Growing concerned about Iran’s “break out time” for a bomb, 65-year-old Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miley met today with Israeli Defense MinisterYoav Gallant in Tel Aviv. “Ongoing cooperation is required in order to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon,” Gallant reportedly told Miley. But Miley’s hands are tied dealing with the far more precarious Ukraine War, where the U.S. funds a $100 billion proxy war against the Kremlin. Biden decided to join Ukraine’s fight for sovereignty against the Russian Federation that invaded Ukraine Feb. 24, 2022. Why Biden decided to trash decades of U.S.-Russian relations to help Ukraine regain its sovereignty is anyone’s guess. Biden could have helped Ukraine without funding a proxy war against the Kremlin. Trashing U.S.-Russian relations has been a big blow for U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Biden let Ukraine’s 45-year-old President President Volodymyr Zelensky call the shots, opting for war against the Kremlin instead of negotiating an acceptable settlement. Zelensky knew from Day One Putin would never let the U.S. set up a puppet state on the Russian border. Arming Ukraine to the teeth was the reason Putin invaded, not engaged in ethnic cleansing or to set up a puppet Russian state in Kiev. Yet if you listen to the Western press, you’d think Putin sought nothing short of conquering Ukraine. Putin was always committed to establishing Russian territory in the Peoples Republicas of Donetsk and Luhansk, both Russian-speaking enclaves in Ukraine’s industrial Southeast. So when Israeli officials want help with their Iranian nuke problema, they’re not able to get much help with Biden mired in Ukraine. Biden and Zelensky have refused to go to the bargaining table in Ukraine.
Miley went to Tel Aviv to let Israel know that while the U.S. sympathizes with Israel’s concerns about Iran’s defiant uranium enrichment program, there’s little the U.S. can do now to stop uranium enrichment. With 73-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning to power Dec. 29, 2022, White House officials are getting nervous about a potential new war brewing. Netanyahu didn’t hesitate one bit warning March 3, 2015 a joint session of Congress not to ratify former President Barack Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] AKA Iranian Nuke Deal, agreeing to lift punitive economic sanctions on Tehran in exchange for Iran agreeing to limit its uranium production to only 3%. Netanyahu told Congress that the JCPOA would speed up Iran’s break out time to a bomb, not shorten it. When former President Donald Trump cancelled Obama’s JCPOA May 8, 2018, Democrats and the media went wild.
Trump cancelled Obama’s Iranian Nuke Deal because Tehran was in a bloody proxy war using Yemen’s Houthi rebels, attacking the Kingdom with Iranian drones and ballistic missiles. Trump also knew that the JCPOA was worthless because there was no verification provision, preventing U.N. weapons inspectors from entering secret military enrichment sites. So when Israel expresses concerns about Iran’s pursuit of the bomb, it’s with good reason. But with the U.S. mired in Ukraine, there’s zero chance that Miley or 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin can do a thing a long as the Ukraine War consumes sucks oxygen out of U.S. foreign policy. As Israel finds out, the U.S. has nothing left to purse in foreign policy around he globe, including with China and North Korea. Iran freely enriches weapons grade uranium because the Ayatollah knows Biden is buried in Ukraine.
Biden’s approach to Mideast diplomacy is a pre-Sept. 11 mentality, where generations of U.S. president tried to press Israel into making concessions to Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Biden still thinks Israel must vacate possessing the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in accordance with Nov. 22, 1967 U.N. Resolution 242, demanding Israel vacate all territory won in the June 5-10, 1967 Six Day War. Since Sept. 11, former President George W. Bush recognized that the U.S. could no longer deal with terrorist groups, including Palestinians. Biden still thinks that if only ceded more land to Palestinians, there would be peace in the Middle East. Netanyahu figured out long ago that between Hamas in Gaza and PLO in Ramallah, there’s no one to negotiate for peace. Bush figured out that letting Israel figure out its own national security.
Israeli officials found out the hard way what happens when the U.S. puts all its foreign policy eggs into one basket, the one in Ukraine. AP-NORC’s recent poll shows that support for the Ukraine War is slipping, putting Zelensky and Biden under the gun to get something done or head to the peace table. Biden and Zelensky are under the illusion that the more they fight the Russian Federation, the more they can get concessions at the eventual peace table. Biden’s Ukraine proxy war has cost the U.S. dearly in terms of U.S. foreign policy and national security. Ending decades of diplomatic relations with Russian, Biden opted for war over diplomacy, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to hot spots around the globe. For the foreseeable future, the U.S. can no longer depend on adversaries like Russia and China to help resolve conflicts in dangerous spots around the world, including Iran and North Korea.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
