Wag the dog is a political term for the act of creating a diversion from a damaging issue usually through military force.

It stems from the generic use of the term to mean a small and seemingly unimportant entity (the tail) controls a bigger, more important one (the dog). It is usually used by a politician when they are in a scandal, in hopes that people forget about the scandal and focus on the more important issue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wag_the_dog