February 2, 2024
It’s been quite a long week for me, but I want to make sure we have a record of the U.S. military’s strike today on more than 85 targets at four facilities in Syria and three in Iraq used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp—which is the paramilitary organization organized in 1979 to protect the Islamic regime—and the militant groups it sponsors.
The U.S. was responding to the attacks on U.S. troops and facilities in Iraq and Syria and the attack on Sunday that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded more than 40 in Jordan.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters tonight that the “targets were carefully selected to avoid civilian casualties and based on clear, irrefutable evidence that they were connected to attacks on U.S. personnel in the region.” They included command and control centers; headquarters buildings; rocket, missile, and drone storage facilities; and so on. Kirby expressed strong confidence that the strikes were successful.
Kirby reiterated that the U.S. does not want conflict with Iran. It chose the targets “to degrade and disrupt the capabilities” of the groups that have been attacking U.S. troops. When asked what signal the administration was trying to send, Kirby said: “The signal is: The attacks have to stop. The attacks have to stop.”
But, he added, the strikes weren’t just a message. “This was about degrading capability; taking away, in a more robust way than we have in the past—taking away capabilities by the IRGC and the militant groups.”
Kirby was clear that there will be additional responses to the attacks on U.S. troops. He also explained how military strikes could be part of a policy of trying to avoid a broader conflict, saying that by taking away an adversary’s capability to kill your troops, “you are by default working to deescalate the tensions. And that’s the approach we’re taking,” he said.
In the past few days, the administration has sought to cut off funding for the IRGC and the groups it supports by placing additional economic sanctions on IRGC officers and officials and by charging nine people with selling Iran’s oil to finance Hamas and Hezbollah.
“The United States does not seek conflict in the Middle East or anywhere else in the world,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “But let all those who might seek to do us harm know this: If you harm an American, we will respond.”
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Notes:
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/irans-revolutionary-guards
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2065
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/us/politics/us-iran-sanctions-charges.html
Today’s news seems sadder than not. That the Paris agreements dissolved quickly if the first disappointment. Then to learn that the IDF is shooting up Raffa, the last “refuge” of Palestinian civilians will be the object of total destruction and that Netanyahu and settlers are in attack mode on the West Bank as well…. Finally I heard “Russia” in the mix, a name I have been waiting for, knowing the connection between the ?two wars had to be very real. May Speaker Johnson and his crew finally get their heads together and recognize (if they are capable of some international thinking) that funds for Ukraine and for Israel and Palestine to rebuild, are essential NOW. Everyone agrees on the two-state solution except Netanyahu and his fellow warmongers, most Americans agree on sending the planned arms to Ukraine, including many Republicans, so time for Congress to behave like grownups and pass the bills.
HCR ignores the elegant statement of our Secretary of Defense. In decades of listening, I’ve heard nothing more tasteful, nothing more honest, nothing more meaningful. He apologized. He accepted accountability. He detailed his health and explained his reasons for speaking and for the quiet of his office, accepting his role and praising those that acted on their own, not at his behest. He explained the odds that affect Black vs white men and prostate cancer.
I love Secretary Austen. His leadership style offers a fresh perspective on leadership of the imperfect.
He is a good man, a warm, humble, humorous man of great integrity.
May his example teach America anew what President Abraham Lincoln sought at Gettysburg.
We are a good country, a good people at our best, and we err. To err is human. To forgive is divine.
Secretary Austin erred and he forgave today. He spoke the truth about his most personal life issues and an illness he has that threatens his life.
This Secretary demonstrates the wisdom of his President.
These two set the bar.