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US HAWKS DEMAND WAR WITH IRAN AFTER ATTACK ON AMERICAN TROOPS IN
JORDAN  
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Jake Johnson
January 29, 2024
Common Dreams
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_ "After years of working to block and undermine diplomatic
alternatives, these people may be closer than ever to realizing their
dream of war with Iran." _

Sen. Tom Cotton, a longtime supporter of war with Iran., Photo by
Andrew Harnik

 

Warhawks in the United States wasted no time agitating for direct
military conflict with Iran after a drone attack on a military base
just inside Jordan's border with Syria on Sunday killed three American
troops and injured dozens more
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Both Republican and Democratic members of Congress called on U.S.
President Joe Biden to quickly respond with strikes inside Iran,
which denied any connection
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Sunday's attack.

"The only answer to these attacks must be devastating military
retaliation against Iran's terrorist forces, both in Iran and across
the Middle East," said
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Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a longtime supporter of war with Iran. "Anything
less will confirm Joe Biden as a coward unworthy of being
commander-in-chief."

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) called
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"an existential threat to the U.S. and our allies in the region" and
said Tehran "must be held accountable for the murder of three U.S.
soldiers."

That sentiment was echoed by a number of lawmakers, including Rep.
Josh Gottheimer
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and Sens. John Cornyn
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and Lindsey Graham
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United Against Nuclear Iran, a group chaired by former Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, also demanded
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decisive U.S. military response against targets inside Iran."

"The U.S. should attack and destroy Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
(IRGC) military and intelligence targets in Iran, as well as missile
and drone bases where the Iranian regime’s proxies are trained," the
group said.

Biden claimed in a statement
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that "radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq"
were responsible for Sunday's drone attack, but acknowledged that the
U.S. is "still gathering the facts."

"Have no doubt—we will hold all those responsible to account at a
time and in a manner [of] our choosing," the president said.

U.S. forces stationed in the Middle East have faced increasingly
frequent attacks since Israel launched its large-scale war on the Gaza
Strip following the deadly Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on
October 7. Sunday marked the first time since October that American
troops have been killed in a Middle East attack.

The Biden administration has blamed the attacks on Iran-aligned
militias and responded with airstrikes in Iraq
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concerns that the U.S. is fueling a regionwide conflict. The
administration has also launched a series of unauthorized
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in Yemen in response to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the
Red Sea.

Despite the above, the Pentagon continues to insist
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the U.S. is "not at war in the Middle East."

Contrary to the growing calls for a military response to attacks on
U.S. troops, analysts and progressive lawmakers have argued that the
only way to halt the escalating violence in the region is to secure a
cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces armed by the U.S.
have killed more than 26,000 people in less than four months. The
Biden administration has repeatedly stonewalled
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efforts to secure a cease-fire.

"I am heartbroken by the loss of the servicemembers killed in Jordan,"
Rep. Barbara Lee
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Senate candidate, wrote in a social media post
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Sunday. "Like I feared, the violence is spiraling out of
control. President Biden must demand a cease-fire in Gaza now."

Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, warned
in a statement
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that "the U.S. and Iran are now closer to the brink of being pulled
into a full-blown regional war by the vortex of violence that was
unleashed by Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7th and Israel's
assault on Gaza."

"Those who have consistently counseled only violence to address the
crisis unleashed on October 7 should be ashamed of the disastrous
outcomes they have so far reaped," said Abdi. "We are disgusted by
calls for more escalation from opportunists like Senators Lindsey
Graham, Tom Cotton, and John Cornyn who are urging yet again for the
U.S. to directly attack Iran. After years of working to block and
undermine diplomatic alternatives, these people may be closer than
ever to realizing their dream of war with Iran."

"President Biden must show leadership and recognize that there is no
military solution to this crisis that has only been expanded and
prolonged by military escalation and a dearth of diplomacy," he
continued. "The president must calibrate his response so as not to
condemn the U.S. and region to an intractable war and instead work to
end this conflict. The most impactful thing Biden can do to prevent
further deaths across the region and prevent a full-blown war is to
secure an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Palestine."

Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for
Responsible Statecraft, similarly argued that "to truly protect our
troops and avoid both war and more needless American deaths, Biden
should begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and Syria and press Israel
for a cease-fire, since its slaughter in Gaza is fueling four fronts
that put the U.S. at risk."

"There will be understandable calls for revenge and counterstrikes,"
Parsi said. "Biden will almost certainly go down that path. Know that
this is how America gets dragged into endless war. Retaliations, which
in the moment may feel justified by the unacceptable attacks of these
militias, put us on a path toward a war that doesn't serve our
interests and that we cannot afford—one whose victory we cannot
define and whose exit we cannot envision."

_Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams._

* Iran
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* Middle East Policy
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* war hawks
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