It does seem surprising that U.S. President Joe Biden did not think twice about authorizing his country’s first military strike since taking office. Yet Iran’s mullahs have left the new president no choice after the successive missile attacks by pro-Iranian militias on US targets in Iraq.
American fighter jets pounded positions in eastern Syria along the Iraqi border. The strike targeted Iranian-backed Iraqi Hezbollah militias and Sayyid Al Shuhada brigades.
The message was mainly aimed at Iran. It is from there that militias and other pro-Mollahs sectarian arms are taking orders in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and elsewhere. But the message is also meant for U.S. ears. It also concerns Republicans critical of President Biden’s Iran policy.
The Pentagon statement emphasized that “The operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and coalition personnel.” The US strike reportedly killed at least 20 militia fighters, targeting Hezbollah brigades and Sayyid Al Shuhada. The Pentagon has held them responsible for many of the recent attacks in Iraq.
Among these, a missile attack on a US military base in Erbil left one person injured and another attack on US bases in Baghdad, including in the Green Zone, hit the US embassy and other diplomatic missions.
The White House agreed to the strike about one month into President Joe Biden’s term in office. This comes as a brutal response to the mullahs’ indirect steps to test the water under the new president and the limits of his vehemence. This explains the recent spate of rocket attacks against US bases and targets in Iraq.
A US answer with force is indeed an option for the Democratic administration. The administration is often seen as having an appetite for “diplomacy” as a means of problem-solving. Use of force by the US, note, is a carefully calculated option.
The strike came at a seminal moment for the new US administration. President Biden does not want to derail his plan to resume negotiations on the nuclear agreement with Iran. He does not want to remain silent on Iran-backed militia attacks in Iraq either.
He wants to be firm in the face of these violations. His message to the Iranian government: despite what some may believe in Iran and elsewhere, the new administration’s options do not stop at diplomacy. From this point of view, one can understand the backdrop to this strike.
The motives for the American raid shaped the political-military decision to carry out a surgical strike to get the message across without getting bogged down in some major military conflict in an explosive region.
Essentially, President Biden, in what the Pentagon described as a “proportionate military response,” wanted to balance his crisis management approach with a desire to pass the sincerity test at the start of his four years in office.
He wants to project no hesitation or weakness in the face of threats to US soldiers in Iraq. Without so doing, his Republican opponents would get a valuable opportunity to criticize him and suggest his Iran approach undermines American strategic interests.
The Biden administration is well aware that the Iranian mullahs want the White House to grasp the extent of their influence in Iraq. Strikes and strike-back are a kind of indirect and well-calculated arm wrestling. They serve as bargaining chips in a broader crisis—Iran’s regional influence—Washington is seeking to include in upcoming nuclear accord talks.
By and large, it seems to me that President Biden will make further strike decisions if the threats from these militias keep up. Indeed, he will not let his political opponents accuse him of being soft, weak-willed, and lenient towards Iran.
US military strikes against the militias will even step up if the mullahs fail to sit down at the negotiating table to work out a solution to the nuclear crisis.
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