They're not the morality police, they're the Footloose force.
Yup, even small scale use has an escalation in response. Use even a tactical weapon on anyone other than yourself (and why would you even do that?) and then it looks like the capital wasteland all over.Anyone with any degree of sense knows that nobody wins a nuclear war. Unfortunately......
Three American service members were killed and “many” were wounded in a drone strike in Jordan, President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday. He attributed the attack to Iran-backed militia groups.
They were the first U.S. fatalities in months of strikes against American forces across the Middle East by Iranian-backed militias amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, increasing the risk of escalation. U.S. officials were still working to conclusively identify the precise group responsible for the attack, but have assessed that one of several Iranian-backed groups are responsible.
Biden said the United States “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner our choosing.”
I would take this further and say that people do not have this ability. Everyone thinks they're in the right, all the time. If someone's causing problems and your plan isn't to permanently remove their ability to cause problems, you're wasting your time.But you also need to understand, countries do not have the level of self reflection needed to go "Yeah, we deserved that, that's on us."
That's actually a good statement on the realities of the situation. I was just pointing out that if the situation ever got to the point of no return, the US wouldn't have to resort to nukes and could still accomplish the same thing.No, you can't just "evac the civilians". Moving that many people at ANY speed, never mind fast enough to outrun carpet bombers requires the cooperation of the local government. It also requires the cooperation of those same civilians, and having a bunch of armed men show up and start screaming instructions in a country that already makes use of religious secret police? Yeah, bad times all around.
FORCING that many people to move against their will and otherwise under threat of death? Yeah, that's a war crime. Don't get me wrong, there's probably tons of Iranians who would love the excuse to get out, but for the reason of "your house will cease to exist soon" usually isn't incentivizing.
And understand: irans actions are attempting to goad the US into over reacting, you know, to generate an excuse to further destabilize the middle east and make you guys look bad on the international stage. That's it, this functionally trying to get you guys to get pissed off and doing something stupid for tiktok clout.
The US is going to ask iran, very politely, not to do that again. Through the UN even, and probably even with some incentives to make it worth their while. And if they do it again, (directly attributable to iran of course, none of that proxy bullshit cause iran finances half the worlds terrorists already.) the US will open the toybox and MAKE iran stop killing US soldiers with precision strikes to military and ONLY military targets. But you also need to understand, countries do not have the level of self reflection needed to go "Yeah, we deserved that, that's on us." any strike for any reason is just another excuse for them. It makes next years problems with iran worse, doesn't matter who started it.
The second you engage in wholesale, and indiscriminate destruction is the second BEFORE another middle eastern war starts. No one wants that jive. Everything that happens in the next few days over this is specifically and intently designed to NOT trap the US and its allies into another 20 year long desert war. To not give folks like hamas and hezbolla and the houthis an excuse of "The US is too busy with its own problems to help you". To NOT disrupt international trade and waste time, money and material in another pointless war over an event that should rightly be treated as a child throwing a temper tantrum.
Edit: I realize that last statement is REALLY dismissive and disrespectful, given how many were hurt and killed. But all of this is literally just iran acting out FOR ATTENTION. They more time on the international stage, that's all. Engaging in an ACTUAL war with US, or even just the US's allies will end with iran looking like the flintstones.