On June 27, President Joe Biden ordered airstrikes on targets associated with Iranian-backed militias in both Syria and Iraq. The Pentagon executed similar strikes last February.

On both occasions, senior officials rushed to assure that the action was proportionate. Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby called the first strike a “proportionate military response,” and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi praised the second. “The defense airstrikes… appear to be a targeted and proportional response to a serious and specific threat,” she wrote.