Although he doesn’t say it outright James Joyner’s recent post strongly suggests, through his reference to an episode of The West Wing, that he finds the U. S. response to continuing attacks by what are blithely referred to as “militant groups” in the Middle East inadequate. He sounds more fatigued than anything else.
My own reaction is that I’m skeptical that it’s a just use of military force. For such to be just it must:
- Have a just objective
- Use just means
- Have a just authority
Retaliation against those who killed American soldiers in Jordan last week would be just but retaliation against people who had nothing to do with those deaths would not. The large number of targets strongly suggests it is not a just retaliation. The means are just enough.
But President Biden did not seek Congressional approval which he would need to have done to have a just authority for his actions. Consequently, I’m skeptical the actions are just and echo James’s conclusion:
So the tiresome game of tit for tat continues.
Articles that I saw said that Biden was feeling political pressure to respond,
IOW,
handlers telling him, “looks bad, weak if we don’t do something about this “.
OTOH, minimize civilian casualties.
Wag the dog.