President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes in Syria in response to rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq that killed a U.S. contractor. The strike killed 22 people and the death toll is estimated to be higher due to severe injury. The Biden administration has received backlash for these orders especially the lack of communication of the White house to lawmakers to receive congressional approval before the attack was initiated. The legality of the strikes is being challenged in court on whether it was justified because of the threat to U.S. personnel or, as the Syrian government called it, “cowardly U.S. aggression.”

“I would tell you that the president acted well within his constitutional authorities under Article II as commander in chief of the United States to protect American service members involved in operations. Clearly, there’s a constitutional authority here,” Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said.

Democrats argue that the absence of congressional authorization is unconstitutional and has unnecessarily escalated the endless war of the U.S. and Middle East. The attacks have received criticism for being irrational and lost the opportunity of more progressive relations between the Middle East. These attacks on U.S. personnel came a year after Iraq’s parliament voted to expel U.S. troops, which was ignored by both the Trump and Biden administration.  

“Very quickly the Biden administration is falling into the same old patterns of before, of responding to this and that without having a clear strategy that actually would extract us from these various conflicts and actually pave the way for much more productive diplomacy,” says Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute.

The airstrike targeted one of the most powerful Iran backed militias and has brought up discussion to consider returning the 2015 accord meant to rein in Iran’s nuclear program. The strike’s intent was to send a message that attacks on U.S. personnel will not be tolerated but with this Biden has continued the cycle of bombing the Middle East. 

“Repeating this continued strategy not only has implications for our staying entangled in the Middle East, it actually has not worked in the objectives. And the challenge is a naive view in the United States that somehow our actions are going to force regime change in Iran. If anything, they’re entrenching the regime. We need a totally different approach. And I actually think the American people want a totally different approach,” Representative Ro Khanna States.