I don’t like being restricted by “proportionate” either. While there shouldn’t be a ‘canned’ response, and each act looked at on its own merits, I am concerned about the message that has now been sent. Is it ok for our foes to shoot down drones in International airspace now without fear of repercussions? People are minimizing that the shoot down was still an act of war. Iran has much US blood on its hands (Beirut, Kobar Towers, ~1000 servicemen in Iraq).
I continue to support POTUS, and I am happy we are not in another shooting conflict (yet). Honestly, I could live with it having gone either way, this pause, or just kick their ass (which they richly de4serve). My gut tells me that this ain’t over.
If that were in fact true that it was in international waters, why was Iran the one to collect the debris instead of us? If it fell in international waters you can be sure we would have made every effort to collect it to keep the Iranians from inspecting our technology and possibly reverse engineering it.