The Pentagon’s airstrikes on Iran-backed militias in Syria are not only the first army action undertaken by President Joe Biden, but demonstrate his broad promise to pursue a foreign policy that is more cooperative and involved with foreign partners than that of his predecessor. which still avoids America’s role as a global police force to focus on the lives of Americans, some experts and lawmakers say.
Biden ordered thursday night airstrikes on various services at a Syrian-Iraqi border checkpoint in southeastern Syria in retaliation for rocket attacks on U. S. targets in neighboring Iraq. The Pentagon knew the targets as “a series of militant groups backed by Iran, Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada. He called the airstrikes “and ” defensive” and said the airstrikes were carried out after consultation with coalition partners and “uns specified” diplomatic measures.
The army’s action comes at a time when Washington and Tehran are stuck in an obvious snout about who deserves to take the first step in revitalizing a nuclear deal reached through the Trump administration; as Biden promised to recalibrate national security movements to favor the middle class; and as the USA TODAY report revealed the voluminous scale of U. S. Army bases and counter-terrorism operations two decades after September 11.
“We are involved in President Biden’s first intuition for regional security in the Middle East rather than seeking characteristics of the military rather than diplomacy,” said Ryan Costello, director of the American Iranian National Council, an organization seeking relations between Washington. and Tehran.
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“Biden then sought to respond to the incident in Iraq,” said Max Abrahms, professor of political science and public policy at Northeastern University, “but sought to do so in a way that didn’t seem too heavy. the maximum. ” The basic question you want to be asked, and it is not, is what are Iranian militias doing in Iraq?The answer is that they are there in component because the United States overthrew (former Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein. “
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Abrahms said Biden’s administration sought to balance the instincts of national security veterans and diplomats like Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Obama-era officials who have long been targeted by the military’s intervention and regime replacement in Venezuela, with the Zeitgeist of American citizens, which evolved Trump’s management. “
He described this “zeitgeist,” which is supported by surveys, which shows that many Americans are fully involved in economic and security threats closer to home, as “America’s more limited role in the world, greater delimitation of our lies interests, and skepticism about a program to publicize democracy. “
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters that he “trusts the purpose to which we aspire. We know what we’ve accomplished. “
The Syrian Observatory on Human Rights, a London-based tracking group, said airstrikes killed at least 22 pro-Iranian fighters, wounded many others and destroyed several trucks with ammunition. Some Iranian media reported a death toll, but did not cite the source. of your information.
Earlier this month, a Filipino civilian contractor working with the U. S. -led army coalition in Iraq was killed in a rocket attack on U. S. targets. Several others were wounded in the assault, as well as a National Guard soldier and four U. S. civilian contractors. Iran denies any involvement or connection to the February 15 attack near Erbil.
A little-known Shiite militant calling himself Saraya Awliya al-Dam, in Arabic for the Blood Guardian Brigade, took responsibility.
Iranian-backed Shiite militias have been guilty of rocket attacks targeting a U. S. corps of workers or services in Iraq. Commander Qasem Soleimani sparked a fierce war on Iraqi soil that brought the United States to the breaking point of war.
The United States has about 2500 soldiers stationed in Iraq.
Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat for Virginia, said in a statement that “other Americans deserve to hear the administration’s justification for those movements and their legal justification for acting without going to Congress. The army’s offensive action without congressional approval is unconstitutional in the absence of ordinary conditions. “
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the Department of Defense had informed Congressional leaders before the airstrikes and that there would be a full briefing next week. She called the action “according to [the president’s] authority for American staff. “
“The targets have been selected to adapt to recent attacks on amenities and to deter the threat of additional attacks in the coming weeks,” he said Friday. “Under foreign law, the United States acted in accordance with a threat of self-defense as reflected in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. The measures were to address the threat and proportional to past attacks. “
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN that Biden’s air movements marked the fifth time in a row that a U. S. president ordered such movements opposed to targets in the Middle East.
“Surely there is no justification for a president to authorize an army attack other than self-defense in opposition to imminent risk without congressional authorization. We want to leave the Middle East, not climb,” Khanna said, noting that an action under the “broad and outdated” Military Force Use Authorization Act (AUMF).
AUMF is a law derived from President George W’s “Global War on Terror. “Bush and the invasion of Afghanistan after September 11. The 2001 authorization was extended to attack militant teams in Syria, Kenya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and beyond, according to a review through Stephanie Savell, a defense and security expert on the War Costs Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute. USA TODAY reported this week, founded on Savell’s research, that from 2018 to 2020, the US military will be able to do so. U. S. active in counterterrorism operations in 85 countries, either directly or through substitutes, educational exercises, drone movements, or low-profile U. S. special operations missions.
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“I’ve opposed a war with Trump and I’ll oppose it when we have a Democratic president,” Khanna said in her comments to CNN.
Adnan Tabatabai, founder and CEO of CARPO, a German-based expert group that specializes in problems affecting the Middle East, said in a Twitter message that when “policy makers in #Teherán (and for that matter) argue that there are no adjustments with a new (US president), that’s what they mean. “Tabatabai referred to airstrikes by successive U. S. administrations targeting Iranian interests in Iraq.
However, the action has gained some bipartisan support.
“Today’s airstrike demonstrates President Biden’s determination to save Iran from attacking America’s body of workers and allies with impunity,” said Steny Hoyer, leader of the parliamentary majority.
Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican for Pennsylvania, said, “The commander-in-chief has a duty to Americans at home and abroad” and that Biden has “reason to respond. “
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Jennifer Cafarella, a national security officer at the Institute for the Study of War, a policy studies organization in Washington, argued, also on Twitter, that airstrikes demonstrated “that the #Biden administration completely forgets Iran’s malicious and growing regional operations. “because he discovers a way to resume international nuclear relations with Iran.
“There’s still a lot to see, but it’s a smart step,” Cafarella wrote.
Contributor: Tom Vanden Brook