UChicago professor: Biden admin. means business, but is showing restraint in Mideast airstrikes
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A University of Chicago professor said Friday that the U.S. is sending a restrained message with the retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militias in the Middle East.
The U.S. began conducting the airstrikes on Friday against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and affiliated groups, the U.S. Central Command said, in what the Biden administration has called a "multi-tiered" response to a deadly drone attack that killed three American soldiers last Sunday.
U.S. forces hit more than 85 Iranian proxy targets associated in Iraq and Syria believed to be used by the groups.
The U.S. said the places that were hit were connected to a drone attack at a military base called Tower 22, which killed three American soldiers – Staff Sgt. William Rivers, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, and Sgt. Breonna Moffett.
Command and control centers, as well as drone storage areas, were among those targeted. University of Chicago political science professor Robert Pape, an expert on political violence, said the selection was strategic.
"[President Biden is] focusing on hardware," Pape said. "He's focusing on destroying components, capabilities - most likely missile capabilities - that have been striking our forces in the Middle East the last three months."
President Joe Biden made it clear Friday that the U.S. is not done, and "will continue at times and places of our choosing."
Pape said the U.S. is sending a message, but does not want to go to war.
"President Biden is going to great lengths to send two signals at the same time — number one, he is sending a signal; a strong message, that Americans are not going to simply take it, and simply be hit over and over and over with missile strikes by Iranian proxies – and he's doing that by destroying a good portion of their capabilities," said Pape. "The second message is restraint. He does not want escalate this into a direct conflict between the United States and Iran."
Pape said there is a risk of escalation – hence President Biden's choice to show restraint, in part by spending several hours "telegraphing that these strikes were coming."
But it is not known whether Iran and its proxies might escalate themselves, Pape said.
"They have the ability to attack. Iran has the ability to attack. Iran itself has missiles that could be used that have not been used, and if that happens, President Biden has also sent the clear message that he is ready to escalate further," Pape said.
Both U.S. and Iran have sent verbal messages that they do not want to be at war with each other, Pape emphasized. But Iran's proxies – in particular the Houthi movement in Yemen – have been fighting off repeated missile strikes, and American soldiers have now been killed.
"These words by Iran now have to be put into deeds – in this case, stop the attacks," Pape said. "President Biden is clearly sending a message that he is tying Iran at the hip to the lethal behavior of Iran's proxies."
Pape also emphasized that there is a very good reason for restraint – involving Iran's nuclear capabilities."
"We know through the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran is only a few weeks away from developing nuclear weapons if it chooses to do so – and although we know where some of that material is, we likely don't know where all of that material is to simply take it off the table," Pape said. "So it's extremely important that President Biden follow this course of sending a signal of strength with a signal of restraint at the same time – and it is simply reckless in the extreme to think that we should just simply be blasting away at targets in Iran."
U.S. military officials said the airstrikes Friday are meant to do more than just send a message. They said it is about weakening the Iran-backed militia groups and stopping their attacks.