Media blubbers over ‘measured’ responses as cycle of reprisals mounts

(Originally published Oct. 28 in “What in the World“) Israel carried out its largest attack against Iran, a wave of airstrikes involving at least 100 fighters, refueling and reconnaissance planes against Iran’s air-defense systems in Iraq and Syria and missile production sites inside Iran.

Operation “Days of Repentance” was intended as retaliation for Iran’s launch of 180 missiles against it Oct. 1, which was a retaliation for Israel’s assassination in July of the political leader of Hamas while he was visiting Tehran, which was retaliation for the attack last October that killed more than 1,200 Israelis and triggered Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians and triggered reprisals by Iran’s proxies in the region, including Houthi rebels in Yemen, militants in Iraq and Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which triggered Israel’s invasion of Lebanon Oct. 1…. You get the picture.

Folks in Washington are patting themselves on the back that they pressured Israel to successfully avoid a wider war. The Israeli attacks were supposedly much more restrained than they might have been, in that they didn’t strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, its oil wells, or its civilian population. So now, everyone is even-Steven, and this will be the end of it, right? “I hope that this is the end,” U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Saturday after the attacks.

Wrong. The idea behind the attack, other than to reduce Iran’s ability launch more missiles at Israel, was to convince Iran’s leaders that Israel’s overwhelming military superiority leaves them too vulnerable to raise the stakes. But some analysts in Washington worry they’ll conclude their only resort is to play their ultimate trump card and speed production of a nuclear weapon. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded that Iran had the right to respond to the attack, which many interpreted as a measured response. It’s unclear what more he could threaten to placate angry citizens after Israel wiped out the country’s missile factories and air defenses. Israel’s military didn’t even stop to catch its breath: after striking Iran, it launched yet more strikes in Gaza and in Lebanon over the weekend.

Thousands of North Korean troops have meanwhile begun arriving in Russia’s Kursk province to help drive out Ukrainian forces. Ukraine invaded the Russian province in early August in a failed attempt to divert Russian forces from the front line in Ukraine.

The United Kingdom plans to boost the Royal Navy’s presence in Asia alongside the United States to “support regional stability.” The UK already has one ship patrolling the region: the HMS Tamar. Though named ostensibly for a river in England, the Tamar has somewhat different connotations in Asia: the U.K. based a vessel with the same name in Hong Kong in 1897 to defend the colony established there after seizing it from China after the Opium War in 1842. The year after the Tamar’s arrival, the U.K. expanded the colony with a 99-year lease from China for what became known as the New Territories. The Tamar remained in Hong Kong until it was scuttled in 1941 during the Japanese invasion. In 1978, Britain opened a new base on Hong Kong harbor and named it in honor of her. The base, along with the rest of Hong Kong, was handed back to China in 1997 and renamed the Central Barracks.