OPINION:
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When President Biden warned Iran not to attack Israel with the single word “Don’t,” he was setting himself up to look foolish and weak.
The Iranian theocratic dictatorship pays no heed to Mr. Biden. Iran’s leaders have taken his measure over months of proxy warfare. Iran and its proxies have killed Americans, routinely fired at U.S. bases and ships, and enthusiastically ignored every American effort to appease them. Mr. Biden has done nothing.
When he said “don’t,” Iran did — with 335 drones and missiles. We might have expected some serious reaction from a president who had publicly instructed Iran not to attack. Instead, we got a pathetic, desperate, all-out Biden administration effort to persuade the Israelis to claim a defensive victory and do nothing.
Just as Mr. Biden ignored the Chinese Communist Party spy balloon gradually crossing the United States, he thought the Israelis should ignore 335 drones and missiles fired at their country.
Watching the bizarre performance, it hit me that the Biden Doctrine is to cripple your allies and help your enemies.
Consider the facts.
As soon as Mr. Biden took office, he implemented policies that helped the anti-American Iranian dictatorship. They could chant “death to America,” but he would send them money, release them from sanctions, and tolerate their strategy of waging war through proxies with no consequence. Even then, the Iranians and their puppets fired drones and missiles at American bases — killing some American military and wounding many more. There was no strong response from Mr. Biden.
When the U.S. military warned President Biden that leaving Afghanistan too quickly would collapse the pro-American government we spent 22 years developing, he ignored the advice. He moved so quickly it guaranteed the Taliban would win the war. Then, he claimed the disaster was the best evacuation in history.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr. Biden said supportive words about Ukraine but slow-walked equipment and help. Furthermore, the Biden Doctrine demonstrated it was OK for Vladimir Putin to wage war on Ukrainian civilians, kidnap Ukrainian children, and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure. But Mr. Biden opposed any Ukrainian response that would involve attacking Russia. Defense was OK, but a serious offensive to win the war by hitting targets in Russia was off-limits.
After Iran planned, equipped and financed the Hamas terrorist assault of Oct. 7, an attack that horrified decent people everywhere, President Biden was briefly positive about helping Israel. As is typical of the Biden Doctrine, however, once our ally began to win, Mr. Biden shifted away from Israel. He expressed concern for the people of the Gaza Strip who had sheltered and supported Hamas.
Following the Biden Doctrine of undermining our allies and comforting our enemies, Mr. Biden proposed that the city of Rafah should become a sanctuary city. This would allow the remainder of Hamas and its leadership a safe place to recoup and avoid being destroyed by Israeli forces.
The tension shifted into a confrontation between our ally and the American president.
Meanwhile, Mr. Biden supports aid to Ukraine and Israel — so long as it is not offset by spending cuts elsewhere and nothing is done to protect the U.S.-Mexico border. Keeping the border open is such a high priority for Mr. Biden and the left that stalling aid to Israel and Ukraine is an acceptable price. Immigrants entering the United States illegally is a higher value to Mr. Biden than protecting our allies.
At the 1984 Republican National Convention, Jeane Kirkpatrick, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations at the time, presciently described what Mr. Biden and the Democrats have since become. She called them the “blame America first” Democrats.
She said no matter what happens around the world, “they always blame America first.”
Kirkpatrick described the Democratic doctrine as being “less like a dove or a hawk than like an ostrich — convinced it would shut out the world by hiding its head in the sand.” Quoting the great French analyst Jean Francois Revel, she said, “Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.”
Today, there are American fanatics in Chicago chanting “death to America.” In four cities, there are other fanatics occupying Google offices demanding that the tech giant drop its contract that is helping Israel defend itself. It is easy to see the damage the Democrats’ moral relativism is doing.
If the Biden Doctrine continues, we won’t have any more allies — and our enemies will be much stronger.
• For more commentary from Newt Gingrich, visit Gingrich360.com. Also, subscribe to the Newt’s World podcast.
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