{"id":69467,"date":"2020-01-14T14:15:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T14:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/01\/14\/us-officials-cite-deterrence-to-defend-lethal-drone-strike\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:02:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:02:04","slug":"us-officials-cite-deterrence-to-defend-lethal-drone-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/flashpoints\/2020\/01\/14\/us-officials-cite-deterrence-to-defend-lethal-drone-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"US officials cite deterrence to defend lethal drone strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-smg-jwplayer-video\"><atype-video-jwplayer nostick=\"true\" playlisturl=\"https:\/\/cdn.jwplayer.com\/v2\/playlists\/fCzRqMW8?tags=034fde4e-3482-4e9e-89d7-3f3ff4a7a566\" poster=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/video-poster-034fde4e-3482-4e9e-89d7-3f3ff4a7a566.png\" aspectratio=\"16 \/ 9\" mute autostart=\"false\"><\/atype-video-jwplayer><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The broader picture of the Iranian missile strikes against bases in Iraq housing U.S. troops is examined by Military Times Managing Editor Howard Altman.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 For all of the Trump administration\u2019s insistence that the threat of an \u201cimminent\u201d attack led to the American drone strike on Iran\u2019s top general, U.S. officials behind the scenes say the strike was motivated as much, if not more, by a broader effort to rein in a dangerously emboldened Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr gave voice to the broader rationale on Monday, saying deterrence was a key component of the strike. But they, like other U.S. officials interviewed by The Associated Press, stopped short of saying definitively that no specific plot was broken up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/13\/us-points-to-dissent-in-iran-in-wake-of-deadly-drone-strike\/\" target=_blank>the shifting rationale<\/a> has raised questions about the nature and credibility of the threat posed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/03\/iraq-rockets-fired-at-baghdad-airport-7-people-killed\/\" target=_blank>Gen. Qassem Soleimani<\/a>, the architect of a decades-long reign of terror in which Iranian proxy fighters killed hundreds of Americans and contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands in the region. Critics of President Donald Trump\u2019s decision say he should have consulted Congress before taking an action that brought the United State and Iran to the brink of war. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As lawmakers protested, the Trump administration seized on the \u201cimminent threat\u201d rationale, though Pompeo later said he didn\u2019t know the time frame for Soleimani\u2019s next attack and other officials indicated that there was no clear sense of the next targets either. Trump on Friday told Fox News that the threat was against four American embassies, but two days later Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he\u2019d seen no such evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the latest round of confusion, the president maintained Monday that there was no contradiction in their comments. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/12\/esper-says-he-never-saw-evidence-of-threat-against-four-us-embassies\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Sul2.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Esper says he never saw evidence of threat against four US embassies<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he shares the president&#039;s opinion.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent days a clearer picture of the decision-making process leading up to the strike has emerged. While U.S. officials stopped short of saying definitively that there was no specific plot disrupted by Soleimani\u2019s death, they have acknowledged in recent days that the long-considered operation had a more fundamental purpose: breaking up what they viewed to be a perilous cycle of violence that could have brought the United States and Iran even closer to hostilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soleimani was undoubtedly planning other potentially deadly operations against American interests as he had for decades, the officials said. But a driving concern was that the Trump administration feared a loss of \u201cdeterrence\u201d with Iran, according to three senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations surrounding the strike and its aftermath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two of Trump\u2019s most prominent Cabinet officials echoed that message on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOur ability to deter attacks had obviously broken down,\u201d Barr said . Pompeo said, \u201cPresident Trump and those of us in his national security team are re-establishing deterrence \u2013 real deterrence \u2012 against the Islamic Republic.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump himself implicitly acknowledged the deterrence aim, telling reporters Monday that the strike against Soleimani \u201cshould have been done 20 years ago.\u201d And he implied as much in a tweet that day: \u201cThe Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners are working hard to determine whether or not the future attack by terrorist Soleimani was \u201cimminent\u201d or not, &amp; was my team in agreement,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cThe answer to both is a strong YES., but it doesn\u2019t really matter because of his horrible past!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Concerns about increasingly brazen attacks by Iran and its proxies, including the downing of an American drone and strikes on Saudi Arabian oil field last year, have mounted within the U.S. national security community for months, the officials said. Trump had decided against military retaliation to those attacks, which damaged equipment but did not result in loss of life, but U.S. officials worried that Iran might confuse its restraint with weakness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soleimani, the officials said, had been identified as the target for potential U.S. lethal action months ago, at least since the aftermath of Trump\u2019s September decision to call off what was seen to be an imminent strike on Iran. Military planners and other officials viewed a targeted strike at Soleimani as a potentially more agreeable option for the president, who publicly expressed concerns for the collateral damage predicted for the September option. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those fears, the officials said, led them to view the broader matrix of threats from Iran and its proxies with greater severity, an assessment compounded by the swiftness with which the Iranian proxy in Iraq, Kata\u2019ib Hezbollah, helped organize the siege of the U.S. Embassy after the Dec. 29 U.S. strike against the group believed responsible for killing a U.S. contractor on Dec. 27. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soleimani had been in the crosshairs of the U.S. before \u2014 at least once in 2007 \u2014 but two administrations had rejected operations to kill him, wary of the consequences of striking down an Iranian military leader. The final go-ahead to strike Soleimani came two weeks ago, once it became apparent that there was a window of opportunity because of new intelligence on his travel plans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The strike against Soleimani, among the most powerful figures in Iran, was deliberately disproportionate to reset the cycle of violence and reinstate \u201cdeterrence\u201d by demonstrating that the U.S. could respond overwhelmingly and decisively at its choosing, the officials said in relating how the strike was conceived. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The killing was a risky move that brought the two nations closer to war than at any point in recent memory. Iran\u2019s ballistic missile strikes last week on two Iraqi bases that house American troops was one of the most directs attacks by Iran on the U.S. since the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage taking in Tehran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even as tensions appear to cool, the long-term effects of the strike are unclear and will likely be difficult to predict, given the wide breadth and capabilities of Iran\u2019s network of proxies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, U.S. officials defend the strike as restoring a check on Iran\u2019s aggression. Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Esper quoted CIA Director Gina Haspel, who, on a secure video conference, had summed up the stakes for the president: &#8220;The risk of inaction is greater than risk of action.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Robert Burns and Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr said deterrence was a key component of the strike. But they stopped short of saying definitively that no specific plot was broken up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":62807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,89,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1194],"class_list":["post-69467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"AUNJQZCN7BCJNMPKRVECIIMW3M","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2020\/01\/14\/us-officials-cite-deterrence-to-defend-lethal-drone-strike\/","remove_feature_photo":true,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>US officials cite deterrence to defend lethal drone strike - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Attorney General William Barr said deterrence was a key component of the strike. 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