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Pierce writes: "The new administration made its first boom-boom in Syria on Thursday, sent its first explod-a-gram message, which is now a rite of passage for presidents of both parties."

Joe Biden. (photo: Frank Franklin II/AP)
Joe Biden. (photo: Frank Franklin II/AP)


Joe Biden Completes the Rite of Passage for Any American President: Bombing the Middle East

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

27 February 21


The logic of our policy in that part of the world remains frustratingly circular as well as frustratingly extra-constitutional.

he new administration made its first boom-boom in Syria on Thursday, sent its first explod-a-gram message, which is now a rite of passage for presidents of both parties. I know that the effort to delegitimize the election was unprecedented and violent, and that it continues to this day, but you’re not really a president of the United States until you’ve blown something up in the Middle East. From the Washington Post:

The attack on a border-crossing station in eastern Syria, the first lethal operation ordered by the Biden administration against Iran’s network of armed proxies, was “authorized in response to recent attacks against American and coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.

It was, apparently, as limited strike as it could be, and at least this administration isn’t going to be pounding its chest for the next three years about it, but the logic of our policy in that part of the world remains frustratingly circular as well as frustratingly extra-constitutional. As Daniel Larison pointed out on the electric Twitter machine:

To sum up, we have to bomb targets in Syria without authorization to protect the troops that are in Iraq without authorization in order to pursue an unauthorized anti-ISIS mission that is really just an excuse to keep troops in the country for anti-Iranian reasons…"We have to defend our wanted troop presence in one country by attacking targets in yet another country" sounds unrelated to self-defense of the United States, but who can say?

And the bipartisan semi-consensus on the value of explod-a-grams remains baffling, especially to those of us who remember that it is the same logic by which Richard Nixon carpet-bombed North Vietnam so he’d have a ceasefire to run on in 1972.

The airstrike appears to be part of a U.S. message to Iran that it cannot improve its leverage in talks by attacking U.S. interests. But Biden’s decision to use force may also set back his plan to shift the focus of U.S. national security away from the Middle East in a long-planned pivot to Asia.

“The strike, the way I see it, was meant to set the tone with Tehran and dent its inflated confidence ahead of negotiations,” said Bilal Saab, a former Pentagon official who is currently a senior fellow with the Middle East Institute. “You don’t want to enter into potential talks with Iran on any issue with a bruise to your face from the Irbil attacks.”

“Sending messages.”

“Saving face.”

As far as casus belli go, these are pretty damn lame. And, not for nothing, but we just blew up a piece of Syria because an American contractor got killed. We know that the de facto leader of the Saudi government may have ordered the murder and butchery of a U.S.-resident journalist. Send a message on that.

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