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Kathianne
04-15-2024, 10:45 PM
Two posts from same aggregate, different writers. I think both make cogent points, I blame Biden:

https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/04/15/have-we-already-spiraled-into-a-regional-war-in-the-middle-east-n3786557


Have We Already Spiraled Into a Regional War in the Middle East?JAZZ SHAW 9:20 PM | April 15, 2024



AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo, File
There was a bit too much of this going on this morning not to comment on it. Browsing some of the cable news outlets, I saw several White House officials and guest commentators expressing concerns over the activities of the weekend. Some, including John Kirby, were warning against the possibility that a strong response by Israel could cause the situation in the region to "spiral into a regional war in the Middle East." I was rather flabbergasted and I clearly wasn't the only one. At National Review, our friend Jim Geraghty expressed the appropriate level of disbelief when a CBS News correspondent invoked the same language. You no longer need to worry about the situation spiraling into a regional war. The regional war is already here.


Despite what a lot of ominous voice-overs during B-roll will tell you, you don’t have to worry about the Middle East spiraling into a regional war. You have to worry that the regional war is already there. The Biden administration desperately wants Israel to declare victory and the conflict to be resolved, which is akin to its belief that the Ukrainians should win the war, but not using any method that might damage Russian oil refineries or roil the world oil markets. Joe Biden is always telling his friends to hold back, at least internationally.


On Sunday’s edition of Face the Nation, CBS News correspondent Debora Patta declared of this weekend’s Iranian attack against Israel, “It is the scenario everyone has feared since the October 7 Hamas attack: a state-to-state confrontation that could spiral into a regional war.”


Spiral into a regional war?


By the Israelis’ count, Iran, along with proxies based in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles at Israel Saturday. Thankfully, almost none of the projectiles reached their intended targets — although one seven-year-old girl was hospitalized, and the nearby Israeli Nevatim air-force base suffered minor damage.


My first response to our vaunted National Security Advisor was to ask, "Dude... do you even own a television?" There was continuous footage of literally hundreds of missiles and drones raining down toward Israel from multiple locations, including Iran. Israel's missile defense systems were overheating swatting them all down and a couple still managed to get through. Elements inside six different nations and territories are firing at each other. To quote Geraghty again, "That sure sounds like a regional war to me." Thankfully, Israel is maintaining the upper hand for the moment, but they will need the support of their allies.


The response from the White House was telling. Biden was immediately ready to declare that the Iranian attack was "symbolic" and that Israel was victorious so they should simply stand down. Of course, that's always Biden's advice. It's also a load of malarkey, as the Commander in Chief would say. Israel's leaders already know this, thankfully. Iran is acting like a bully, and when you let a bully throw that many punches, even if you block most of them, they will come back for more.


The bigger question is probably why Iran felt they could get away with this in the first place. None of our adversaries who support Iran are urging restraint on the part of the Mullahs. It's the United States that is trying to put a leash on Israel. Without our full backing, Iran probably feels confident in testing Israel's defenses. It's simply not enough for Joe Biden to repeat that our support of Israel is "ironclad." Those words need to be backed up with actions. We already have the resources in place to take out more of Iran's proxies in the region. Our missiles should have been flying before the last of Iran's were taken down. There needed to be a clear and unambiguous statement from the White House (not from Rehoboth Beach) that Israel would surely strike back hard at a time of their choosing and they would do so with the full support and backing of the United States.


Iran believes they can act aggressively from a position of power and Israel will exercise restraint in its response. They believe this because they sense weakness in the Biden administration and they are concerned that the clock is ticking because Donald Trump may be back in power next year. If that happens, they know there will be hell to pay. All of this is happening because we have a timid leader in Washington and our adversaries know it. Enough is enough. Joe Biden asked for this job. It's long past time for him to man up and do it.

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/04/15/are-we-already-in-world-war-iii-n3786550


Are We Already in World War III?DAVID STROM 8:00 PM | April 15, 2024



AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Short answer: sort of.


