Iran wages asymmetric war against America through proxy networks that have infiltrated US borders
Source: "Iran’s proxy war has crossed oceans and is now knocking on America’s door | Fox News." May 26, 2026. www.foxnews.com
The Gist
The author argues that Iran is already at war with America, but not through traditional military means. Instead, Iran uses criminal gangs, terrorist groups, and smuggling networks that have spread from the Middle East through Latin America and into the US itself. The author says Americans need to wake up and recognize this as real warfare, not just isolated criminal activity.
Conclusion
Iran is actively waging asymmetric warfare against the United States through embedded proxy networks, criminal partnerships, and infrastructure that has crossed oceans and now operates within American borders, requiring immediate recognition and response
Premises
- Iran has waged asymmetric war against the US and West since 1979 through terrorism, proxies, illicit finance, cyber operations, and criminal partnerships deliberately kept below conventional conflict thresholds
- Iran's infrastructure has embedded itself across Latin America, inside cartel corridors, through illicit financial networks, migration pipelines, and operational seams inside the United States itself
- The Al-Saadi case demonstrates this threat, where an Iranian-backed militia commander coordinated attacks on American targets through Mexican cartel-linked smuggling networks
- Iran has refined this operational model for decades, as evidenced by the 1983-1994 Buenos Aires attacks where Iranian operatives built proxy infrastructure through mosques, cultural centers, and criminal networks
- Iran views these threats as interconnected fronts in a multi-domain campaign that exploits globalization's infrastructure including smuggling routes, corruption networks, and illicit finance
- Iranian influence overlaps with established criminal networks including Venezuela's Cartel de los Soles, transnational drug pipelines, and anti-Western networks involving Russia and China
Assumptions
- Asymmetric warfare below conventional conflict thresholds constitutes real warfare that demands military/security responses
- Criminal networks and terrorist proxies can be effectively coordinated by state actors across vast distances
- The convergence of different criminal and terrorist networks creates a unified threat rather than separate problems
- America's traditional binary thinking about war versus peace is inadequate for addressing modern hybrid threats
- Past Iranian operations in Latin America predict and validate current threat assessments