All Flash, No Bang
Iran's missile strike on the Zionist Entity was a bust, but Biden's still befuddled
How disappointed the “anti-Zionist” Left must be!
The comrades were stridently indignant when an Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Lebanon killed General Mohammad Reza Zahedi. This goon, a senior commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had a key role in the planning and execution of the October 7, 2023, Hamas pogrom. How dare those wicked Jews violate international law by blowing up an embassy to get at him? Even genocidal mass killers are entitled to diplomatic immunity, after all! It was another war crime for which Israel must be made to pay.
But after a chorus of bloodcurdling threats, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s mighty retaliatory blow against the Zionist Entity turned out to be a near-total fizzle. Of the two hundred drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles that the ayatollahs aimed at Israel, all but a handful were intercepted by the IDF—significantly, with the assistance of the US, UK, and Jordanian air forces. No one in Israel was killed; only a few people were injured. Damage on the ground was insignificant, so much so that the Iranian government was reduced to broadcasting video of a years-ago wildfire in Texas in a lame attempt to cover up its military’s ineptitude.
Still, the abortive missile strike was a serious escalation: the first-ever direct Iranian attack on Israel. What happens next?
With the reflexive pusillanimity that has become the signature of his foreign policy, President Biden is pressuring Israel to forego a military response. He insists that the resoundingly successful defense put up by Israel and its allies is a sufficient win. In the background of this argument lurks the fear that if Israel does strike back, “escalation” will occur.
But inaction can be just as escalatory as action if Iran is led to think that it can attack at will with no fear of the consequences. For that reason, the Israeli government will likely reject Biden’s argument, judging that the restoration of deterrence mandates a retaliatory strike.
This is not to suggest, however, that Israel would respond in kind. After all, the Iranian attack, though large in scale, was ineffectual. Israel might therefore opt for a precision strike at some military target: an airbase or naval base. The infliction of significant damage on a single high-value target would serve to make the necessary point.
As for why the ayatollahs decided to roll the dice with a direct attack on Israel that risked touching off a regional war, the answer seems obvious: They took note of the Biden Administration’s inconstancy, which undermined deterrence in the first place.
As the weeks passed after October 7, 2023, the President’s full-throated support for Israel gradually dwindled away. For reasons of domestic politics, Biden & Co. took to lambasting Israel for its “over the top” prosecution of the war against Hamas in Gaza. Using the hated Prime Minister Netanyahu as a convenient punching bag, the Administration made ever more onerous demands on Israel, such that agreeing to them would make prosecution of the war impossible. Humanitarian considerations, had to be given top priority, Biden insisted, and he threatened to kick Israel to the curb if it refused to go along with his absurd requirements.
This performance had two effects. First, it induced the Israeli government to halt major combat operations in Gaza for the time being. Second, it emboldened the Iranian regime, which concluded, not unreasonably, that America no longer had Israel’s back. In this manner, Biden’s bungling has both prolonged the war in Gaza and encouraged Iranian aggression. The ayatollahs can be forgiven for concluding that America wouldn’t do a thing to punish them for a direct attack on Israel—and they were right.
Thus the Biden Administration’s pig-headed refusal to acknowledge the obvious—that Iran bears primary responsibility for the current crisis—is producing results exactly the opposite of those intended.
The President and his people, terrified at the prospect of a wider regional war, are making such a war more likely. They seem to have thought that by repeating the word don’t, they could keep the situation under control. But deterrence is not solely or even primarily a form of words. At some point, action is necessary. Though Joe Biden is a fool even he realizes this, which is why he sent an aircraft carrier battle group to the region. Now, however, he’s sending a clear message to Iranian regime that it has nothing to fear from the United States Navy. Biden’s don’t is a sheep’s bleat.
Coddling Iran while berating Israel is a recipe for disaster. The only way to prevent a major Middle East war is to end the present war quickly, with Israel victorious over Hamas. The alternative is just such a disaster as our stumblebum president thinks he’s staving off with his policy of ineffectual rhetoric.
Don’t.
The Biden administration also is (insanely) trying to win the support of both the pro-Hamas progressives/leftists, and American Jews and Israel supporters.
Progressives cannot be reasoned with (I regretfully used to support and defend them; now that's impossible). But I wonder if it ever occurred to any of the more centrists in the administration that if they need to appeal to Islamist terror supporters for their support, then maybe they should ask themselves what and who they really represent.