American Troops Know: Iran Is Already at War with Us

The war that began on October 7 when Hamas invaded Israel has been almost universally described in the press as another bloody chapter in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. But that’s only half-true. Or rather, it is only one front of a much broader war—a war that pits Iran and its proxies against America and its allies. And a war that has already cost American lives.

Consider the following events that have taken place since October 7:

  • On January 11, two Navy SEALs were on a night mission to intercept an Iranian shipment destined for Houthi rebels in Yemen. In a raid of a small boat known as a dhow, one SEAL fell into rough waters off the coast of Somalia and another dove into the Gulf of Aden in an attempt to rescue him. On Sunday, U.S. Central Command announced that the SEALs were presumed dead. Despite the casualties, the mission was a success. U.S. officials have told news outlets that the SEALs found missile components on the ship that matched the projectiles used by the Houthis in attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
  • On January 15, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard claimed credit for a missile and drone attack in Erbil—the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, home to America’s historic allies. The Iranian regime claimed the strike hit an Israeli Mossad base in response to an Israeli strike in Syria that killed one of its commanders. But Kurdish news agencies have since reported that the target was the personal home of prominent builder and businessman Peshraw Majid Agha Dizeyi, who was killed along with several of his family members including his 11-month-old daughter. The attack was the first direct Iranian strike in the region since October 7.
  • At approximately 6:30 p.m. (Baghdad time) on January 20, multiple ballistic missiles and rockets were launched by Iranian-backed militants in Western Iraq targeting al-Asad Airbase. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the base’s air defense systems while others hit the base. Damage assessments are ongoing. Two U.S. personnel suffered traumatic brain injuries but are now back on duty. At least one Iraqi service member was wounded.
  • As those rockets were being launched, Chief Warrant Officer Garrett Illerbrunn was recovering at a hospital in Washington, D.C., from a brain injury he suffered on Christmas Day after shrapnel lodged in his skull following a drone attack on a U.S. base in the Kurdish city of Erbil. (Illerbrunn has since emerged from his coma and has begun to move his face and limbs, according to a CaringBridge journal set up by his loved ones.) The drone attack that nearly killed Illerbrunn was launched by the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah.
  • In response to the January 20 missile attacks on al-Asad Airbase, the U.S. launched a round of air strikes on January 23 that targeted Kataib Hezbollah. According to a statement from U.S. Central Command, the air strikes hit the group’s “headquarters, storage, and training locations for rocket, missile, and one-way attack UAV capabilities.”
  • According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, there have been more than 100 drone attacks and nearly 50 rocket attacks against U.S. positions in Iraq and Syria since October 18. By comparison, there was only one such drone attack and one rocket attack from these militias between October 2022 and October 2023. Almost all of the recent attacks have been initiated by the Iraqi militias the government in Baghdad has tried to tame. In Yemen, the Iranian-supported Houthi rebels have menaced U.S. ships in the Red Sea, launching drones, rockets, and missiles at vessels while claiming to enforce an embargo of Israel.
  • Since November 18, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have launched at least 25 attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea. The head of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, said of the attacks: “Clearly, the Houthi actions, probably in terms of their attacks on merchant shipping, are the most significant that we’ve seen in two generations.”

Most Americans vaguely know that there is trouble in the Middle East, but they likely do not know all of these details and surely do not know the names Christopher Chambers and Nathan Gage Ingram—the two Navy SEALs who perished this month in the Indian Ocean defending the freedom of maritime navigation in the region.

That’s because these stories have barely been covered and the Biden administration has sought to downplay these incidents and lower tensions with Iran, fearing the prospect of a regional war.

But some Americans know well the cost of Iran’s ongoing aggression against America. Just ask the Farr family of California.

On February 26, 2006, U.S. Army Specialist Clay Farr encountered a roadside bomb in Iraq. The right side of his body was shredded with shrapnel, his right hand was severed from his arm, and the top of his head was blown off. He died four hours later in a military hospital.

U.S. Army Specialist Clay Farr (left) was killed by an Iranian weapon in 2006. Chief Warrant Officer Garrett Illerbrunn (right) survived a drone attack by an Iranian-backed militia on Christmas Day 2023. (Photos via U.S. Army and Garrett Illerbrunn)

His father, Patrick Farr, told The Free Press last week that his wounds were so egregious, the casualty officer asked him how he felt about cremation. Farr opted to bury his son in a cherrywood coffin with a white shroud covering his mutilated remains.

Farr was killed by an Iranian weapon known as an explosively for