President Biden has made his view on responding to foreign attacks painfully clear: America will help its allies fight back fiercely — as long as they don’t cause their enemies too much damage.
Wouldn’t want to risk escalating the situation, don’t you know.
It’s a clear recipe for losing and has already proved a tragic failure with foes like Russia, Iran, China, Hamas, the Taliban . . . .
Worst of all, it guarantees the one thing Biden supposedly fears most: more warfare.
Take Russia. Biden backs Ukraine in its fight to roll back Moscow’s illegal invasion, yet he insists Kyiv defend itself with its hands tied behind its back — as Vladimir Putin beats his chest and rattles his nukes.
No attacks on Russian soil will be tolerated, though he finally relaxed that rule slightly last week, allowing limited strikes in a border area near Kharkiv.
Nor will the US send the most powerful US weapons that could make a real difference.
Heck: Biden might’ve deterred Putin and prevented the war altogether by massively arming Ukraine before the invasion and signaling that Russia would risk a major conflict it would surely lose if it attacked.
Instead, the prez made clear Russia needn’t fear US and NATO involvement.
A “minor incursion” would be OK. And his only threat in advance of a large-scale operation was to impose economic sanctions.
Or take Israel: The Jewish state “has the right to defend itself and its people,” Biden asserted immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 slaughterfest.
Yet he quickly blasted the Jewish state for causing too many casualties (even though the number civilian vs. combatant deaths is lower in Gaza than for any other urban war in modern history).
And he slapped on restrictions: No targeting terrorists in population areas (precisely where they hide). No barriers to humanitarian aid, even if it keeps winding up in Hamas’ hands.
Biden even withheld a weapons shipment to Israel and threatened to block future deliveries if Israel fought too hard.
All because some privileged teens started calling him Genocide Joe and demanding a “free Palestine” and anti-Israel voters threatened to stay home in November.
Then there’s Iran: When it launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel — from its own soil, for the first time — Biden warned Jerusalem not to retaliate, at all.
He also essentially ignored attacks on US troops by Tehran’s proxies — at least until one strike left three soldiers dead in Jordan. Only weeks later, he freed up $10 billion for the ayatollahs, after already having rolled back sanctions-enforcement soon after taking office.
As early as 2021, he surrendered Afghanistan to the Taliban, stranding Americans and our allies there.
Then again, as veep he also opposed the US strike on Osama bin Laden, fearing fallout. He’s been no better in the face of Chinese outrages.
Former Obama Defense Secretary Robert Gates famously noted that Biden’s “been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Don’t expect the 81-year-old prez to start getting it right now.
