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FOREIGN POLICY

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How To Blow Up the Middle East War in Five Easy Steps The Biden administration’s approach to Iran destabilized the Middle East and led to the October 7 Hamas attack and subsequent regional chaos. By Victor Davis Hanson

By on October 3rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/10/03/how-to-blow-up-the-middle-east-war-in-five-easy-steps/

When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. Now it is in the midst of a multifront war.

So quiet was the inheritance from the prior Trump administration that nearly three years later, on September 29, 2023—and just eight days before the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis—Biden’s national security advisor Jack Sullivan could still brag that “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.”

So, what exactly happened to the inherited calm that led to the current nonstop chaos of the present?

In a word, theocratic Iran—the nexus of almost all current Middle East terrorism and conflict—was unleashed by Team Biden after having been neutered by the Trump administration.

The Biden-Harris administration adopted a 5-step revisionist protocol that appeased and encouraged Iran and its terrorist surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.

The result was a near guarantee that something akin to the October 7 massacres would inevitably follow—along with a subsequent year of violence that has now engulfed the Middle East.

First, on the 2020 campaign trail, Biden damned long-time American ally Saudi Arabia as a “pariah.”

He overturned the policies of both the previous Obama and Trump administrations by siding with the Iranian-supplied terrorist Houthis in their war on Saudi Arabia.

Biden accused the kingdom of war crimes, warning it would “be held accountable” for its actions in Yemen. Biden-Harris took the murderous Houthis off the U.S. terrorist list.

Almost immediately followed continuous Houthi attacks on international shipping, Israel, and U.S. warships—rendering the Red Sea, the entryway to the Suez Canal, de facto closed to international maritime transit.

Worse still, by the time of the 2022 midterms, when spiraling gas prices threatened Democratic congressional majorities, Biden opportunistically flipped and implored Saudi Arabia to pump more oil to lower world prices before the November election. Appearing obnoxious and then obsequious to an old Middle East ally is a prescription for regional chaos.

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News Flash for DC: Diplomacy Gets You Slaughtered by Ruthie Blum

By on September 24th, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20967/diplomacy-gets-you-slaughtered

Then there’s Kirby’s delicacy in describing how “it doesn’t appear like Mr. Sinwar is prepared at all to keep negotiating in good faith—especially after he murdered six hostages in a tunnel … execution-style.”

When, one wonders, did he ever negotiate “in good faith?”

Somebody should let [US National Security spokesman John] Kirby know that “all those people”—as well as the majority of Israelis throughout the country—have been urging Netanyahu to eliminate the threat through serious military action beyond tit-for-tat strikes of attrition.

Stephanopoulos pressed him further. “So, what is the U.S. doing exactly to advance a diplomatic initiative?” he asked.

“We have been involved in extensive and quite assertive diplomacy,” Kirby said proudly, clearly referring to pressure on Israel from the White House and State Department.

[Kirby] failed to clarify that Hezbollah attacked Israel, unprovoked, a day after Hamas committed the worst atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust. Nor did he bother to remind Stephanopoulos that both are Iranian proxies. He did stress, however, that “we don’t believe military action is in either side’s best interest.”

Here’s a news flash for him and anyone else who hasn’t been facing a seven-front war of annihilation: Diplomacy gets you slaughtered. Military action, which is the only option in this case, should be welcomed—and victory championed—not hampered, by Israel’s professed allies.

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It Is Biden and Harris Who Are Not Doing Enough to Free the Hostages by Alan M. Dershowitz

By on September 23rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20952/biden-harris-hamas-hostages

Why should Hamas agree to a ceasefire when its refusal is blamed on Israel by the president of the United States? In addition, when Biden blames Israel, he encourages other allies, such as Great Britain, Canada, France and Germany, to do the same.

[Biden] blamed Netanyahu alone without even mentioning Hamas. And this was after Hamas terrorists had murdered six hostages, including an American.

Although Biden did say that the Hamas killers would pay a price for the murders of the hostages, he did not say that Iran— which controls Hamas— would pay any price, including increased sanctions, or worse, unless the hostages, including the Americans, are released, unharmed, immediately.

[Biden and Harris] should warn Iran that if Hamas harms any American hostages, we will regard that as an attack on the US that warrants a military response against Iranian military targets.

