Sharing a Washington Post article that examined the U.S. launch of “retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on Monday after a drone attack that injured three service members,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called the American retaliation — which is believed to have killed at least one militant — “well deserved.”
Essentially calling for more and similar strikes, Blumenthal asked: “Why aren’t we doing more preemptively—destroying their strike capacity to protect our force?”
This strike on Iran-backed militias is well deserved & directed, after their serious attacks & injuries to our troops. Why aren’t we doing more preemptively—destroying their strike capacity to protect our force? Dangers of escalation are manageable by deploying with precision. https://t.co/6RZ3RRGPLx
— Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) December 27, 2023
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed “necessary & proportionate strikes on 3 facilities,” saying “these precision strikes are a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq & Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias, including an attack by Iran-affiliated Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups on Erbil Air Base earlier today.”
Today, at @POTUS’ direction, U.S. military forces conducted necessary & proportionate strikes on 3 facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah & affiliated groups in Iraq. These precision strikes are a response to a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq & Syria by…
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) December 26, 2023
In sharing and commenting on the U.S. strikes in Iraq, Blumenthal asserted that fighting at this level was sustainable without triggering a major escalation of violence in the region, a statement sure to be challenged by American enemies and by reality.
In a statement that sounds poached from one of the whiz kids in David Halberstam’s The Best and The Brightest, Blumenthal wrote: “Dangers of escalation are manageable by deploying with precision.”
[NOTE: By precision, Blumenthal may be referring to the Pentagon assertion that no civilians, only militants, were killed or injured in the American retaliation.]
U.S. CENTCOM conducts strikes against Kataib Hezbollah terrorist group targets in Iraq
— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 26, 2023
In response to multiple attacks against coalition forces in Iraq and Syria, U.S. military forces conducted airstrikes against multiple facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah and affiliated groups… pic.twitter.com/mmL4WqFXq9
Blumenthal doesn’t — in his post – offer evidence for his notion that directed attacks won’t contribute to escalation in the region, where the threat of escalation is already perilously high as Israel responds in Gaza to the Hamas attacks of 10/7 and also to Hezbollah provocations in Lebanon and Syria, sparking broad fears of escalation.
The Post article reports, citing the Pentagon, that “U.S. troops stationed at bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked more than 100 times by Iranian-backed militias since Oct. 17.”
