Marc Polymeropoulos: Iran’s Attack on the U.S. Base in Qatar Seems ‘Performative’

EXCERPT:

POLYMEROPOULOS: "This is, of course, very similar to when the Iranians, in their view, had to retaliate after the U.S. killed Qassem Soleimani. That was several years ago and there was, in essence, performative strikes against a U.S. base in Iraq. And I think we’re seeing the same thing right now. One note on this is, we saw about five hours ago, six hours ago, the U.S. embassy in Qatar had put out, in essence, a warning to its staff, basically saying, 'Shelter in place.' That then translates into a shelter in place notification for the U.S. community in Qatar. So to me, that meant that we knew that this — that some type of retaliation was coming, and it makes some sense with the notion that the Iranians probably tipped off the Qataris. All of this, Chris, seems to be designed to actually look for an off-ramp where the Iranians can say that they did something, not enough, certainly no U.S. casualties, which would engender a U.S. response, so perhaps this is, you know, in some ways what we’re talking about, military action now. Perhaps this is a way, a path forward to wind down any type of larger kind of conflagration between the U.S. and Iran."