Instead, Biden is demanding that Israel compromise its security by allowing Hamas to return to its terrorist tunnels under the critical Philadelphi Corridor.

Iran’s proxies are its human shields. Unless Iran itself is punished for the terrorism of its surrogates, the mullahs will have no incentive to stop, and we, the Middle East, and South America will all be less secure – especially after Iran unveils its nuclear bombs.

Biden should be placing maximum pressure on the criminals — Hamas and Iran — who continue to endanger our citizens and those of our ally. Instead, he is pressuring and blaming the victim, Israel, which has no control over the perpetrators.

When Iranians took American diplomats hostage in 1979, and then ordered its surrogates to kill hundreds of US Marines in Lebanon in 1983, it essentially declared war on our nation. Now their surrogates have kidnapped and murdered more Americans. Our responses to these acts of belligerency have been woefully insufficient. Instead, the Obama administration enriched the Iranian mullahs in exchange for a controversial nuclear deal that would have enabled Iran to have as many nuclear weapons as it liked after about a dozen years…

The message sent by this administration’s weakness and lack of will is being heard loud and clear not only by Iran but by our other enemies as well.

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An America First Foreign Policy By James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer

By on September 23rd, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/22/an-america-first-foreign-policy/

America First is America’s traditional foreign policy, and only President Trump offers the possibility of returning the United States to its traditional principles.

A major component of Americans’ decision-making as they go to the 2024 polls will be foreign policy. That is entirely appropriate, first, because of the importance of what happens abroad to Americans’ lives. Americans should remember Leon Trotsky’s purported observation that “you might not be interested in war, but war might be interested in you.” That is, the world is a dangerous place. There are many people who wish to destroy America. They need to be met not by attempting to hide from them or with rainbow flags, but with the force of a Mike Tyson punch to the face. Second, this election provides Americans a choice between an America First foreign policy or the disastrous alternative of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s administration. In this essay, we offer our interpretation of an America First foreign policy and what it means for Americans.

Based on the past three and a half years of performance, the Biden-Harris regime has sustained a foreign policy, largely born from the Obama administration, that ignores the existential threat posed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC), undermines our allies like the Philippines, distances itself from key partners like India and Taiwan, fuels the Russo-Ukrainian war, punishes Israel, embraces the Islamic Republic of Iran, and supports international organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and international agreements like the Paris Climate Agreement that advance the PRC’s interests. All of which has undeniably damaged the sovereignty and national security of Americans. In addition, there is the joint domestic-foreign policy issue of America’s open borders. The Biden-Harris administration has imported 12 to 15 million people from around the world in almost four years, and tens of millions more will certainly enter the U.S. if Harris is elected.

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US hypocrisy marks the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder Ruthie Blum

By on September 17th, 2024

http://US hypocrisy marks the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s murder

In his press briefing on Friday, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller was asked about how the Biden administration is responding to the dire situation for women in the Islamic Republic. The journalist referred to the latest report by a United Nations fact-finding mission on the increase in suppression of women’s and girls’ rights in Iran.

She prefaced her question by mentioning the second anniversary of the Sept. 16, 2022 murder of Mahsa Amini.
Amini was a 22-year-old woman from Saqez in Iran’s Kurdistan Province. While on a trip with her family to Tehran, she was arrested by the regime’s “morality police” for not having her head covered properly. According to eyewitnesses, she was beaten as soon as she entered the van that was transporting her to the station for “education”—mullah-style. Three days later, she was dead.

One can only imagine the kind of torture she endured before she was taken to the Kasra Hospital in northern Tehran. Photos that emerged of her lying in a coma matched the medical center’s statement that when she was admitted on Sept. 13, she showed “no vital signs.”

This notice was removed from the hospital’s social-media pages after hardliners called its staff “anti-regime agents.” In parallel, police denied having beaten Amini to death, insisting that she had passed away from a heart attack. It was a lie, of course, and everybody knew it

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The Unbalanced Foreign Policy of the Biden-Harris Regime The current administration’s overreliance on diplomacy through the State Department, sidelining the Defense Department, has led to disastrous foreign policy failures and weakened national security.

