On Jan. 28, three U.S. Army soldiers – Specialists Kennedy Sanders and Breonna Moffett, as well as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers – were killed after a drone struck a U.S. military installation dubbed “Tower 22” in northeastern Jordan, not far from the Iraqi and Syrian borders. The drone strike was attributed to the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group of militant organizations located in Iraq but backed by Iran.
Islamic Resistance in Iraq consists of organizations including Kata’ib Hezbollah, perhaps the most powerful and ardently anti-American militia in Iraq today, as well as Harakat al-Nujaba, Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada and other groups. Officials within the Biden administration have revealed multiple strikes will occur against Iranian-backed groups both within Syria and Iraq, but at the time I am writing this, those strikes have not happened yet.
Some have accused the Biden administration of weakness for allowing this drone strike to happen in the first place. I disagree. For one, Kata’ib Hezbollah announced a suspension of military operations on Jan. 30. This was likely due to pressure from the Iraqi government, which wishes to avoid further American airstrikes anywhere in its territory, and the Iranian government, which fears a bloodier regional conflict with the United States.
In response, those same people may suggest Kata’ib Hezbollah had the audacity to attack America in the first place due to President Biden’s weakness. However, regardless of the President and their policies, organizations like Kata’ib Hezbollah thrive by conducting these sorts of attacks – launching small drones and other ordnance against U.S. installations and forces with the expectation the United States will destroy most, or even all, of the projectiles and drones anyway. This seems like a Sisyphean task – attacking an enemy in vain only to have them bomb you and destroy a few months’ worth of equipment. However, this is the method through which they gain recruits as well as support and funding from the Iranian government.
Thus, a calculated strike is in American best interests. An airstrike is necessary in the first place, obviously, to deter further strikes on American personnel. However, a full-blown strike that attempts to destroy all militia locations (that we know of, not all the ones in existence) as well as hit at Iranian military locations may end up causing more damage than its worth.
This is because it could cause further escalation of conflicts in the Middle East, like with the Israeli-Gaza War, as organizations that view Israel and America as part of the same evil entity will attempt further attacks on Israel, which will in turn incite a much more violent response from the Israelis. Similarly, Iran might attempt to hit back at American and allied forces, or help allied militias launch larger-scale attacks on American forces by providing weapons, intelligence and planning, augmenting the capabilities of groups like the Houthis in Yemen or the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
As these conflicts escalate, the risk of casualties, both of American soldiers as well as civilians (including civilians far away from the original conflict zones) escalates. That is why, as tempting as a massive retaliatory series of airstrikes is, some degree of restraint should be utilized in choosing targets.
I understand the feeling some moderate liberals as well as conservatives have in saying we should bomb these sorts of extremist organizations into oblivion.
However, given these groups’ lack of central organization (making them hard to eliminate), their connections to their local communities (who provide active support as well as a recruiting pool) and their connections to other like-minded organizations and governments, massive strikes can quickly lead to a series of retaliations that spiral out of control. That may end up killing far more people than intended, while still failing to destroy the militant organization(s) in question.
Janagan Ramanathan is a Sartell High School alum, former U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and current aerospace engineering major at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
