(Deroy Murdock, Headline USA) President Joe Biden showed leadership and courage this week by flying into a war zone to personify solidarity with America’s embattled friends and allies in Israel.
Too bad Biden’s appeasement of Iran made the trip necessary.
Perhaps Biden went to Tel Aviv to atone for his years of financial assistance to the ayatollahs. Biden’s folly—believing that kindness would tame the mullahs—exploded in his face on Oct. 7: Iran’s Hamas puppets shocked Israel with the most brutal attack it has endured since the Yom Kippur War, almost exactly 50 years earlier.
Biden’s Fair Play for Tehran policy has replenished its finances after President Donald J. Trump’s “maximum-pressure” campaign drained them. But rather than cooperation, Iran has shown Biden contempt. And its proxies, subsidized directly or fungibly with American cash, have killed at least 1,400 people in today’s War on Israel.
“The Biden Administration’s decision to release $6 billion to Iran—the world’s leading state sponsor of terror—was a grave mistake that created a market for American hostages, emboldened our adversaries, and put a credit on the balance sheets of one of Hamas’s biggest backers,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told Fox Business Network on Tuesday.
Alas, Biden has been the ayatollahs’ best friend since long before this $6 billion prisoner-swap payoff.
- Biden relaxed sanctions on Iran, while obsessively demolishing anything that Trump accomplished.
- By letting the mullahs sell more oil, particularly to China (another international beauty), Iran’s oil production swelled from 2.7 million barrels per day on Dec. 31, 2020—just before Trump departed—to 3.4 million barrels on May 31, 2023—up 25.9%.
- Biden’s War on Domestic Oil hiked prices. This has gilded Tehran’s coffers. Brent crude averaged $57.96 per barrel under Trump and $83.84 on Biden’s watch, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. This increased Iran’s oil revenue—up 44.65%.
- As Iran International reported, “Iranian oil shipments began to pick up toward the end of 2020, as candidate Joe Biden announced in September of that year his intention to revive the 2015 JCPOA,” aka the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump correctly hurled atop the ash heap of history. Iran’s exports subsequently soared from a low of 100,000 barrels per day in 2020, according to Reuters, to 1.5 million barrels in August—up 1,400%.
- Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe explained Oct. 8 to Fox News Channel’s Trey Gowdy: “Iran’s access to foreign-exchange reserves went from $4 billion in the Trump administration to $72 billion in the Biden administration”—up 1,700%.
Biden has impoverished America and enriched Iran. The ayatollahs returned the favor by underwriting Hamas, which has killed 32 Americans in its War on Israel. Up to 11 others are missing and feared kidnapped. (Note: following the submission of the column, two of these hostages were released after Biden bribed Hamas with $100 million in aid.–ed.)
The circle of strife is complete.
Biden did all of this, even while Iran topped the State Department’s list of state-sponsors of terrorism.
“Iran has, unfortunately, always used and focused its funds on supporting terrorism, on supporting groups like Hamas,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Oct. 8 on NBC’s Meet the Press. “And it’s done that when there have been sanctions. It’s done that when there haven’t been sanctions. And it’s always prioritized that.”
So, for the love of God, why would Biden send even one rusty penny to a nation that his own State Department certifies as terrorists?
This largesse might be worthy if it taught Iran manners. Au contraire, during Biden’s misrule, Iran routinely attacks U.S. GIs. These bad deeds largely have gone unpunished.
Iran and its proxies have unleashed “about 83 attacks” against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria under Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told a March 28 Senate hearing.
“We’ve launched four major retaliations,” Austin added.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., observed: “So, 79 and 4 is Iran’s record right now.”
Iran has launched 83 attacks against Americans since Joe Biden took office. We’ve responded with strikes only four times.
What kind of message does this send, when we wait to respond until an American is killed? pic.twitter.com/W5wyVYZdSM
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 28, 2023
Biden replaced Trump’s Peace Through Strength approach with his own Softer Than Tapioca Doctrine. Joe Biden’s weakness ignited the Middle East’s raging infernos.
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News contributor. Aaron Cichon contributed research to this opinion piece.
