LOS ANGELES.–Iran’s 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened that if the U.S. strikes for a Jan. 28 drone attack at Tower 22 Army outpost in Jordan killing three U.S. soldiers, injuring 40, Iran would “decisively respond.” Biden finds himself in limbo, too fearful to respond directly to Iran knowing what happened in 1980 to former President Jimmy Carter, whose botched Iranian hostage rescue cost him his reelection. President Ronald Reagan won in the biggest landslide in modern electoral history. Biden has made conducting U.S. foreign policy more difficult waging a reckless proxy war against the Kremlin, making it difficult for the Pentagon to defend U.S. troops overseas. Biden said the U.S. would respond to the drone attack but would do so a its own time and discretion, meaning it’s doubtful anything significant would be done in the near term.
Biden’s political handlers are now filtering Pentagon action to defend U.S. national security against political fallout in an Election Year where the president’s approval ratings hover around 40%, not enough to pull off reelection, especially with his Vice President Kamala Harris approval rating running about 36%. Biden knows that independents like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. could take away up to 20%, handing Trump the margin he needs to get back to the White House. When it comes to Iran, Biden has watched Ayatollah-backed militias hit the U.S. or its allies 160 times since the Oct. 7, 2023 Israeli-Hamas War. Biden said he doesn’t want to start a new war considering the current war in Ukraine with the Kremlin. Biden picked the worst possible country to take on, with the possible exception of Communist China, another country he’s pushing to open a new front.
When it comes to his promise to retaliate, the Ayatollah preempted Biden, saying the Islamic Republic would hit the U.S. hard, despite the Ayatollah’s formidable challenge to keep his restive population in check. Since the Basij militia’s Sept. 16, 2023 beating death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Marisa Amini, Khamenei faced months of street protest around Iran calling for the end of mullah rule, forcing the regime to crack down on protesters. Getting hit directly by U.S. forces would be welcomed by many Iranians opposed to the Ayatollah’s oppressive rule. Amini’s beating death for not wearing a proper hijab inflamed the Iranian population, realizing how little freedom rank-and-file Iranians have under the Ayatollah’s mullah rule. Khamenei talks tough threatening to “decisively respond,” knowing that the mullah regime can’t manage a war with the United States.
Biden’s reluctance to respond forcefully to Iran stems from his ongoing proxy war in Ukraine against the Russian Federation. Biden said, if reelected, he would continue his proxy war against the Kremlin until it removes all its forces from Ukraine. Russia had forces in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk before the Feb. 24, 2022 war started and plans to keep its forces there indefinitely. Since the Israeli-Hamas war started Oct. 7, 2023, Biden has been deluged with demands to prevent a wider escalation, something feared by Pentagon planners. When no escalation took place, Biden did everything possible to avoid responding in kind, forcing the Ayatollah’s hands to retaliate against the U.S. But with U.S. lives already sacrificed with an Iranian-made drone launched by Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah, Biden’s under pressure, especially by conservatives, to act decisively against Tehran.
Biden faces onoing attacks by Ayatollah-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, most recently Jan. 30 when Houthis fired a missile at the USS Gravely, an Arleigh-Burke guided missile destroyer in the Red Sea. Whether the Aytollah gives Houthis the green light to attack U.S. ships is anyone’s guess. Iran denies that it gives orders to attack U.S. ships, something decided by various Tehran-backed terror groups. “The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the country, its interests and nationals under any pretexts,” said IRNA, saying Iran would respond forcefully to any U.S. attack. So, when Biden dithers, the Ayatollah plots his next move to hit the U.S. directly or its allies. “Sometime, our enemies raise the threat and nowadays we hear some threats in between words by American officials,” said Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Iran’s Republican Guard.
Iran doesn’t want war with the U.S. due to lingering domestic unrest stemming from the population’s disgust with oppressive mullah rule. “We are not after war but we have no fear of war,” Salami told IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. Whatever high alert for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, it’s certainly nothing Biden needs to fear, about the growing prospects of a wider war in the Middle East. No Sunni or Shiite nation in the Mideast or Horn of Africa have intervened on behalf of their Palestinian brothers. Hamas officials claim Israel has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. Hamas doesn’t work with the International Red Cross to verify war deaths, only makes up data for public consumption. Biden’s reluctance to take decisive action against Iran continues to fuel Ayatollah-backed terror groups to attack the U.S. and its allies.
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.
