by George Rasley
Late Friday, the favorite time for the Deep State to announce potentially troublesome information, the Biden administration announced it had sent a “War Powers Resolution” letter to Congress.
To somewhat oversimplify, the letter is required by the post-Vietnam War Powers Act that requires the President to notify Congress when American military forces engage with enemy forces, in this case Iranian-backed militias in Syria.
According to the letter, “…on the night of October 26, 2023, United States forces conducted targeted strikes against facilities in eastern Syria. The precision strikes targeted facilities used by the IRGC and IRGC-affiliated groups for command and control, munitions storage, and other purposes.”
The airstrikes were launched following over 15 Drone and Rocket Attacks by these Militias on U.S. Forces in Syria and Iraq resulting in the death of an American contractor as well as the Injury of at least 30 military personnel. The letter further states that, “The United States stands ready to take further action, as necessary and appropriate, to address further threats or attacks.”
However, the most notable points in the otherwise mundane bureaucratic language of the letter were these:
The strikes were… conducted in a manner to limit the risk of escalation…
The United States took this necessary and proportionate action…
In other words, far from being a serious deterrent, Biden ordered just a little bit of bombing so as not to P.O. the Iranians.
What’s more, according to reporting by the UK’s Guardian, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said at the UN on Thursday that if Israel’s offensive against Hamas did not stop, the U.S. would “not be spared from this fire.”
Charles Lister, the director of the Syria and countering terrorism and extremism programs at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the attacks showed Iran had an extensive network of well-armed, aggressive and well-coordinated proxies across the region, “which it has established for exactly this scenario.”
He added, according to the Guardian report: “They are currently testing redlines but not pushing too hard. They are putting the onus on the US to respond.”
According to our sources with connections to the intelligence apparatus Biden’s weak tea “proportional” deterrence didn’t work.
Far from pulling back and being deterred it is alleged Iran opened missile silos and its proxy militias are preparing to advance on U.S. bases.
And this response should have been expected, because for almost a week the media has been reporting the US now has specific intelligence that those same groups could escalate even further as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.
There are “red lights flashing everywhere,” a US official in the region told CNN.
A week ago today, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said there is “a very direct connection between these groups” and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and he said the US is “deeply concerned about the potential of any significant escalation of these attacks in the days ahead.”
And last week a senior defense official quoted by CNN echoed that concern.
“We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term,” the official said. “And let’s be clear about it. The road leads back to Iran. Iran funds, arms, equips and trains militias and proxy forces all across the region. … We are preparing for this escalation, both in terms of defending our forces and being prepared to respond decisively.”
We can’t help but compare Joe Biden’s definition of “respond decisively” with that of former President Donald Trump. Biden’s idea of “respond decisively” was apparently to bomb some probably empty warehouses, Trump’s was to go straight for the head of the snake and kill Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force and a network of paramilitaries, militias and terrorist groups across the Middle East and beyond.
Biden’s war powers resolution letter leaves the initiative with the Iranians, and far from deterring the Islamic Republic, it appears to play into their strategy of incremental escalation.
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George Rasley is the editor of ConservativeHQ.org.
