One of the most bizarre foreign policy notions is the criticism that a retaliation against terrorists is disproportionate.
The disproportionate complaint has been repeatedly wielded against Israel. And the United States. Even though it makes no sense. Isn’t a proportional retaliation just an embodiment of the cycle of violence that they ‘proportionate’ crowd complains about?
Instead, President Trump has embraced disproportionate retaliation.
“These Media Posts will serve as notification to the United States Congress that should Iran strike any U.S. person or target, the United States will quickly & fully strike back, & perhaps in a disproportionate manner. Such legal notice is not required, but is given nevertheless!” Trump tweeted.
Disproportionate retaliation is not a bad doctrine.
You attack one of our embassies. We go after the guy leading the attack. But we also go all the way up the food chain and take out the guy behind it all. And we serve notice that we will respond unpredictably. We’ll ignore some things and overreact to others. Don’t test us because you don’t know what will happen.
We will not reply proportionately. We won’t calculate how limited our attack will be. We’ll hurt you. Badly.
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