When President Donald Trump speaks of “peace through strength,” he is not reviving a slogan. He is restoring a principle of statecraft that once anchored American power—and whose erosion created the permissive environment in which terrorism, proxy warfare, and strategic defiance flourished. The United States has now demonstrated that this doctrine is no longer rhetorical.

Following a December ambush near Palmyra that killed two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter, Washington launched a large-scale air campaign against Islamic State targets across central and eastern Syria, including command nodes, weapons depots, and logistical infrastructure. The message was unambiguous: attacks on American personnel carry consequences. These facts establish a short-term baseline of deterrence. But the strategic significance of the operation lies in the credibility it restored.

For more than a decade, American policy in the Middle East has been constrained by a pathological fear of escalation. In practice, this meant absorbing provocations, deferring enforcement, and mistaking rhetorical restraint for strategy. The result was not stability, but the harmful accumulation of militias, missiles, and confidence among its regional adversaries.

Deterrence did not fail because it is outdated. It failed because it was applied selectively and inconsistently.

The Syria strikes correct that imbalance. As Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

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