Earlier today, I wrote my analysis of Iran's attack on Israel, suggesting that it was all Kabuki theater, allowing Iran to save face after Israel's attack on Iran in Damascus. Barring an Israeli strike of some significance against Iran, I stand by that analysis. Allowing a fake attack on Israel was probably the best of some bad options.


That said, when looked at in the larger context of where things stand in the wider world, it is clear that President Biden has painted us into a corner, allowing an Axis of Autocracies to coalesce and grow in power over the past 3 1/2 years. In so doing, he has lit the fuse for a coming world war.


Or perhaps not quite coming. In a way, it is here, although the major powers have yet to fire shots directly at each other. It is neither a "hot" war nor a "cold war" but a warm one.


Call it "global warming," Biden style.




War and conflict have been breaking out around the world.


Ukraine and Israel are the most obvious fronts, but the Chinese have been challenging the territorial waters of their neighbors and, of course, keeps making noises about Taiwan. Then there is the commerce raiding taking place and the threats in the Red Sea.


Then there are the border invasions that have bedeviled Western countries, and the flow of weapons out of Iran to its proxies and Russia, North Korea and China's supplying Putin's aggression, and the teetering of Turkey playing NATO and the Axis of Autocracies off each other.


Chaos is everywhere, and we are idiots if we don't see each of these challenges in the context of a larger conflict. Our adversaries are at war with us, and only they seem to know that.


Biden is an appeaser, and appeasement only works with neutral and friendly countries.




David Axe at The Telegraph argues this point, focusing on the importance of defeating Russia in Ukraine. I am less convinced than he that Ukraine is the crux of the conflict or that Russia can be militarily defeated on that front. Clearly, the war is bleeding the Russian state dry by destroying its military capacity, though. But Ukraine, even with Western weapons, likely can't drive Russia out of the Donbas or Crimea.


It seems that the most threatening fronts of the warm war are in the Middle East, the waters around China, and, most particularly, our borders.


The Israel-Hamas war has the potential to spread in a region that is vital to world security, and Western countries have been pretty weak-kneed. Military support for Israel has been strong, but Western countries have allowed Hamas to win the propaganda war so far. The Iranian attack is an opportunity for a reset. Let's see if they take it.


I suspect not, though. Biden is worried about his election, not world peace. Or American security for that matter, since he has been sacrificing both for over three years.


The incursion of third-world anti-Western migrants is a longer-term threat but an existential one. World War III will almost certainly not threaten the territory of any Western country because nobody wants a nuclear war. Still, the wave of illegal third-world migrants threatens to hollow out our countries as our streets become an unacknowledged battleground.


All those pro-Hamas protesters marching in Western cities are a direct result of years of facilitated migration of anti-Western third-worlders. Our educational and academic elites egg them on and provide American ground troops of brainwashed kids who have been educated into hating our country.


China helps fund that education by pouring billions into our universities.


Western leaders have been blind to this danger or even courted it. They hoped that the wave of migrants would be grateful to the politicians who allowed it, and Biden clearly hoped that many illegals would vote for him. We'll see about that, but even if that works out for him, it will be at the cost of enervating America.


Our adversaries understand this perfectly and likely are helping enable it through all those nonprofits guiding migrants to our shores.


It is all part of an existential conflict between the West and the Rest. Americans are slowly waking up to that fact. Let's hope they act on that knowledge by tossing the current crop of leaders out ASAP.

Kathianne
04-15-2024, 11:09 PM
Related: Biden's foreign policies are a cluster f of failure after failure-now highlighted in ME:

https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/opinion/bidens-middle-east-policy-is-beyond-parody/


Biden’s Middle East policy is beyond parody

By Social Links forGlenn H. Reynolds

published April 15, 2024, 4:56 p.m. ET


The Biden administration told Israel to have "restraint" after Iran launched an attack.


“World In Shock As Murderous Terrorist State Ignores Warning From Impotent Old Man.”


That was satire site The Babylon Bee’s headline after Iran launched hundreds of missiles at Israel, despite President Biden’s stern warning to Iran: “Don’t.”


