President Trump vowed on Wednesday to hit Iran with new sanctions but appeared to pull back from taking any new military action. The tension between the two countries soared after the U.S. assassinated Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani at the Baghdad International Airport last week.

Early on Wednesday, Iran retaliated to the death of Soleimani by firing 22 ballistic missiles at military bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces, but no one was injured in the attack. Iran had warned the Iraqi government about the strike in advance.

Two small rockets also later hit the Green Zone near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. During a televised address on Wednesday, Trump urged NATO to become more involved in the Middle East and called for countries to pull away from the Iran nuclear deal.

Democracy Now! speaks with Andrew Bacevich, president, and co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is a retired colonel and Vietnam War veteran and author of, most recently, The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory.

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