OPINION:
Dear President Biden,
I imagine the past few weeks have been stressful for you and Dr. Jill. I noticed that on election day, she was dressed in red – not blue. Was her Freudian slip showing?
Still, you can take some consolation in the fact that you beat The Donald while Kamala did not. No one can deny that you were a successful politician for most of your life.
As for your presidency … well, you’re a grownup, so I’m going to give it to you straight. Almost six out of ten Americans now judge you unfavorably. And when it comes to foreign policy, which you thought was your strong suit, your overall record is nothing to write home about.
You shamefully capitulated to the Taliban in Afghanistan and did so in a manner that was both shambolic and lethal.
We may assume that Vladimir Putin figured: “If a ragtag gang of terrorists can make Biden turn tail and run, what do I have to fear?” A few months later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.
On Oct. 7 of the following year, Hamas, backed by the jihadist regime in Tehran – which you enriched by replacing President Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign with appeasement and accommodation – invaded Israel.
On Oct. 8, Hezbollah, Tehran’s most powerful foreign legion, began launching missiles at Israel from Lebanon.
On Oct. 19, the Houthi rebels in Yemen began attacking commercial ships in the Bab-el-Mandeb, among the world’s most strategic waterways. Your whack-a-mole response has neither defeated nor deterred them, not even after they started targeting U.S. Navy vessels.
I could go on, but my purpose today is to tell you, as Yogi Berra is said to have comprehended: “It ain’t over till it’s over.” You still have a few weeks before the moving vans arrive at the White House. Time enough to establish a legacy for the history books. Four suggestions follow.
First, do no harm. Don’t do what former President Barack Obama did during his lame-duck session: stab Israel, America’s most reliable ally, in the back.
Mr. Obama engineered the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, ludicrously labeling even the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews, “occupied territory.” For what has followed – for example, the pogrom in Amsterdam last week – Mr. Obama deserves a large measure of blame.
Last week, your State Department waived sanctions on the Palestinian Authority despite its “Pay-for-Slay” program – its continuing provision of financial rewards to convicted terrorists.
Meanwhile, your Executive Order 14115 establishes sanctions on Israeli citizens whom you accuse – based on information from blatantly anti-Israeli organizations – of “undermining peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
Among the results: You’re financially ruining an Israeli mother of eight for organizing protests against aid to Gaza so long as Gazans are holding hostages in Gaza.
Whether you agree with her is beside the point: You’re punishing and impeding free speech in a democratic country.
Second, days after Mr. Trump’s election, it was reported that Qatar’s rulers had told Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshal and Khalil Al-Hayya, that they would no longer be treated as honored guests and should pack up and leave. Qatar is now denying these reports but, in any case, mere expulsion would be insufficient.
You should tell Qatar’s rulers to give the Hamas leaders this choice: Order their followers in Gaza to release the hostages – Americans among them – or prepare for extradition to the U.S. for trial.
Third, tell Vladimir Putin that by importing North Korean troops to help him slaughter Ukrainians and by – we fear – providing technology to help North Korea’s dynastic dictator develop improved ICBMs that can hit American targets with nuclear warheads, he’s provoked you. In response, lift the prohibition on Ukrainians using American weapons to strike military targets anywhere in Russia.
Fourth and most importantly, Iran’s Islamist rulers are behind all the conflicts in the Middle East. They fund, arm, and instruct the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Shia militias in both Syria and Iraq.
Their weapons and militias have killed hundreds of Americans. They’ve been plotting to murder Americans on American soil – a former president among them.
You’ve pledged that you’re “committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon” and that you’re “prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome.”
Fulfill that promise. You are the commander in chief. You could at least set back Tehran’s nuclear weapons program by several years. That would require no American boots on the ground, just a brief bombing run by some B-2s flying out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
It might then occur to Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei and his partners in Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang – along with America’s allies – that you’re not an over-the-hill president after all and that the U.S. is not an over-the-hill superpower after all.
The long-oppressed people of Iran will be encouraged and inspired.
Of course, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ilhan Omar will be furious. But why let them manipulate you now that their illiberal-left, woke, multicultural, transnational, balkanizing identitarian policies have led the Democratic Party to disaster?
Do as I advise, and you’ll leave the White House with historic national security achievements. You’ll become what hoped to be: Not a transitional president but a transformational president.
“We all get knocked down,” you philosophized after Ms. Harris’ defeat last week. “But the measure of our character – as my dad would say – is how quickly we get back up.”
So, on your feet, Joey. Show us that we never knew the real you. Get the job done and then ride off into the sunset. On your bicycle, of course. Don’t forget to wear your helmet.
• Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times
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