About three months ago‚ after months of drone strikes and other attacks on our ships and troops in the Middle East‚ this column asked how President Biden would respond when one of those attacks took the life of a U.S. soldier. Now we know. There are a lot of other‚ possibly better‚ options Biden has to hold Iran accountable for killing U.S. troops. But he won’t pursue any of them. As prior columns also explained‚ bombing Houthi drone controllers and killing a few of the people who were literally following Iranian orders to conduct those attacks would do nothing to stop Iran from funding‚ arming‚ and otherwise controlling their proxy forces. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Biden Wants Hamas To Win) And it didn’t. We have been bombing the Houthis since January 11 and our strikes haven’t even lessened the frequency of their attacks. There have been nine attacks on Red Sea shipping in the past three weeks. There were six in the prior three weeks. Most have been against U.S. and UK ships in the Red Sea. Of the thousands of things Biden and his advisers don’t understand about national security is that deterrence only works when you can threaten an enemy with unbearable consequences for an attack and then impose those consequences if an attack occurs despite the warning. The latest strikes against the Houthis were made on Saturday. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the attacks show the Houthis will‚ “continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks.” The Houthis will bear the consequences‚ not Iran. There is not even a pretense of deterring Iran from ordering more such attacks. Deterrence doesn’t work with proxy forces because they have no ability to make independent decisions. If you want to deter a proxy you need to deter the proxy’s boss‚ i.e.‚ threaten and‚ if necessary‚ carry out an attack on the principal. Last Tuesday‚ President Biden said he had made up his mind about how to respond to the January 28 drone strike in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops. On Friday he ordered strikes against Iranian proxy forces in Iraq and Syria. At last report‚ there have been strikes against more than 85 targets at three facilities in Iraq and four in Syria‚ including command and control headquarters‚ ammunition storage‚ and other facilities. That means we’re counting trucks‚ tents‚ and buildings separately to inflate the number of “targets” hit. Some of the targets were supposedly “used” by Iran’s “Quds Force‚” a part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Iran has denied any involvement in the drone strike that killed the U.S. troops. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said‚ “We believe that the attack in Jordan was planned‚ resourced‚ and facilitated by an umbrella group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq‚ which contains multiple groups including Kata’ib Hezbollah.” Kata’ib Hizb’allah is just a branch of the Lebanese Hizb’allah terrorist network that Iran controls. The only relevant question is whether Biden’s response will change Iran’s behavior? In short‚ it won’t for the reason set out above: in order to prevent attacks by a proxy force‚ you have to confront and deter its principal. Biden’s response doesn’t hold Iran responsible for its actions. It pays no price‚ suffers no loss — even the loss of “face” — in the international calculus of war. Biden says he doesn’t want a war with Iran. But Iran is already at war with us and has been since the regime came to power in 1979. (READ MORE: Israel Lost the Initiative) To hold Iran responsible‚ we need not enter into a general war with the terrorist state. Iran has‚ at last report‚ two ships in the Red Sea. One is an intelligence ship that is probably guiding the Houthi attack drones to their targets. The second is a small frigate — a warship — that entered the Red Sea about two weeks ago. We could have‚ and still should‚ sink both of those ships. That would‚ at least‚ make it clear to the ayatollahs that we will not tolerate their murder of U.S. troops or their attacks on U.S. and commercial shipping. Biden won’t do that because his most closely held desire — and that of his principal advisers — is to not confront Iran’s continued aggression. There is a great deal more that Biden could do. He could resume former president Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran’s economy. That campaign brought Iran’s economy to the brink of ruin. It has since been bailed out by Chinese purchases of Iranian oil in violation of our sanctions on Iran. Enforcing our sanctions by taking actions to punish China are not something Biden would even think of. It is only by increasing the military pressure on Iran that we can change its behavior. Sinking the two Iranian ships in the Red Sea would be a very good start. Remember when‚ in January 2020‚ Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani‚ the head of the IRGC? That shocked the Iranians but even that wasn’t enough to quiet their terrorism for more than a few weeks. If Biden were serious about deterring Iran from ordering proxy attacks on our troops and other assets‚ the IRGC’s headquarters could be the target of a U.S. cruise missile strike. (READ MORE: Biden Is Bankrolling the Ayatollahs) There are a lot of other‚ possibly better‚ options Biden has to hold Iran accountable for killing U.S. troops. But he won’t pursue any of them. The theory of deterrence is to prevent war and to respond‚ as noted above‚ with consequences the enemy will find unbearable. Its purpose is to change the enemy’s behavior. As the late Donald Rumsfeld was fond of saying‚ weakness is provocative. As long as Biden refuses to strike back at Iran directly‚ there’s no hope of changing its behavior.       The post Biden’s Random Bombings appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.