By on September 15th, 2024

https://amgreatness.com/2024/09/15/the-unbalanced-foreign-policy-of-the-biden-harris-regime/

By James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer

One of the hallmarks of the Biden-Harris administration has been their obsession to have the U.S. State Department be the lead agency for all of America’s foreign policy decisions regardless of the situation. This was infamously made evident during the events surrounding the retreat from Afghanistan in August 2021, which was motivated by partisan political reasons to be able to get American troops out of the country before the 20th anniversary of the heinous attacks on 9/11.

In the months leading up to that disastrous decision, the State Department operated as the lead agency of the U.S. government, making all decisions, even after it was clear that a non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) was going to be required. Yet, despite this reality, the Department of Defense was relegated to a subordinate position, which ultimately led to their professional advice being ignored.

The results included the deaths of 13 American military service members, hundreds of Afghani citizens killed, and thousands who had supported the U.S. during the proceeding years being displaced and their lives ruined. Strategically, the loss of our airbase at Bagram was a strategic blow to America’s ability to hold the PRC at risk from their western flank.

Americans have seen similar results from the Biden-Harris administration, which has hobbled American foreign policy by their decision to make the State Department the lead agency rather than being balanced equally with the Defense Department under the President and National Security Council.

Similarly disastrous results have occurred since that failed retreat, for instance in the failure to deter Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and their failure to provide uninterrupted assistance to our ally Israel in the face of the devilish evil that was unleashed on October 7, 2023. The same is occurring as well in the Indo-Pacific as the world watches the PRC daily threaten our national interests with assaults against our treaty ally, the Republic of the Philippines and their increasing military alliance with Russia as their two militaries threaten another treaty ally—Japan.

In each of these tinderbox areas, the Biden-Harris regime has turned America’s decision-making over to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and has openly subordinated the Department of Defense to second-tier status on critical national security issues.

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Will The Biden-Harris Administration Allow the World’s Leading State Sponsor of Terrorism to Acquire Nuclear Weapons? by Majid Rafizadeh

By on September 3rd, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20909/biden-harris-iran-nuclear-weapons

Iran’s runaway strides in its nuclear program have taken place largely under the watch of the Biden-Harris administration.

Will this administration allow the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism to acquire nuclear weapons? It many have been what the Obama administration wished — so long as it was “not on my watch” — but it was a terrible idea then, and it is a worse one now. The prospect of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps arming groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iraqi militias with nuclear weapons is bad for the world’s health.

Iran’s regime that has also repeatedly vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and the United States— after that, presumably, the oil-rich Gulf states. Iran already controls five other countries in the region: Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq. There are flashing neon signs that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s dream of “exporting the Revolution” is steadily extending to America’s backyard. Latin American rogue states allied with Iran could potentially be transformed into nuclear-armed threats.

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Sleepwalking into War Rebecca Weisser

By on August 30th, 2024

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2024/09/sleepwalking-into-war-rebecca-weisser/

Our international editor, John O’Sullivan, has compiled an excellent collection of essays called Sleepwalking into Wokeness, which I heartily recommend to readers. It prompts me to wonder whether the West is now sleepwalking its way into a Third World War, or at least a war engaging great powers on three continents: North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East.

After my three-month fellowship at the Danube Institute in Budapest, of which O’Sullivan is the founder and president, the Russian invasion of Ukraine feels far too close for comfort. It’s not just that Hungary shares a land border with Ukraine, and Budapest is located less than 1000 kilometres from the front line. Up to 75,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine, many of whom are fighting the Russian invasion, and more than 60,000 refugees from Ukraine have arrived in Hungary, of whom more than 44,000 have registered for temporary protection.

Meanwhile, Russia and Belarus have weaponised the entry of up to 400 illegal migrants a day into Poland, some of them violent and armed with homemade spears and broken bottles, one, on June 6, stabbing a Polish border guard to death. Finland has closed its border with Russia entirely after it experienced a sharp increase in migrants from Somalia and Iraq who had been aided by Russian security agencies.

The European Union was outraged at Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s audacity in independently promoting peace negotiations by calling on all the key protagonists while Hungary is President of the EU, but he may have helped focus minds on the end game.

