America’s enemies know Biden is weak
Dominic Green
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Thirty American citizens were murdered when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7. At least 12 were kidnapped. Only two have been released. President Joe Biden has yet to demand publicly that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad release their American hostages. Nor has he described the consequences should these citizens be harmed. This makes the United States look weak.
Instead, the administration is using Qatar, where Hamas’s leadership lives openly in luxury, as an intermediary. So far, the Qatari channel has produced a Hamas offer to free “10-15” of the 240-plus hostages in Gaza in return for a three-day “pause” in Israel’s campaign. On Nov. 6, Biden confirmed to reporters that he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a temporary ceasefire. Netanyahu refused. This also makes the U.S. look weak.
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The administration cannot bring itself to admit publicly the degree of Iranian involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks, even though Iranian and Hamas officials boast about it. On Oct. 14, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, visited Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Doha. They agreed, Hamas announced, to “continue cooperation.” Amirabdollahian returned for a second meeting on Oct. 31. The Iranians openly describe their multifront strategy to destroy Israel and defeat the U.S. as the “unification of the arenas.” When the Biden administration refuses to admit the obvious, it makes the U.S. look weak.
On Oct. 26, Amirabdollahian directly threatened the U.S. from the podium of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City. If the Israel-Hamas war continues, Amirabdollahian said, the U.S. “will not be spared from this fire.” It’s bad enough that the administration thought it would be a good idea to allow Amirabdollahian into the country. The lack of response to this kind of threat makes the U.S. look weak.
On Nov. 7, the Pentagon confirmed that in the three weeks since Oct. 17, Iranian-sponsored militias have launched drone and rocket attacks on U.S. bases in Syria and Iraq “at least 40 times.” Thirty-two U.S. troops have been injured at the al Tanf base in Syria and 13 at the al Asad base in Iraq. Some 46 U.S. troops have been injured, half with traumatic brain injuries. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani to rein in the Shiite militias. Sudani is a Shiite whose government depends on the militias’ support. The rocket fire continues. This makes the U.S. look weak.
At Erbil in northern Iraq, a drone hit a barracks where U.S. troops were sleeping. It failed to detonate. If it had, the resulting carnage would have forced the Biden administration to act. Instead, the U.S. has responded to Iran’s coordinated attacks on U.S. personnel by bombing three weapons storage sites in eastern Syria used, in Central Command’s words, “by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and affiliated groups.” Given that the administration is usually so keen on “proportionality,” its failure to respond proportionally makes the U.S. look weak.
In February 2021, the Biden administration revoked the terrorist designation of the Ansarallah Houthi militia in Yemen. On Oct. 19, the USS Carney, on patrol in the Red Sea, shot down a barrage of 15 drones and four cruise missiles that the Houthis had fired at Israel. The Houthis issued a propaganda video and declared war on Israel. On Nov. 9, Houthis shot down a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper when it was in international airspace off the coast of Yemen. Apart from costing the taxpayer some $35 million, this makes the U.S. look weak.
The administration is trying to look strong by sending out aircraft carriers and resupplying Israel with advanced munitions. It is trying to talk tough, telling Iran “Don’t” and making a rare public announcement that an Ohio-class nuclear submarine has gone east of Suez. But the State Department has returned to form in the Blinken of an eye and is begging America’s sworn enemies to play nice while telling Israel, which is in a war for its survival, to pull its punches. When asked by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) about Iranian-sponsored attacks on U.S. personnel, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed only a vague intent to hold Iran “accountable.”
Neither the Obama nor the Biden administration held Iran, or Hamas for that matter, accountable for anything. They sent cash to Gaza despite the evidence that Hamas was diverting it and building up an arsenal of Iranian missiles. They gave Iran access to billions of dollars and allowed it to edge toward nuclear breakout. They disowned their allies Israel and Saudi Arabia. They made the U.S. look weak in a region where the strong survive by exploiting the weakness of their enemies. The mullahs and their allies are spitting in the face of the U.S. The Biden team is telling the public it’s raining. The storm is only beginning.