President Biden was asked this morning whether Iran was responsible for the recent deaths of three U.S. service personnel in Jordon along with the very serious injuries to 8 others — injuries caused by a drone attack on the U.S. base at Tower 22 near the Syrian border. Iran backed and supplied militant groups in Syria and Iraq have launched more than 150 similar attacks since the start of the Oct. 7th war against Hamas in Gaza. That was the first of those attacks to result in serious U.S. casualties. Those militia attacks have clearly been a response to Israel’s incursion into Gaza.
If the U.S. government takes this position — that Iran, the supplier of the weapons, is accountable for how their surrogates use them, then clearly we are similarly responsible for the carnage in Gaza resulting from the use of U.S. supplied weapons by the Israeli Defense Forces in their response to the Oct. 7th terrorist attack by Hamas.
If this logic holds, the U.S. is now co-accountable for the deaths of 25,000+ Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the destruction of billions of dollars worth of homes and infrastructure.
Rather than risk further expanding the regional conflict by attacking Iran backed militias in Syria and Iraq, the Biden administration should do everything it possibly can to stop Israel from continuing their campaign of death and destruction in Gaza — starting with a prolonged cease fire and a hostage/prisoner exchange, then allow aid to reach the suffering population of Gaza. Israel will need to withdraw from Gaza and the UN or some other comparatively neutral entity will need to assume administrative control. Negotiations for peace and co-existence must follow, but that step is difficult to envision because it is unclear who will represent the Gazan people after Hamas.
Republican hawks in the Senate and House are loudly calling for President Biden to take military action against Iran thehill.com/...— or at the very least, against its surrogates in Iraq and Syria. Such a response appears likely and soon. Unfortunately President Biden fears appearing ‘weak’ in an election year and consequently is likely to compensate by overreacting. This is the same sort of saber rattling that got us into protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A tit for tat, eye for an eye response can only lead to more rubble and ruin. What President Biden needs to do and should do is to show strength by being the peace maker. Sadly the politics of this moment will likely lead us down the other path.