Biden’s Syria Airstrikes May Feel Like Trump Déjà Vu. Here’s What’s Different.
American airstrikes on Iran-linked paramilitaries in Syria this week were a deterrent response to attacks on U.S. forces in neighboring Iraq. Yet they also to seem have been a conscious refutation by the Biden administration of the Trump administration’s wild, dangerous approach to both Iraq and Iran.
Trump’s recklessness almost ignited a regional war. The Biden team’s handling of Thursday’s airstrikes looks very intentionally un-Trump—but Trump left Biden with a dangerous enough predicament in Iraq that even a more careful, deliberate approach might not be enough to fix it.
On Thursday evening, U.S. aircraft bombed Iraqi paramilitary factions on the Syrian-Iraqi border, in what the Pentagon said was a deterrent response and an effort to preempt “ongoing threats.” An official in one Iraqi paramilitary group told Reuters that the U.S. strikes had killed one fighter and wounded four.