A retired military colonel is warning that a regional war is ramping up in the Middle East and that the United States is partially to blame.
On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. Israeli officials have said that 1,200 people in Israel were killed in Hamas' attack, according to The Associated Press, while over 13,000 people have been killed in Gaza, the AP reported, citing Gaza Health Ministry officials.
Hamas also took over 200 hostages, including children. Last week, Israeli and Hamas forces engaged in a four-day ceasefire, during which it was agreed that 50 hostages would be released by Hamas in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners from Israel. The deal was, according to U.S. President Joe Biden, "reached by extensive U.S. diplomacy," who added that negotiations will continue until all hostages are freed.
Ex-U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor, the senior adviser to former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, who served under the Trump administration, said the U.S. is underestimating the ongoing conflict in Gaza in the same way it did Russia following its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"We are underestimating the Middle East like we did the Russians," Macgregor wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday. "We decided they were weak and that we were far stronger than we are. We said their society would fragment, ours is in trouble not theirs. We said [the] economy would falter, ours did not theirs. Pay attention!"
Newsweek reached out to Macgregor through his organization, Our Country, Our Choice, via email for comment.
The war in Ukraine just surpassed the 21-month mark with no end in sight. Ukraine is in the midst of another attempted counteroffensive, notably in the Donetsk region, as temperatures drastically drop and both sides continue to lose soldiers. Fears of a broader war, in which Russia receives more help from countries like Iran and North Korea, are on the minds of Ukrainian officials.
The war in Eastern Europe has led Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin to seek budget cuts in other areas for continued subsidization of military resources, recently ordering budget deficits in Chechnya and seven other Moscow-controlled entities.
Potential social discontent could continue in Russia as Putin may order additional spending on the war. Russia's economy was negatively affected almost instantaneously last year due to more than 13,000 restrictions—making it the world's most-sanctioned country, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Russian billionaire business owner Oleg Deripaska, a Putin ally, recently said the country's economy could "hit the ice" due to a general decrease in commodity prices, including Russian exports.
Macgregor said that the situation in Gaza may mimic what is happening in Ukraine.
"We are on the road to a regional war in the Middle East," he said on Monday. "When the ceasefire ends, I don't see any evidence of an end state other than the elimination of Gaza. When this commences Middle Eastern nations will coalesce into a full-scale war on Israel. The question becomes will Israel survive. Pay attention!"
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
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