The worst thing about American foreign policy is the thought that there might be solutions other than violence is never even considered. From Ted Snider at libertarianinstitute.org:
In an administration seemingly bankrupt of diplomacy or imagination, U.S. President Joe Biden and his team, led by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, have responded to the most hair trigger situations across the map in just the past few days with nothing but increased violence.
As the risk of widening war in the Middle East crested and then seemed, hopefully, to tentatively recede, the United States has responded by agitating the waters.
As the U.S. retaliated to the killing of three U.S. servicemembers in a drone strike by “Iran-backed” Shiite resistance groups by striking more than 80 targets in Syria and Iraq, both the U.S. and Iran seemed to cautiously calmed the waves. Assessing that “Tehran does not have full control over its proxy groups” nor that they are “commanding” or “directing” the attacks, the Biden administration seems to have made the decision not to strike Iran’s Revolutionary Guard or strike inside Iran, potentially limiting the response and deescalating the situation.
Iran, for its part, condemned the strikes but did not threaten retaliation. Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said the strikes “continued [the] wrong and failed approach to resolving issues by resorting to force and militarism.” A foreign ministry spokesperson called them an “adventurous action” and a “strategic mistake” and said they violated international law. Iran told Kataib Hezbollah, the group the U.S. has accused of responsability, to suspend military operations and said that they are “not looking for war.” In considering how Iran would respond to U.S. retaliation, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, gave the order that direct war with the U.S. was to be avoided and that Iran should distance itself from the groups who killed the U.S. troops.
Therefore, in accordance with strict necessity and justice we must devote ourselves wholly and completely to unrestrained and relentless destruction, which must grow in a crescendo until there is nothing left of the existing social forms.
–Mikhail Bakunin