The United States was all set to carry out military strikes against Iran this week. American President Donald Trump himself tweeted to say that his military was “cocked & loaded”, prepared to hit three sites in the Islamic Republic, a move that would have potentially killed 150 people. Just 10 minutes before the strike was supposed to happen, Trump said, he decided to call off the operation. With tensions between the US and Iran running so high, many are wondering whether the US is going to repeat a tragic historical mistake a decade and a half after it bombed its way into a disastrous war against Iraq. It’s impossible to say for certain if there is going to be a war, but the events of the past few days have certainly increased the chances of some sort of conflict. On this edition of The Big Picture we will take a closer look at the crisis in West Asia