US must not let Iran off scot-free

Joe Biden’s reluctance to launch retaliatory measures against Iran that could lead to a wider war across the Middle East is understandable. But he runs the risk of going the same weak-kneed, one-term way of fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter in the 1970s if he fails to act to halt the attacks on US forces by Tehran’s proxy terrorists. More than 160 such attacks have occurred since Hamas launched its October 7 slaughter of Jews. The latest was on Sunday when three US soldiers were killed and dozens wounded by terrorists linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on a US base in Jordan, once considered to be relatively safe. Similar attacks are taking place almost daily involving Iran-linked terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where Houthi militants struck a US Navy destroyer bristling with weapons.

Iran’s mullahs claim to know nothing, of course. Mr Biden does not want another war when he wants to win a second term. But he will pay a heavy political price if perceptions grow of him as a weak, Carter-like figure, putting anxieties about upsetting Iran and risking military escalation above his duty to defend the lives of US soldiers. His administration is divided, reportedly, between those who want decisive retaliation and those who still fancifully believe Barack Obama’s nuclear deal has merit. None of the options is without danger. One could be an unprecedented, retaliatory US strike on targets inside Iran that Republicans are demanding. Even Ronald Reagan shied away from that when he ordered strikes against Iranian ships and offshore oil platforms after Tehran mined a US warship. The US could step up targeting Iran’s “axis of resistance” terrorist proxies in their lairs. A step suggested by The Wall Street Journal, to show Tehran the US means business, could be to “put the Iranian spy ship that has been prowling the Red Sea (helping the Houthis) on the ocean floor”.

Doing nothing beyond mouthing concern is not an option for the leader of the free world when US soldiers are being killed, US warships targeted and shipping lanes in the Red Sea are under attack, at risk to the world economy. Mr Biden must act and in doing so be supported by allied countries. He is right to worry about the possible strategic implications of a broader war. But hopes for effective US deterrence in the Middle East have collapsed. Displays of weakness invite more attacks. The lessons for him, in the way Iran’s seizing of hostages in the US embassy in Tehran in 1979 helped ruin Carter’s ignominious presidency, are pertinent.