Don’t buy the hype: When President Biden finally responds to the deadly Iran-backed attack on American troops in Jordan, odds are he’ll both dispel the concerns of fearmongers hysterical he is going to bomb Iran and dash the dreams of hawks demanding he do so.
This was apparent even before his administration leaked it will strike Iranian personnel and facilities in Iraq and Syria, giving the regime ample time to close up shop and evacuate.
For Biden to strike Tehran’s tentacles, let alone the head of the octopus with the overwhelming force necessary to deter it — à la President Donald Trump’s strike on Iranian terror mastermind Qassem Soleimani — would be to completely contradict his entire Middle East policy.
In a continuation of the Obama-Biden administration policy before it, the president has subordinated nearly all else to making the mullocracy the regional “strong horse,” under the perverse premise putting Iran First — and the screws to our Israeli friends and anti-Islamist Arab partners — will produce order and peace over instability and war.
Biden has sought since day one to appease and empower the Islamic revolutionary regime and its proxies, fueling and incentivizing ever-greater aggression.
His administration has refused to enforce sanctions on Iranian oil sales, flowing tens of billions of dollars into the regime’s coffers; provided billions more in sanctions relief, including the notorious $6 billion ransom payment made for the September hostage exchange; rescinded Trump-imposed United Nations snapback sanctions on its nuclear and weapons programs and let embargoes on Iranian missiles and long-range drones lapse — all while shrugging off Iran’s 80-plus attacks on our forces before Oct. 7, the bounties on the heads of Trump administration officials and plots to assassinate dissidents on our soil.
These efforts were critical to a desperate attempt to reprise the Iran nuclear deal from which Trump had withdrawn, under which President Barack Obama had financially bailed out the mullahs, legitimized their nuclear program and put them on a glide path to a bomb.
That attempt failed despite the best efforts of lead negotiator and alleged Iranian spy ringleader Rob Malley to make the deal even sweeter for Tehran than the original in the way of sanctions relief and nuclear concessions.
Meanwhile, Iran rapidly advanced its nuclear program, yielding near-weapons-grade enriched uranium.
So the Biden administration reportedly made a shadow deal last year to bribe the mullahs into pausing the program.
Still, Iran’s proxies intensified their jihadist activities — often following American efforts to appease them.
Team Biden restored hundreds of millions of dollars in purported aid to the Palestinian Authority and United Nations Relief and Works Agency — funds Trump cut — much of which flowed to Hamas-controlled Gaza.
The money underwrote the Iranian proxy’s Holocaust-level Oct. 7 attack.
Despite Tehran’s extensive involvement in that attack, which the late Soleimani is said to have planned, the Biden administration has strained to delink the regime from its proxy.
Biden de-designated Iran’s Yemen proxy, the Houthis, a terrorist organization — after the outgoing Trump administration had designated it.
The Houthis, with Iranian weaponry, training and direction, have turned the Red Sea into a virtual no-go zone.
To save face, the White House recently resorted to a toothless partial re-designation.
Biden backed Lebanon’s Hezbollah-dominated military force and took to mediating maritime and related deals advantageous to the Hezbollah-dominated state with Israel, while the terrorist group’s missile and rocket stock increased to an estimated 200,000.
Since Oct. 7, the White House has labored to deter Israel from obliterating Hezbollah despite its provocations. Consequently, northern Israel has been rendered uninhabitable for up to 100,000 little-discussed refugees.
The shadow deal was supposed to stop the proxy attacks. Iran’s proxies have not honored it, instead staging more than 150 strikes on American troops in the region since mid-October.
To date, America has conducted responsive attacks — mostly pinprick strikes — at a rate of one for every 16.5 sustained.
Then came an Iran-backed Iraqi militia’s strike on the Tower 22 military outposts in Jordan, killing three American soldiers and wounding more than three dozen more.
Despite the outcry that dead Americans are a red line requiring Biden to retaliate with real force, the administration’s response was telling.
Beyond telegraphing its coming strikes as it did with the Houthis, like after Oct. 7, it was at pains to create distance between Iran and its proxy. Iranian officials did the same.
Iran’s proxies claim their attacks are a response to Israel’s defensive war.
Iran and its ally Qatar, Hamas’ other key state sponsor, have been demanding a cease-fire.
Biden officials harbor similar sentiments. Consistent with their desire from the start to thwart, micromanage, scale down and quickly end Israel’s incursion, they, alongside Qatar and Egypt, are pining to negotiate an extended pause to the fighting and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, an aid increase that will resupply Hamas and a transfer of Israeli hostages for an imprisoned Palestinian jihadist population many times larger.
The cease-fire could morph into an armistice, followed by a US push for the creation of a Palestinian state — rewarding Hamas for its savagery.
The implication: Iran is pushing an all-too-willing Biden to sue for a false peace.
We can make the pain of proxy attacks go away, the mullahs are saying, by forcing Israel — Iran’s chief enemy — to effectively lose the war, leaving it besieged and existentially threatened by what would amount to a genocidal Jew-hating Palestinian terror state, plus Hezbollah.
Given the Biden administration’s treacherous agenda to date, ask yourself: Is the president more likely to legitimately punish Iran or take half-hearted cosmetic actions against its proxies while throwing the Jewish state to the wolves?
Also ask yourself this: How do any of the Biden administration’s actions serve America’s interest — let alone do justice to those who lost their lives at the hands of Iran in Israel, Jordan and across the world over the 45 years the mullocracy has reigned?
