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“Three U.S. service members were killed and at least 34 wounded in a drone attack by Iran-backed militants on U.S. troops in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden and U.S. officials said on Sunday.” Reuters
“U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday vowed the U.S. would take ‘all necessary actions’ to defend its troops… even as President Joe Biden's administration stressed it was not seeking a war with Iran.” Reuters
The right urges a strong response against Iran.
“Mr. Biden issued a statement Sunday that ‘America’s heart is heavy’ at the death of patriots who are the ‘best of our nation.’ That sentiment is nice, and no doubt sincere, but at this point it is inadequate and infuriating. The sorry truth is that these casualties are the result of the President’s policy choices.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“The deadly assault on a US base near the Jordanian-Syrian border was the 159th Iran-directed attack on American forces in the Middle East since Oct. 17. Those attacks have included suicide drones, mortars, rockets and close-range ballistic missiles, leaving dozens of other Americans injured… Tehran never once paid a price for these strikes…
“To the contrary, Biden has rewarded the ayatollah to the tune of $100 billion — including massive revenue from the non-enforcement of US oil sanctions over three years, a $6 billion ransom payment and a $10 billion sanctions waiver renewed in November…
“When the IRGC directed similar attacks on US forces in Iraq in late 2019, killing an American contractor, former President Donald Trump responded by taking out IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. It was an escalation Tehran didn’t expect and struck fear into the mullahs that more American military might could be on the way… Biden needs his own Soleimani moment.”
Richard Goldberg, New York Post
“We’re constantly assured that what the Biden administration does is ‘proportionate,’ and that no response to any attack will ever be ‘escalatory.’ And yet, these ‘carefully calibrated’ responses rarely prove effective…
“We hit Iranian proxies, but those Iranian proxies keep attacking Americans. We make sure none of our aid to Ukraine could be perceived as ‘escalatory,’ and the Russian military keeps attacking civilian targets and committing war crimes. We keep attempting to ‘reset’ relations with Beijing, while their military behavior gets more aggressive and provocative…
“Did it ever cross the mind of the Biden team that maybe the fact that every U.S. response is so ‘carefully calibrated’ and ‘proportionate’ and ‘non-escalatory’ is one of the reasons that the Iranians, the Russians, and other hostile states are so rarely if ever deterred? When you announce to the world that your actions will only be ‘proportionate,’ the enemy gets to determine how big and how hard you will counterpunch after you’re struck.”
Jim Geraghty, National Review
The left cautions against attacking Iran directly.
The left cautions against attacking Iran directly.
“‘Hit Iran now. Hit them hard,’ one Republican senator advises US President Joe Biden. ‘The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and across the Middle East,’ chimes in another. Anything less, he adds, ‘will confirm Joe Biden as a coward.’ Such schoolyard baiting rarely yields good strategy…
“Much of the Republican bluster is in fact pure grandstanding, as even their presumptive candidate for president, Donald Trump, knows but won’t admit. ‘This attack would NEVER have happened if I was president, not even a chance,’ he blurted on Truth Social. That conveniently elides the strikes that Iran executed against US assets on his watch, and his own caution in retaliating.”
Andreas Kluth, Bloomberg
Some note, “I was skeptical of the wisdom of Qassem Soleimani’s assassination when it happened in January 2020, with President Donald Trump’s finger on the trigger. The Iranian general had it coming. (Perhaps we all do—but some more than others.) The danger of escalation was too great, I thought. But after the assassination, Iran pointedly refused to retaliate in a way that would have set the region ablaze…
“The advantage of the Soleimani assassination was its discontinuity. It completely bypassed the predictable logic of tit for tat and went directly to identify your charred body by its gold rings for tat…“By definition, a policy of deterrence works only when one’s enemy declines to test it. Now it is probing, probing, probing… We are approaching a scenario that calls, strategically, for off-menu ordering, an act of retaliation that Iran had not contemplated.”
Graeme Wood, The Atlantic
Others argue, “Direct American military retaliation against Iran itself would be a disaster. It would prolong the Gaza conflict. It would almost certainly trigger an all-out Hezbollah attack on Israel. It could turn local firefights into raging infernos in Iraq and Syria, and destabilise friendly regimes in Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf…
“The safer, wiser course of action, for which the world and many American voters would thank him, is for Biden to address root causes without further delay. He should demand a halt to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, enforce a ceasefire that frees the Israeli hostages, and lead a credible, international drive to finally – finally – create a two-state solution in Palestine.”
Simon Tisdall, The Guardian
