LOS ANGELES.–President Joe Biden decided to continue hitting Iranian-backed proxies in Iraq and Syria in response to the Jan. 28 terror attacks on Tower 22 forward operating base in Jordan, killing three U.S. soldiers, injuring 40. Biden rejected calls from fellow Neocons or war hawks in Congress to attack Iran directly fearing a new war front. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Biden emphatically to strike the source of state-sponsored terrorism in the Middle East and Horn of Africa, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran’s 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Biden that Iran would hit the U.S. hard if any of its territory or military were hit directly by the U.S. Biden finds his foreign policy tied into knots by his own doing, waging proxy war in Ukraine against the Kremlin. U.S. officials fear a new battle front if Biden attacks Iran directly.
When Osama bin Laden struck U.S. embassies in East Africa in Aug. 7, 1998, former President Bill Clinton did nothing. Biden Laden struck the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen Oct. 12, 2000, prompting Clinton to shoot Cruise missiles at his alleged terror bases in Afghanistan. Less than a year later Sept. 11, 2001, Biden Lade struck the World Trade Center Twin Towers and Pentagon in the most deadly attack on U.S. soil in history. Biden follows the same pattern as Clinton, a reluctance to deal directly with the source of the terrorism, in today’s case in Tehran. Whether the Ayatollah orders a future strike or terrorist attacks on U.S. soil isn’t known. But the history of what happened in lead up to Sept. 11 is obvious in hindsight. Biden’s reluctance to follow the advice of Graham and other war hawks to hit Iran directly relates to the reckless, costly, wasteful proxy war in Ukraine.
Biden and Ukraine’s 45-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky claim that if the U.S. doesn’t fight the Kremlin in Ukraine, 71-year-old Russian President Volodymyr Zelensky would continue to conquer other countries in Europe. Biden and Zelensky’s claims are pure conjecture, not based on anything other than his Feb. 24, 2024 decision to invade Ukraine. Putin asked Biden for months before the invasion to discuss new security arrangements for Ukraine. Biden refused to negotiate with Putin, continued supply Kiev lethal U.S. weapons. When Putin invaded, Biden said the invasion was “unprovoked and unjustified,” but not if you’re the Kremlin. Putin warned Biden against continuing to arm Ukraine over Kremlin objections, eventually invading Ukraine in what Putin called a “special military operation,” designed to demilitarize Ukraine from U.S. weapons.
Biden now finds his foreign policy in shambles, in an unending proxy war against the Kremlin. Biden is the first American president since WW II to fund proxy war against the Kremlin, ending decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control, something generations of U.S. presidents worked on. Biden’s reluctance to directly confront the Ayatollah stems from U.S. military commitments in Ukraine. Biden has said he intends if give another four years to continue defending Ukraine as long as it takes to defeat the Russian Federation. Putin has said that he has no plans to leave Ukraine, now or in the future. So, Biden has the U.S. in a forever war with a country vital to U.S. national security. Cooperative, pragmatic relations with Moscow has been a staple of U.S. foreign policy since the end of WW II. Biden has turned U.S. foreign policy upside down.
One of Iran’s militia groups, Kataib Hezbollah, responsible for the Jan. 28 drone strike on Tower 22, announced Jan. 31 they suspended all attacks on U.S. targets, now that Biden has calculated his targets. Whether Biden can trust Kataib Hezbollah or not, Iranian backed groups, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq and Syria, all seem under the Ayatollah’s orders. Iran calls its militia groups the “axis of resistance” as a smokescreen to encourage all groups to go after Israel, before the Hamas War and after. Iran tries to lead the anti-Zionist movement to bring Sunni group under the Ayatollah’s Shiite Islamic control. No Islamic state joined the Israeli-Hamas war knowing what would happen with the Israeli Defense Forces ready to attack any group attacking Israel. Khamenei likes to trick Sunni groups with his anti-Zionist rhetoric.
Biden finds himself with no good options when it comes to responding to Kataib Hezbollah’s attack on U.S. Tower 22 base in Jordan killing three U.S. soldiers, injuring 40. Biden has made conducting U.S. foreign policy impossible by waging proxy war in Ukraine against the Russian Federation. All the attacks in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, interfering with international shipping continue to plague the region because Biden won’t go after Iran directly. Biden says he doesn’t want another war with the Ukraine War against the Kremlin continuing without end. If Biden moved the Ukraine War to the peace table and worked toward reestablishing cooperative U.S.-Russian relations, his hands wouldn’t be tied in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. Tanker and freighter attacks threaten global commerce and drive global inflation.
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.
