Political pressure mounts on Biden to attack Iran after US death – (WIW)
Biden’s options for response could range from targeting forces outside Iran to even inside Iran, or opting for a more cautious counterattack against only Iranian-backed extremists, experts say. Iranian-backed forces have attacked 4,444 US troops in the Middle East in Iraq, Syria, Jordan and the Yemeni coast more than 150 times since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October.
But before Sunday’s attack on a remote outpost known as Tower 22 near Jordan’s northeastern border with Syria, strikes did not kill or injure as many American soldiers. This gave Biden the political space to target US countermeasures that would impose costs on Iranian-backed forces without risking outright war with Tehran.
Biden said the United States would respond, without giving any more details.
Republicans accused Biden of letting American forces become sitting ducks, waiting for the day when a drone or missile would evade base defenses. They say that day came on Sunday, when a single one-way attack drone struck near base barracks early in the morning.
In response, they say Biden must strike Iran.
“He left our troops as sitting ducks,” said Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton. “The only response to these attacks is devastating military retaliation against Iran’s terrorist forces, both in Iran and throughout the Middle East.”
Republican Mike Rogers, who chairs the US House Armed Services Oversight Committee, also called for action against Tehran.
“It is long past time for President Biden to hold the terrorist regime in Iran and their extremist proxies accountable for the attacks they have carried out,” Rogers said.
Former president Donald Trump, who hopes to face Biden in this year’s presidential election, described the attack as “a result of Joe Biden’s weakness and surrender.”
The Biden administration has said it will do everything possible to protect US forces around the world.
One Democrat has publicly expressed concern that Biden’s strategy to contain the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza is failing.
“As we can see now, it’s getting out of control. It’s starting to look like a regional war, and unfortunately, the United States and our troops are at risk,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, a Democrat, as she reiterated calls for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian war.
NOT THAT. EASY
Rep. Seth Moulton , a Democrat who served four tours in the Marines in Iraq, called for opposition to Republican calls for war, saying that “deterrence is difficult; war is worse.” strikes against Iranian troops in Iran could force Tehran to respond forcefully, escalating the situation in a way that could lead the US to a major Middle East war.
Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, said an attack directly inside Iran would raise questions in Tehran about the government’s survival.
“When you do things publicly, you represent a major escalation for the Iranians,” Lord said.
Charles Lister of the Washington-based Near East Institute said the likely answer would be to look for a large target or high-value fighter in Iran-backed groups in Iraq or Syria.
“What happened this morning was on a whole different level than what these proxies have been doing for the last two or three months… (but) despite all the calls for action in Iran, I don’t see this administration taking that bait ,” Lister said.
An anonymous senior U.S. defense official said it is not clear what the second- and third-order effects will be after Iran.
“If the United States is not preparing for full-scale war, attacking Iran will serve us well,” said the official
However, Lord and other experts have acknowledged that Israel has been hitting Iranian targets in Syria for years without Iran giving up, including four Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers in Damascus in January. 20.
In recent months, the US has also hit Iran-related targets outside of Iran. In November, the US military announced that it had struck a facility used not only by a pro-Iranian group but also by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
But Lister said the U.S. has gone after Iranians outside of Iran in the past, such as in the 2020 strike against Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani, and responded only for a limited time.
“So to some extent, if we go hard enough and high enough, we have experience that Iran might blink first,” Lister said..