It must be hard to be a satire site, since this administration is largely beyond parody. Iran is, of course, a murderous terrorist state.


And it did ignore Biden’s warning. (As did Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2022.)


Post-attack — going further yet beyond parody — the Biden administration’s chief effort has been aimed at demanding Israel not retaliate.


That’s right. Israel has had more than a thousand of its citizens raped, tortured, murdered and kidnapped, it’s been subjected to a massive missile attack, and it’s being told to exercise “restraint.”


The Biden administration urged Israel to not retaliate after the attack from Iran, according to National Review’s Jim Geraghty.
Why Biden urges allies’ restraint, the real Mideast war and other commentary
What other country in the world faces this sort of attack and is then told to exercise restraint?


The Biden administration even organized G7 leaders to demand that Israel not respond.


Is this ineptitude, or is it corruption?


As the girl in the taco commercials says, “Why not both?”


The Biden people are certainly unimpressive, to put it mildly.




The epic fail of Biden’s doctrine vs. Iran — no consequences
But there are also self-serving reasons for their policies.


Biden doesn’t want to openly side with Iran, which most Americans — correctly — regard as an enemy of the United States and civilization in general.


On the other hand, Minnesota and swing state Michigan have large numbers of immigrants who chant “Death to Israel” — and sometimes “Death to America” — and Biden needs their votes to win in November. (And they know it.)


What’s more, an Israeli retaliatory strike might well hit Iranian oil-export facilities, which would drive up oil prices, and thus gasoline prices, this summer and hurt Biden’s re-election chances.


So Biden is trying to have it both ways.


He wants to avoid obvious moves that would antagonize Americans who don’t trust Iran, and Jewish donors, while making sure Israel doesn’t make the obvious, logical response to being attacked on its own soil.


It’s not clear this is working.


“In trying to have it both ways Biden got nothing. Now a wider war is inevitable,” national-security pundit Richard Fernandez tweeted. “The failure was from the top. We need a new strategy. The old one is dead.”

Well, this is our own fault — and by “our own,” I mean Biden’s and before that the Obama-Biden administration’s.


In 2009, protests rocked the Iranian government, and it looked like there was a good chance of overthrowing the ruling mullahs in favor of a more liberal, democratic government.


But the Obama administration pointedly failed to back the protesters.


Instead, it chose to pursue a “deal” with Iran in which we gave it money and it gave us a promise not to develop nuclear weapons until it was actually able to do so.


(OK, that’s not quite how the administration phrased it, but that’s what it amounted to.)


Ali Khamenei
Iran’s terror-enabling supreme leader only opens the door for Israel to hit back hard
Since Biden entered the White House, enacting essentially a third Obama term, US policy has leaned in favor of Iran as well.


It seems pretty clear his team would turn on Israel more harshly if it thought it could get away with it domestically.


Meanwhile, one bright spot is Arab nations for the most part favor Israel over Iran, correctly believing the Israelis don’t want to take over their nations and the Iranians do.


The prospect of a powerful, nuclear-armed Iran does not make its neighbors happy.


Thus countries like Jordan actually shot down Iranian cruise missiles that crossed their airspace on the way to Israel, and some like Saudi Arabia provided Israel intelligence.


This is a big change, cemented by the Trump-era Abraham Accords, which brought together a regional anti-Iran alliance including Israel and Arab nations.


For decades, presidents had promised to bring peace between the two.


Donald Trump actually did it but got surprisingly little credit.


Biden in 2020 claimed that if re-elected, Trump would get us into a war with Iran and destabilize the region.


In fact, under Trump we got involved in no new wars at all, something that cannot be said of Biden.


The truth is our foreign policy is run by people who are — at best and most charitable — incompetent.


We need new leadership. Will we get it?

Gunny
04-17-2024, 12:27 PM
Related: Biden's foreign policies are a cluster f of failure after failure-now highlighted in ME:

https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/opinion/bidens-middle-east-policy-is-beyond-parody/

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Not hoping for anything better regardless the results in Nov.