America's Talking - World Awaits Response to Death of U.S. Service Members in Drone Strike

Episode Date: February 3, 2024

The world is awaiting President Joe Biden’s response to a drone attack in Jordan over the weekend that left three U.S. service members dead and more than 30 injured. In his statement Sunday, Biden said “we know [the attack] was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq” and pledged to respond to the “despicable and wholly unjust attack.” That statement raised questions about what the response could look like and if it would be severe enough to escalate to a broader war in the region. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Vice President of News and Content at the Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. Joining me again today, as he does each and every week is the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief Casey Harper. How are you, Casey? Do good, Dan. How are you? I'm doing well, thank you.

We are recording this on Friday, February 2nd. Casey, last weekend, a drone attack in Jordan killed three U.S. service members and injured more than 30 others. The U.S. government blames the attack on radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq. President Joe Biden promises a military response, but as of this recording, that hasn't happened yet. What do we know, Casey? Yeah, I mean, this is a fast-moving issue. There are a lot of moving parts and kind of a fog of war thing going on right now. But as you said, we have a few key data points. We have dead or wounded U.S. service members. We have the president of the United States saying he knows who did it and that those militants are backed by Iran. We have Biden

saying he is going to retaliate. And even the latest news is it seems that a sustained bombing campaign on key targets, probably, you know, this is me speculating a little bit, probably in Yemen, probably in Jordan, I think probably not in Iran. And that's the key there. Now, I could be wrong. And who really knows, as I said, it's changing and it could change tomorrow. But the president has made clear he is. is going to respond on this. The Middle East is more chaotic and closer to a regional war than it has been in many years, probably even more so maybe than we were in Afghanistan just because of the powder keg that is Israel and Palestine, right? So you have the Israel and Palestine conflict going on, which we can talk more about. You have the Houthis in Yemen who are, you know, firing on U.S.

You know, in the U.S. Navy, they're fighting on any ships that come through. And you have you have all the billions of dollars of shipping because of that going around the southern tip of Africa, like the old days, really, damn before the Suez Canal. And then you have this drone, this drone strike that came in from these Iranian-backed militants. From everything I read, they could have shot it down, actually, but the drone apparently returned to the American base or came into the American base at the same time that a U.S. drone was expected to come in. And so this foreign drone was mistaken for a for a U.S. drone, basically. And that's how it was able to get in and do the damage it did. So, you know, those are like the basic facts. I think the question is, what is what are the specifics

of this strike look like? And does it cross some kind of line for Iran? Because Iran is trying to say, hey, we didn't do this. The militants who are responsible have stopped bombing. stopped attacking U.S. ships, at least temporarily, which is a sign to me, I think, that Iran said, hey, what are you guys doing? Stop it. We need to back off. The U.S. is a little too upset. So I don't think Iran necessarily wants this war with the U.S. so that is speculation. I think they probably want war with Israel. And that's what it would come down to if we didn't get some big regional conflict. The fact that three U.S. soldiers are dead and more than 30 others injured, it absolutely warrants some sort of response. The U.S. would look weak if it does not

respond with some sort of a military operation. But as you said, complicating this entire thing is the already high tensions in the Mideast over the Israeli war in Palestine, in Gaza, with the terrorist group Hamas. The high tensions, of course, you've got the Russia-Ukrainian war ongoing out that way. But if President Biden doesn't have an actual military response, which we expect there will be, the U.S. would just look weak. But if it's an over response, does that bring Iran into a war situation over there? So it's definitely very untenable. But what do you expect?

Do you expect that? I mean, it could it be this weekend? I think it's going to happen within, I think it's probably going to happen, you know, in the coming days. I don't think we're going to be waiting weeks for this. And, you know, what you said is right, which is if it's too little, it's too weak. it if it's too much, it could spark, spark regional war. The problem is, who defines what is the just right approach? Even within the U.S. Senate, there is a wide range. I mean, you had U.S. senators calling for direct strikes on Iran itself. And Iran has been really clear that, you know,

that's not okay, obviously. But if you do too little, you look weak. But what is determined is too little? It varies even within the U.S. and then setting aside our own United States standards, we have to kind of put ourselves in the shoes of Iran and say, what are they going to interpret as crossing a red line for them? And that's really hard to know. I mean, there are, you know, a lot of experts in the White House and the State Department and elsewhere that think a lot about these things. And even they would probably have, you know, answers with varying degrees of nuance. So I think that at the least, you're probably going to see strikes on these militant groups that are either loosely or closely connected to Iran. And that's what really complex. this. These are not explicitly Iranian soldiers wearing Iranian uniforms who are doing these things. But Iran has this network of militants, of terrorists, linked groups all throughout the Middle East. You know, Iran was even blamed by proxy for the attack that happened to Israel through Gaza because they do have relationships and even provide funding to some of these kinds of militants. And so Iran is, you know, a state sponsor of all kinds of terrorism in its region.

And so it makes sense to blame them. But at the same time, they're not wearing Iranian uniforms. This is not traditional, conventional warfare in that way. So it just complicates things. So Biden can just hit these militants who are not explicitly Iranian but are Iranian-backed. But the problem is they're loosely organized. They're spread out all over the place. It's going to take time to get them all because they're intermingled with, you know, civilian populations.

They're similar, you know, some of their terrorists and are able to meld in to civilian population. So it's messy. I think it's to be messy. It's going to be complicated. I think it's going to take time. The U.S.ia sustained bombing campaign. But if you see strikes on actual Iranian targets in Iran, maybe Iranian warships, that's when you really need to pay attention. Because I think that if I had to put my red line, that's really going to be what makes a difference. Does Biden do that? I suspect you won't, but I really don't know. And that that'll be a big deciding point if it escalates or not. And I wonder if the fact that this is, a presidential election year. Biden is lagging behind Trump in most polls. His approval rating has

been underwater pretty much since his first year in office. You would hope politics wouldn't get involved in a decision as big as this one is. But you have to wonder if that plays any kind of role in the decision. Casey, we're almost out of time. Closing thoughts. Yeah, I mean, war in the Middle East, gas prices that will rise. I mean, that's a natural effect. It's crazy that we're not, we didn't even have time to talk about the Ukraine-Russia war, which when it started was all we talked about, right? So we don't have enough time in this episode or this point, this segment to talk about all the different conflicts and wars.

And that is, of course, tragic and most importantly difficult for the global stage. But yeah, it's not a good look for Biden, who has already overwhelmed at the border, seemingly overwhelmed overseas. And I think Trump's going to try to exploit that. but Trump has his own baggage as well. So it's going to be a really interesting election year. Casey, thank you as usual for your insight, but we are out of time.

Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com. For Casey Harper, I'm Dan McAulam. Please subscribe. Thank you for listening.