RE:YikesDude, I think you clearly have a simplistic view with some serious gaps in rationale with connecting the dots.
As we know there were 3 deaths but oddly little is said about the other 40 injured in the attacks on US solders so this is a major event worthy of a swift and severe response. Add to that that there have been more than 160 strikes against US bases since Oct and the need to "act" has been essential and certainly should have been in the planning stages for some time, assuming competence within the Administration and giving the Sec of Defence - Austin - the benefit of the dought, which is a stretch. Keep in mind that the pathetic withdrawl out of Afghanistan where they left the military equipment, evactuated military personal first then miserably failed to move the civilians, tells us just how incompetent they are.
The general thought amongst the US military and of the adversaries in the Middle East is that the Biden Admin is weak - which is demonstrated by allowing the proxies to attack the US bases with little to no response since Oct. That weak response is directly responsible for the deaths and many injured on Jan 28th and it has taken them a full 5 days to respond. I am not sure what you mean by "informing Iran first to avoid casualties" as Intelligence from the ground suggesting that by telegraphing the strikes in advance it gave the Iranian proxies time to move soldiers and munitions. What gain would playing nice with Iran have in effective strategic objectives besides advancing what is their main objective which is to win the election in Nov. We know that inflation and oil prices are closely linked so attacking on a Friday night, after market, while oil prices have declined by near 10% in the week tells us exactly what/why the market sells off. Sorry the supply/demand situation did not change that much in 5 days but we do know that Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Hamas and now Iran/proxies/US situation clearly should have added or at least supported prices due to escalating geo-political risks.If you don't undertand this then you don't know how the markets are being manipulated for political reasons by those with deep deep pockets, which carries risk to retail investors such as ourselves.