Does US deterrence work against Iran’s allies? Yes and no.
For more than six weeks, there have been no attacks by Iran-allied militias against U.S. forces in Iraq or Syria.
As the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza spilled across the Middle East in October, American troops deployed in those countries to quell the Islamic State came under fire repeatedly.
Iran-backed militias fired on U.S. forces in solidarity with Hamas, a fellow member of Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” alliance against Israeli and American interests in the region.
Some 180 such attacks at first elicited a limited U.S. response, as Washington sought to avoid a direct confrontation with Iran.
But when a drone strike by Kata’ib Hezbollah, an Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group,
