Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know I'm going to get destroyed for this, but: 1) It's the current Iranian state has always been at war. They are at war with "the little Satan" (Israel) and "the Big Satan" (US). I know this sounds like a joke but they're absolutely 100% serious. Serious enough to organize massacres ("terrorism") on unrelated individuals, like the Argentina bombing in the beginning and the Hezbollah massacres in Syria just last ye…
1) Yes, clearly Iran is run by extremist zealots who are horrifyingly committed to their cause. I don't think any reasonable person disagrees with this. To invert my original comment, 'Eurasia has always been at war with Oceania,' right? But that doesn't mean that indiscriminately bombing them is a coherent military strategy. Nor is it leading to the mass civilian uprising that was clearly hoped for. 2) I think the m…
For the last 10 years, Russia has been at war with Ukraine, and China has been at war, meaning regular kinetic exchanges with ... everyone really. Especially Taiwan, but also Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Vietnam, and, perhaps surprisingly, Russia. In the last 10 years the US has not had any war, and I'm betting everyone kind of understands that compared to Russia's war, the US war with Iran is not even at the level Russia would call a "war". Not even remotely close. If exchanging missiles and long-range drones to and from ships counts, Russia has been at war with the northern and southeastern countries of the EU for pretty much a decade (meaning both the East Sea with Finland/Denmark/Poland/Sweden... and Turkey + Mediterranean countries on the other side)
And yet, somehow people seem to be convinced of almost the exact opposite of the facts.
Oh and the propaganda both the extreme right and the extreme left in the EU, as well as state media in Russia, are spreading is that the EU is attacking Russia (not the US, that is not a typo, that the EU is attacking Russia), even separately from the Ukraine war. That is the main factor why EU countries are so convinced Russia is close to a large scale attack on the EU. And it also of course means that at least Russia does not care in the slightest who is a threat to them and who isn't. They only care who they perceive as weak. Frankly, the same goes for Iran. Iran is not remotely threatened by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait or Qatar, and yet they're attacking all of them (they're even attacking Saudi Arabia with land forces by the way)
2) As to your second point, Iran was constantly attacking oil facilities pretty much their entire existence, if you include tankers, for at least 40 years, it was just constant. It was "normal", and barely reported. When it comes to land-based infrastructure attacked things heated up and cooled down, but never cooled down fully.
The US defended everyone, and the tankers, and by defended I mean we blew the hell out of Iranians, usually sinking boats, occasionally going after fixed installations. I don't think you're going to find many US Navy sailors surprised at what's happened.
Outside of that here is a list of attacks on gulf state energy infrastructure, just the last 6 years. You may notice that either by the location or the associations (e.g. Houthi attacks) it's always been Iran doing the attacks since Saddam Hussein left, with the occasional shot in the other direction. I couldn't find a good recent example, but actually it's not just Israel shooting and fighting back, but also Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. Iran isn't even at peace with the Taliban.
May 2019: sabotage of oil tankers near Fujairah in the UAE.
May 2019: drone strike on Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline pumping stations.
September 2019: the huge strike on Abqaiq and Khurais in Saudi Arabia, which temporarily knocked out more than half of Saudi output.
November 2020: attack on Aramco’s North Jeddah Bulk Plant.
March 2021: attempted strike on Ras Tanura and related Saudi energy targets.
March 2021: attack on the Jeddah petroleum products distribution plant.
November 2021: another Houthi claim of attacks on Aramco facilities in Jeddah.
March 2022: attacks on Saudi energy facilities, including Jeddah storage tanks.
March 25, 2022: Saudi Jeddah petroleum products distribution/storage site attacked.
June 14, 2025: Israeli strike on a Tehran fuel depot and refinery.
June 16, 2025: Iranian attack shut down Israel’s Haifa refinery.
March 2, 2026: drone attack on Saudi Ras Tanura refinery.
March 18, 2026: strike on Iran’s South Pars / Asaluyeh gas facilities.
March 18–19, 2026: Iranian retaliatory attacks on Ras Laffan in Qatar, SAMREF/Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, Mina al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah in Kuwait, and UAE energy sites including Habshan/Bab.
March 19, 2026: another strike affecting Israel’s Haifa refinery.