American Weakness Invites Aggression

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In November 1979, Iranian “students,” inspired or directed by Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran.  A weak Jimmy Carter administration emboldened the attack, which resulted in 52 American diplomatic staff being held as hostages for 444 days.

The capture of the U.S. embassy amounted to a declaration of war on the U.S.  Yet the Carter administration, instead, betrayed the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, by warning him against a crackdown on the revolutionary demonstrators.  The Shah, suffering from advanced cancer, was indecisive in his response, thus enabling the revolutionaries to take the initiative. 

Carter’s attempt to rescue the American hostages by launching a military operation — too limited in scope — was an unmitigated disaster.

The ayatollah’s perception of newly elected president Ronald Reagan was one of a strong leader who would react forcefully against Iran.  The Islamic Republic took no chances and immediately released the hostages.

In a similar vein, the weakness of the Biden/Harris administration, and its refusal to declare its willingness to use the “military option” against Iran and its proxies, including Hamas and Hezb’allah, convinced the Hamas terrorists that the time was right to launch the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.  They massacred and took 251 civilians off to Gaza as hostages, scores of whom were American citizens.  In the aftermath, there were no repercussions against any of the perpetrators.

Clearly, Iran would not have given Hamas a green light to attack Israel had it feared a military reaction from the U.S.  The ayatollahs, eager to prevent any Israeli-Saudi rapprochement, and realizing that they were safe from any retaliation or from a possible defense alliance led by the U.S., sent Hamas the go-ahead signals.

In both instances, history has shown that weak American administrations encouraged the attacks.

In the Islamic Middle East, where cultures respect military strength and despise weakness, the Biden/Harris administration is disrespected.  The defensive postures of the Carter/Biden/Harris administrations provided adversaries with confidence that their actions would not result in an all-out war.  They were correct with regard to the Americans but failed to gauge Israeli resolve. 

Israel’s latest attacks against Hezb’allah in Lebanon has destroyed much of the latter’s missile arsenal and the launchers to fire them.  The elimination of the Hezb’allah leadership, including Hassan Nasrallah, its secretary general and supreme leader, and his second-in-command, Hashem Safieddine, considered to be his successor, has sent a clear message to Israel’s adversaries and re-established much of the deterrence it lost on October 7.  Simultaneously, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have destroyed Hamas’s command and control and eradicated of 23 of its roughly 24 battalions in Gaza.  

The U.S., being a superpower, should be feared, but the U.S. eschews winning wars and simply opts for quiet and a “business as usual” posture, which is eroding its deterrence and respectability.

It has been a year since Hamas took Israeli and American hostages, and others, into the Gaza tunnel dungeons.  The Biden/Harris administration has followed Jimmy Carter’s lackadaisical attitude of using words rather than actions.  Had the U.S. put real pressure on Hamas by warning of direct military actions unless the hostages are released, the reality would have been vastly different.  If Biden/Harris had threatened the leadership of Qatar and Egypt with decisive action, they would have understood that actions have consequences.  The U.S. could have removed its bases from Qatar and relocated them to the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain, which might have prompted the Qatari Muslim Brotherhood–affiliated regime to intervene and achieve real results, especially since Hamas depends on Doha for its monetary survival.  Similarly, inasmuch as Egypt is a major recipient of U.S. military and financial aid, the threat of losing that aid might have forced Cairo to earnestly compel Hamas to release the hostages.  But then again, when it comes to Jewish hostages, it seems that the Biden/Harris team has not been and is still not in a hurry to act.

The Biden/Harris administration has continually pressured Israel to agree to a ceasefire while demanding that Israel allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.  No such demand was made to compel Hamas to allow Red Cross visitations and to deliver medicine and food to the Israeli and American hostages.  The Hamas terrorist leadership was therefore assured that the U.S. administration is impotent.  Instead of the Biden/Harris administration denouncing Hamas for using civilians as human shields, and holding Hamas responsible for most of the Palestinian civilian deaths, Israel was blamed for allegedly using excessive force.  In fact, Hamas was able to sell its stolen humanitarian aid at inflated rates and use the funds to recruit new fighters.

Appeasement of Iran in recent years has only bolstered Iranian aggression.  Seeing the Biden/Harris team as weak and indecisive, Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria targeted American bases and personnel with impunity.  The absence of American retaliation was an embarrassment on the world stage and only reinforced Iran’s perception of Biden’s and Harris’s America as a paper tiger.  Any actions taken by the administration were always defensive and further encouraged the Islamic Republic, the leading global sponsor of terrorism, to act without fear.  The Iranians even attempted to assassinate Donald Trump on American soil on the heels of having marked other Americans.

Just prior to Iran’s April 13, 2024 massive attack on Israel with 300 drones and missiles, President Joe Biden pointed a finger at Iran, saying, “Don’t, don’t,” meaning “don’t launch your attack.”  Iran’s subsequent attack showed the level of disrespect and disregard the Iranian Islamic Republic has for the Biden/Harris administration.

On October 1, 2024, Iran attacked Israel once again — this time with 180 ballistic missiles.  In the interim, Iran has been accelerating its uranium enrichment program, with some forecasting breakout within weeks, and Iran has hacked into Trump’s election campaign websites and leaked information to the Harris headquarters.

The Biden/Harris administration, much like the Carter administration, has failed to understand that “soft power” in the Middle East does not work.  Its projection of weakness has invited Iran’s aggression.

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