Agree. Absolute theater. Really not much more than an expensive fireworks show.
Seems very logical. This move was meant to safe face and not appear ineffectual to their supporters and associates in the region. In other words, they were saying internally “we can’t just do nothing”. I could totally hear people on FR saying the same thing if the US had leaders or assets attacked.
If true, in this case, it is two kids on the same block who keep having disputes with each other, and there’s a really big kid from down the street who tries to intervene a lot. One of the kids who just got a black eye needs to show all the other kids at the playground that he can come out and hit back, but he needed to let the really big kid that it was just symbollic and didn’t want it to get out of hand.