Shortly after the Biden administration bombed a facility in eastern Syria with purported connections to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Republican presidential candidates on the debate stage in Miami late Wednesday advocated a more aggressive military posture toward Iran, an approach that would heighten the risk of a full-scale regional war.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) called for a direct U.S. attack on Iran, arguing that "if you want to stop the 40-plus attacks on military personnel in the Middle East, you have to strike in Iran."
Scott was referring to recent rocket and drone attacks on the thousands of U.S. forces currently stationed in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. has blamed the attacks on Iran, even without direct evidence that the Iranian government ordered them.
The Pentagon characterized Wednesday's airstrike in eastern Syria as a self-defense response to "a series of attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by IRGC-Quds Force affiliates."
The strike, directed by President Joe Biden without congressional authorization, marks the second time in less than two weeks that the U.S. military has bombed a target in eastern Syria that it says is used by the Iranian IRGC and its allies.
But Republican presidential hopefuls made clear during Wednesday's primary debate that they don't believe the Biden administration's response has been sufficiently forceful.
"You cannot just continue to have strikes in Syria on warehouses," said Scott. "You actually have to cut off the head of the snake, and the head of the snake is Iran and not simply their proxies."
Asked specifically about the Biden administration's Wednesday strike in Syria, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded, "I would say you harm a hair on the head of an American service member and you are going to have hell to pay."
"We are not just going to sit there and let our service members be sitting ducks," said DeSantis. "And that's true whether it's Iran or whether it's any country in the world. We have to be strong and we have to defend the people who defend us."
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a longtime proponent of military escalation with Iran, argued that the U.S. needs to "take out" the infrastructure that Iran is allegedly using to orchestrate attacks that have reportedly injured dozens of U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq in recent weeks following the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
"Iran responds to strength," said Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner. "You punch them hard and they will back off."
Trump, who nearly sparked a war with Iran during his presidency by violating the Iran nuclear accord and assassinating the nation's top general in 2020, did not attend Wednesday's debate. The former president has falsely claimed that Iranian oil revenue freed up as part of a hostage deal negotiated by the Biden administration helped fund Hamas' deadly attack on Israel.
The Biden administration said last month that it would block Iran from accessing the $6 billion in funds, none of which have been spent.
The Republican presidential candidates' hawkish comments on Iran come amid growing fears that Israel's ongoing aerial and ground assault on the Gaza Strip and intensified military operations in the occupied West Bank could turn into a devastating region-wide conflict. Amid its catastrophic U.S.-backed bombing campaign in Gaza, Israel has also been exchanging fire with Lebanon's Hezbollah and launching airstrikes in Syria.
"We are just one mistake away from the U.S. getting dragged into another war in the Mideast," Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, warned earlier this week. "Just because Biden refuses a Gaza cease-fire."
