They wanted to hit us hard enough to send us a message but not so hard they’re on the receiving end of it.
This is called saving face which is what you would expect from honor/shame societies.
We can let it go for now but if they escalate, we’d have to respond in kind.
No, we can't.
“We can let it go for now”
Bullshit.
For our entire history there has been severe penalty for firing on US military forces.
It’s called deterrence.
You can do pretty much anything, but if your flagged forces fire on US flagged fores, you will not like the result.
Iran has crossed a line. There is no turning back from here.
Sorry, a nation that doesn’t respond to this type of attack doesn’t survive as a nation.