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Drone attack complicates US effort to contain Middle East conflict

As news emerged Sunday that an Iran-backed militant group had killed three U.S. troops and wounded at least 34 other Americans at a remote outpost in Jordan with a drone, President Joe Biden vowed to strike back.

His response will go a long way toward shaping the extent to which the United States is further drawn into the spiraling Middle East clashes that the Biden administration has repeatedly vowed to avoid since Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel. 

Why We Wrote This

The U.S. pledged to retaliate after a lethal attack on American soldiers in Jordan. The Biden administration’s next steps are pivotal in shaping how far the U.S. is drawn into the escalating Middle East conflict.

This latest attack seemed to underscore that the U.S. is already being drawn down the path to wider regional conflict. Analysts note that amid this kind of escalation, the desire to avoid war often runs headlong into the rallying cry for a hard-hitting military response.

Some Republican lawmakers are calling for direct strikes in Iran. Other options include targeting members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Qods Force in Iraq, Syria, or Yemen.

“Whether or not it’s a good idea, Biden will have, at minimum, to take steps along those lines,” says Rajan Menon at the Defense Priorities think tank. “Especially because this is an election year and the GOP, and above all [former President Donald] Trump, will flay him for being weak.” 

As news emerged that an Iran-backed militant group had killed three U.S. troops and wounded at least 34 other Americans at a remote outpost in Jordan with a drone, President Joe Biden vowed to strike back.

“We lost three brave souls,” he said Sunday. “We shall respond.” 

What that means, exactly, will go a long way toward shaping the extent to which the United States is further drawn into the spiraling Middle East clashes that the Biden administration has repeatedly vowed to avoid since Hamas’ devastating Oct. 7 attack on Israel. 

Why We Wrote This

The U.S. pledged to retaliate after a lethal attack on American soldiers in Jordan. The Biden administration’s next steps are pivotal in shaping how far the U.S. is drawn into the escalating Middle East conflict.

Just hours earlier, on a Sunday morning news show recorded before the attack, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized that the U.S. decidedly does not “want to go down a path of greater escalation that drives to a much broader conflict within the region.”

This latest attack, however, seemed to underscore that the U.S. is already being drawn fairly far down this path. Amid this kind of escalation, analysts note, the desire to avoid war often runs headlong into the satisfying rallying cry for a hard-hitting military response.

Precisely who the recipient of this retribution should be, though, is a point of disagreement. What is clear, the Biden administration says, is that the attack was carried out by “radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq.”

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