There are lots of different things they could do. They can, as earlier presidents have done, gone after the Iranian navy. They could attack Iranian forces that are spread around the Middle East. So that's a red line.Īnd so if they do end up killing Americans, accidentally or on purpose, then what happens? And if you don't have the overall strategy - they have got so many tools at their disposal. And if you do that, suddenly, things change radically.

So we have accidentally walked into the position where we have drawn a red line, where Pompeo was said that you cannot kill Americans. I don't know what the proper deterrence is, because I don't know what will deter or what their goals are.Īnd tactics are sort of driving strategy. And a normal president would give an Oval Office address and tell us, but we don't really have that. You need to - in order to know how to react, you got to know how they will react, and you have to have some theory of what they're thinking.

Are they the aggressor? Are we the aggressor here? These are the basic questions that underlie how you react.

They have been expanding their terror activities and seemingly stepping up to the pace.īut are there - is there a battle within the Iranian regime we should be conscious of to try not to tilt things over to the hard-core radicals? Or do we just need to lay down some deterrence? Is there a way we could sweet-talk them into being nicer? Like, there's all these things.Īnd it's all about the regime. I don't know what the strategy here - and, most importantly, I don't know - I don't know Donald Trump's theory of the Iranian regime. So, Donald Trump and Saint Augustine have one thing in common.

And disproportion is one of the primary elements of just war theory going back to Saint Augustine. Well, first, I'm glad he reversed course.

David brooks about mark shields