time for conspiring with the Islamic State group opened fire on an ROTC class at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, killing the class instructor, Lt. Col. Brandon Shah.
Uniforms prohibited for soldiers off base
Military installations have tightened security, and some areas have banned service members from wearing uniforms outside bases. On March 13, Fort Huachuca Army Base in Arizona, which houses more than 5,600 military personnel, received an order banning soldiers from wearing their uniforms outside the base “to ensure that military protection efforts are consistent with current global conditions,” according to a copy of the order obtained by USA TODAY.
“This prohibition applies to all off-post activities, including but not limited to eating, shopping, and appointments,” the order says.
Army Combined Command issued a similar order to its members on the same day, according to spokesman Lt. Col. Brien Freigo. The order is “a prudent, proactive step aimed at reducing visibility and is not in response to an identified or credible threat,” he told USA TODAY in an email.
The Pentagon referred questions about these bans to U.S. Northern Command, which said there are no blanket bans on U.S. military bases.
A temporary ban was also issued on February 28 at Shaw Air Force Base, east of Columbia, South Carolina, stating that military personnel are “no longer permitted” to wear their uniforms off base. The base rescinded this policy on March 15.
In an emailed statement, the Navy did not say whether it had banned the use of the uniform off-base, but said it was “implementing additional force protection measures” to “reduce the vulnerability of our service members,” including changes to uniform policy in certain situations. On the day the war began, Naval Support Activity Facility Annapolis, located across the river from the Naval Academy in Maryland, announced increased security at its entrance gates and canceled all public visitation “as a result of the current world situation,” according to a Facebook post.
Recent attacks on US bases related to the Middle East conflict
At least two other attacks in recent weeks are reportedly linked to the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Police say the gunman who killed two people and injured more than a dozen others at an Austin bar on March 1 was wearing an Iranian flag shirt, according to videos and photos shared online.
Less than two weeks later, police said Ayman Mohammad Ghazali, 41, was killed after driving a truck into a Michigan synagogue and exchanging gunfire with police. Local leaders in Dearborn Heights said Ghazali’s family in Lebanon had been killed days earlier in an Israeli attack that swept the country and killed hundreds on another front in the Iran war.
across-the-board prohibitions common in recent U.S. wars
Steve Gabavics, a retired Army colonel who served in the military police for decades, estimates that threats to bases have increased by 10 to 15 percent as a result of the Iran war.
Gabavics said it’s not new for the military to tighten security on bases and facilities in response to U.S. wars overseas, such as restricting service members from wearing uniforms off base. “I’ve seen it every time there’s been a major international conflict,” he said.
Gabaviks, who commanded military police across the Military District of Washington, said there may have been dozens of Iranian-linked sleeper cells in the Washington, D.C., area and about 100 scattered across the country during his service.
But the greater threat to military personnel likely comes from ideologically inspired “lone wolf” attackers, he said.
Last November, two uniformed National Guard soldiers on patrol were gunned down a few blocks from the White House. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of Summersville, West Virginia, was killed and another soldier was seriously injured. Rahmanullah Rakanwar, a 29-year-old Afghan man arrested and charged in the shooting, worked with the violent CIA-backed Zero Squad during the U.S. occupation of the country.
Soldiers in uniform do indeed “make a target,” Gabaviks said. “We’re trying to make sure that people who want to do things like this aren’t easy targets.”