One prospect of a speedy end to the conflict rests on the second coming of Donald Trump. Perhaps Orban’s visit to Mar-a-Lago reminded the warring parties of Trump’s bold promise that if he is re-elected he will end the war before he reaches the White House.

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Meet Philip Gordon: Kamala’s Foreign Policy Guru His views on Iran—and connections—are raising eyebrows in Washington. By Jay Solomon

By on August 14th, 2024

https://www.thefp.com/p/philip-gordon-kamala-harris-foreign-adviser

What does Kamala Harris believe about the Middle East? Does she side with the old-school Democrats in her party, who are traditionally pro-Israel? Does she believe that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was transformational—and should be salvaged? What does she think about a U.S. defense pact with Saudi Arabia? Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad? And Sudan’s widening civil war?

With the specter of a broad Mideast war hanging over this presidential election—and potential U.S. involvement growing as the Pentagon dispatches carriers, destroyers, and missile-defense capable cruisers to the region—the answers to all of these questions are far more urgent than they typically would be for American voters. The problem is that Vice President Harris has largely been a back-bencher on foreign policy, unlike some of her predecessors, including her boss Joe Biden. 

Which is why a man named Philip Gordon—who has served as Harris’s foreign policy adviser since she ran for the White House in 2020 and has worked in every Democratic administration since Bill Clinton’s—has become the focus of tremendous scrutiny in Washington over the past few weeks. 

Republicans believe that through Gordon they have the outlines of a Harris foreign policy agenda. And they’re already crafting their political attacks around it. “Democrats want to put him in charge of the White House’s entire foreign policy,” Republican senator Ted Cruz told The Free Press. “It would be unspeakably catastrophic.”

Gordon’s critics from the right say he’s not just wrong on issues—he’s skeptical of U.S. military power and the efficacy of financial sanctions—but that he’s also developed troubling contacts with institutions and individuals close to Iran. Republicans are already demanding Vice President Harris answer why Gordon wrote a string of 2020 opinion pieces with a Pentagon official, Ariane Tabatabai, who was tied last year to an Iranian government-backed influence operation, called the Iran Experts Initiative, tasked with selling the 2015 nuclear deal. (More in a moment.) 

“Before joining your office, Mr. Gordon co-authored at least three opinion pieces with Ms. Tabatabai blatantly promoting the Iranian regime’s perspective and interests.” Republican senator Tom Cotton and Representative Elise Stefanik wrote Harris on July 31. “Each prediction was. . . wrong, as it was biased in favor of Tehran.”

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Why Has the Biden Administration Donated Close to One Billion Dollars in “Aid” to Hamas since the October 7 Massacre? by Robert Williams

By on July 31st, 2024

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20811/biden-administration-donates-to-hamas

Since October 7…. the total of US taxpayer funds donated to Gaza as a reward since the massacre on October 7 to $896 million, or close to a billion dollars.

A lawsuit, brought in December 2022 and updated in March 2024, by Rep. Ronny Jackson and victims of terror attacks in Israel, alleges that President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “knowingly and unlawfully” provided more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank since taking office. Biden and Blinken have “known for years” that the US aid is providing “material support” for Hamas’ “tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and control infrastructure,” among other terror structures, the lawsuit stated.

The Biden administration has sought to have the case dismissed twice but failed. On June 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that the lawsuit can proceed, and that there is evidence the Biden administration continued awarding taxpayer cash to UNRWA even after Congress blocked funding to that group due to its support for Hamas’s military infrastructure.

In short, the Biden administration has donated less to Sudan and DRC Congo combined, where a total of nearly 50 million people face starvation, than to Gaza, where 2 million people face no such thing. What is going on? And where is Congress?

According to FBI director Christopher Wray, “the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.” Iran, officially labeled the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism by the 2023 US annual Terrorism Report, calls the US “the Great Satan” and continues to vow “Death to America.”

Blinken casually announced in a July 19 interview that Iran had reduced the time it would need to create sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon “to one to two weeks.” He then went on to gaslight the audience by claiming that the Biden administration has been “maximizing pressure on Iran across the board.”

Why is the Biden administration, under the pretense of “humanitarian aid,” drowning these terrorist enemies of America in US taxpayer money? And what, if anything, is Congress going to do about it?

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