Last weekend’s bombing campaign against Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria enacted by U.S. Central Command in response to the Jan. 28 drone strike that killed three American troops in Jordan did not go far enough.
Because they did not target any Iranians, any assets inside Iran, or any of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps vessels in the Persian Gulf, these strikes will ultimately fail to reestablish American deterrence and credibility in the Middle East.
In the months since the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in response to the gruesome Oct. 7 attack, American troops have been under near-constant fire from rockets, artillery, and drones launched by Shia groups operating under the control of and resourced by the IRGC. More than 180 such attacks have injured dozens of American service members.
Meanwhile, the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group based in…
