The “Havana Syndrome” health cases are gut-wrenching. As the U.S. government gathers information, there’s growing speculation that the attackers may be Russians. But there’s no proof. It’s an assault case with no hard evidence — other than the suffering of the victims.
These mysterious attacks are a policymaker’s nightmare. You can’t accuse another country of warlike assaults without solid facts; the Iraqi WMD fiasco taught a generation of intelligence analysts that lesson. But if you don’t hold rogue actors accountable, how do you deter future attacks? That’s the conundrum facing the Biden administration.