People say this all the time, and it&#x27;s true: our most likely military reaction to terrorist attacks probably is the basis of their strategy; they&#x27;re not stupid, the response is predictable, and so why strike at all if you don&#x27;t want a reprisal?<p>But it doesn&#x27;t follow logically that military response is strategically bad for us! Just because ISIS wants us to do something doesn&#x27;t mean we shouldn&#x27;t do it. ISIS could be very wrong about wanting to provoke military escalation. In fact: it almost certainly is.<p>That doesn&#x27;t mean that military strikes are good, or the right option at this point. It just means that saying &quot;that&#x27;s what ISIS wants us to do&quot; isn&#x27;t a dispositive argument.