U.S. bombs Iranian-linked outposts in Iraq and Syria
What happened
America’s multifront conflict with Iranianbacked militias intensified this week, as the U.S. struck more targets in retaliation for last week’s drone attack on a base in Jordan that killed three American soldiers and wounded dozens. One strike, on a car in Baghdad, killed a top leader of Kata’ib Hezbollah, the militia believed to be responsible for the Jordan attack. U.S. B-1B bombers last week conducted major airstrikes on 85 targets at seven facilities in Iraq and Syria used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force and other militant groups. Those attacks killed 23 people in Syria and 16 in Iraq, including civilians, and 80 of the targets were reported destroyed or disabled. Baghdad condemned what it called “aggression against Iraq’s sovereignty.” In a second wave of attacks, the U.S. and U.K. jointly bombed dozens of Houthi militia targets in Yemen, using fighter jets and anti-ship cruise missiles.
But Iran-allied militias did not let up. Houthi attacks damaged two Western merchant ships in the Red Sea, while the Islamic Resistance in Iraq hit a U.S. base in Syria, killing at least six U.S.-allied Kurdish fighters. In a starkly worded message, Iran itself warned the U.S. not to strike its command ship, the MV Behshad, which has been stationed at the entrance to the Red Sea since mid-January. Rear Adm. Marc Miguez, commander of the USS Eisenhower, which is also stationed in the area, says the Behshad has been ferrying targeting intelligence to the Houthis. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. was planning “additional strikes” and would not reveal “what we’ve ruled in and ruled out.”
What the columnists said
What an “unserious” response to Iranian aggression, said Tom Rogan in the Washington Examiner. The Biden administration openly said that its goal was to avoid full-scale war. Days ahead, it “essentially warned Iran where, how, and when” retaliation would come, allowing its proxies to relocate personnel and equipment “out of the line of fire.” The strikes amount to “an act of showmanship,” intended “to placate U.S. domestic critics while doing nothing to alter Iran’s escalatory behavior.”
Yet it’s “devilishly difficult to deter” Iran when it has proved so willing to let its proxies take casualties, said The Economist. Gradually degrading militia capabilities, as the U.S. is doing through these strikes, “might be a more realistic goal.” Still, the underlying problem remains: The U.S. wants to pivot away from the Middle East “while simultaneously keeping troops” there. That has left it with “a military presence big enough to present a menu of targets” for Iran to attack, “but too small actually to constrain Iran.” That status quo “is not working.”
“Iran is playing the long game,” said Robin Wright in The New Yorker. “Xenophobic and paranoid about its own survival,” the Islamic regime is “obsessed with driving Americans out of the Middle East.” To counter it, the U.S. must combine firepower with “diplomatic muscle.” Sending Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week to push for a truce between Israel and Hamas and cooperation from Gulf Arab states was a good start. But even if the Gaza war ends, it “will take much, much more” to calm a region in flames.