When you announce that your actions will only be ‘proportionate,’ the enemy gets to determine how big and how hard you’ll counterpunch after you’re struck.
The Biden administration is always telling correspondents, as well as the country, that their approach to every threat that comes down the pike is “carefully calibrated.”
The New York Times, this morning: “President Biden has carefully calibrated his responses to attacks by Iranian-backed militias since Oct. 7.”
October 2023, CNN: “His supporters have reason for optimism that Biden’s carefully calibrated response to the Israel-Hamas hostilities will allow them to present him as a reassuring source of stability in an unstable world.” Politico, the same month: “this week’s U.S. airstrikes were carefully calibrated to keep the regional situation from getting even worse.”
July 2023, Washington Post: “It has disturbed some in the Pentagon, however, as the general’s assertiveness has felt startlingly at odds with the Biden administration’s carefully calibrated attempt to reset relations with Beijing.”
June 2023, CNN: “Biden’s statement reflected a carefully calibrated American response to the brief uprising by the Wagner Group that amounted to the biggest threat in years to Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
October 2022, Secretary Blinken describing military aid to Ukraine: “The capabilities we are delivering are carefully calibrated to make the most difference on the battlefield for Ukraine.”
February 2021, NBC News: “Pentagon press secretary John Kirby portrayed the bombing in eastern Syria as carefully calibrated, calling it ‘proportionate’ and ‘defensive.’”
Yes, yes. Everything the Biden administration does is so carefully calibrated. We’re constantly assured that what the Biden administration does is “proportionate,” and that no response to any attack will ever be “escalatory.”
And yet, these “carefully calibrated” responses rarely prove effective. We hit Iranian proxies, but those Iranian proxies keep attacking Americans. We make sure none of our aid to Ukraine could be perceived as “escalatory,” and the Russian military keeps attacking civilian targets and committing war crimes. We keep attempting to “reset” relations with Beijing, while their military behavior gets more aggressive and provocative.
Did it ever cross the mind of the Biden team that maybe the fact that every U.S. response is so “carefully calibrated” and “proportionate” and “non-escalatory” is one of the reasons that the Iranians, the Russians, and other hostile states are so rarely if ever deterred? When you announce to the world that your actions will only be “proportionate,” the enemy gets to determine how big and how hard you will counterpunch after you’re struck.
If you ever respond disproportionately, and absolutely clobber them in some way that they didn’t expect, then they suddenly have a lot more to worry about. All of a sudden, the consequences of attacking you are a lot less easy to predict. The risk of striking at American targets gets higher. When the mullahs see one of their favorite leaders suddenly change from the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to a charcoal briquette on the side of the road, the risks become even clearer.
I note that last month, a massive cyber attack by a hacker group shut down 70 percent of the gas stations in Iran. If those hackers can do that, the capabilities of U.S. Cyber Command must be considerable.