RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-biden-gets-tested-in-iraq-11613497028?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

Joe Biden has said his Presidency won’t be a third Obama term, and he’ll have plenty of opportunities to prove it. The latest comes after a rocket attack against the U.S.-led coalition in Erbil, Iraq.

“Initial reports indicate that the attacks killed one civilian contractor and injured several members of the Coalition, including one American service member and several American contractors,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday. He added that he had told the leader of Kurdistan’s regional government that Washington would help “to investigate and hold accountable those responsible.” America’s adversaries will be watching, especially in Tehran.

An investigation is under way, but it’s hard to believe a Shiite militia allied with Iran isn’t behind the attack. The group Awliya Al Dam, or Guardians of Blood, has claimed responsibility. U.S. and Iraqi officials say smaller organizations like this have been linked to better known Iranian proxies such as Kataib Hezbollah. SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist groups’ online activity, reports that Awliya Al Dam has vowed more violence after the latest incident.

Iranian proxies launched several rocket attacks on U.S. and allied forces in 2019 and 2020. Their goal is to drive out the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops that assist the Iraqi military, provide intelligence against a return of Islamic State, and limit malign Iranian influence in the country. Retaliatory strikes won’t put a complete stop to such aggression, but the right retaliation can degrade the militias’ abilities. Inaction could invite more brazen attacks.

Before Donald Trump ordered the retaliatory attack on Iranian terror chief Qasem Soleimani in January 2020, many warned such a response would lead to a full-scale war. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei tweeted that Mr. Trump “can’t do anything.” Mr. Biden doesn’t need to escalate to Mr. Trump’s level, but it’s worth reminding Tehran that he isn’t Barack Obama —and the U.S. can do something.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/bidens-rough-start-with-the-world-11613430041?mod=opinion_lead_pos8

It hasn’t been the most promising start. Less than a month into Joe Biden’s presidency, and his administration is already engaged in spats with China, Russia and Iran. It is also discovering that U.S. allies are not quite as happy with Mr. Biden’s Feb. 4 announcement that “America is back” as many Democrats might have hoped.

In Asia the administration’s Myanmar policy—imposing sanctions that signal displeasure without materially affecting the army’s ability to rule—has attracted little enthusiasm. On Feb 15, India’s foreign minister hailed Indo-Japanese cooperation on regional infrastructure projects that link Myanmar with its neighbors, a not-so-subtle signal that India intends to go on cooperating with Myanmar no matter what Washington wants. Simultaneously, the large portion of the Indian press that supports the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is aflame with resentment that Vice President Kamala Harris’s niece, Meena Harris, seems to be siding with protesters against BJP policies.

European leaders are also dismissive of American moralism. French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the importation of U.S.-academic and cultural wokeness as a threat to the French way of life, while pragmatists on the Continent are pushing to strengthen economic relations with Russia and China—virtually ignoring the Biden administration’s efforts to raise the pressure on human-rights abusers in Moscow and Beijing. With the U.S. trade representative’s recent announcement that Trump-era retaliatory tariffs on European wine, cheese and food imports aren’t going away soon, this has been one of the shortest and coldest diplomatic honeymoons on record.

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/14/biden-undercuts-israeli-arab-peace-boosts-china-and-iran/

Imagine Ronald Reagan, during his first days as president in 1981, had started to dismantle the Camp David Accords—the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. Imagine, too, that Reagan’s only discernible motive for such an astonishing diplomatic about-face was an obsession with humiliating the man who had brokered the peace deal, his defeated rival Jimmy Carter.  

It follows that Reagan would have faced universal denunciation at home and abroad. The Democratic majority in the House of Representatives would have considered impeachment. Demoralized White House and State Department staff might have quit in protest. I was one of Reagan’s presidential speechwriters. If I was ordered to write a speech repudiating Camp David, my conscience would have prompted me to decline the assignment, or even resign. 

Of course, President Reagan never considered such an outrage. He embraced and strengthened President Carter’s Camp David achievement. 

Joe Biden has taken the opposite approach from Reagan. During his first two weeks in office, he has moved to undermine the Abraham Accords, the most significant advance in Arab-Israeli peace since the Camp David agreement was signed more than four decades ago.  

Trump Defied Conventional Wisdom

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17059/ghosts-that-haunt-president-biden

The slogan “diplomacy is back” is equally meaningless…. Diplomacy is a method of pursuing the goals of a policy. So if those goals are wrong and unjust, pursuing them through diplomacy would be a way of paving the road to hell.

The key question is whether Biden regards China as an enemy or just a competitor that breaks some rules.

On Yemen, Biden forgets that the war started during Obama’s presidency with full US support and endorsement by the United Nations, with the aim of restoring that country’s legitimate government. Biden does not make it clear whether or not he still subscribes to that aim, or if he does, what he intends to do about it.

Burma is a tale of how cynical jackboots sold the Obama-Biden team a bill of goods to gain time for a brutal comeback.

Even before Joe Biden was sworn in as President, speculation was rife regarding the direction that US foreign policy might take under his command. Some observers speculated that he would simply return to the path traced and tested by his former boss, President Barack Obama.

Others, reminding us that as a lifelong foreign policy wonk, Biden wouldn’t be satisfied with doing an Obama, that is to say dodging issues, leading from behind, and, as Hillary Clinton once observed, making a speech each time there was a crisis.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-administration-reviewing-whether-israel-saudi-arabia-are-important-allies_3695820.html

President Joe Biden’s administration is looking into whether Israel and Saudi Arabia are important allies for the United States, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

Asked Friday whether the administration considers them “important allies,” Psaki said the Biden administration is involved in “ongoing processes and internal interagency processes” to discuss Middle Eastern issues.

“We’ve only been here three and a half weeks, and I think I’m going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give, kind of, a complete laydown of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues,” Psaki added.

Biden also has not yet called his counterpart, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the White House is not sure when he will do so.

Some analysts feel the lack of a call signals a shift in foreign policy priorities with the new administration, as Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations wrote on Twitter directly to Biden asking when a call was coming.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States said recently that Netanyahu “is not worried about the timing of the conversation.”

“He hasn’t reached the Middle East yet,” Netanyahu told reporters on Monday, news outlets reported.

Biden has called a number of foreign leaders since entering office, including the leaders of China, Mexico, and Russia.