Joe Biden's wimpy Syrian airstrike

The US Air Force finally swung into action Thursday night, hitting 2 facilities used by "Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.," aka Iran's IRGC. The NYTimes is reporting "The United States carried out two airstrikes against facilities used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and its proxies in eastern Syria early Friday in retaliation for a flurry of recent rocket and drone attacks against American forces in Iraq and Syria."

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a statement Thursday night saying "These precision self-defense strikes are a response to a series of ongoing and mostly unsuccessful attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups." While I'm happy that the U.S. finally took action against Iran, I'm dismayed that the Biden administration didn't take more forceful, non-military action against Iran. Further, I'm most dismayed that the Biden administration didn't keep the Trump 'maximum pressure' policies intact. That's when the U.S. locked down the Iranian economy by keeping maximum oil sanctions in place, thereby robbing Iran of oil revenues. Once Biden lightened those sanctions, China bought tons of Iranian oil.

Iran was producing 400,000 barrels per day (bpd). They had $4,000,000,000USD in foreign reserves. Today, Iran is producing 3,500,000 bpd and has $80,000,000,000USD in foreign reserves. The minute the cash came flowing in, the cash bought weapons and funded Hamas Hezbollah, the Houthis and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, aka PIJ. These things are part of the Biden administration's weakness.

"This illustrates that weakness: The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against U.S. forces are unacceptable and must stop," Mr. Austin said.

Right after 9-11, a question arose about where the "Arab Street" was. After the U.S. defeated the Taliban, things settled down in the Middle East. Libya voluntarily turned over their WMD stockpiles. It was then declared that the Arab Street always picked the "strong horse" in the fight. The exception to that is Israel.

The purpose of diplomacy

The pupose of diplomacy is to avoid wars. The other purpose of diplomacy is to make life better for our nation and our allies. Diplomacy with Iran is a waste of time. First, it's a sign of weakness to the mullahs. Next, it compromises Israeli security. Without the relaxed oil sanctions, it's difficult for Iran to project strength throughout the Middle East. Third, Iran hates the U.S. and Israel. It always will. The best policy for the U.S. towards Iran is to treat Iran the way Israel treats Iran. The U.S. isn't Iran's neighbor. Unlike Israel, the U.S. isn't surrounded by hateful neighbors that want to destroy it. That gives the U.S. the luxury of not dealing with the harsh realities of living with Iran's atrocities. Notice the wording in this NBC report:

The word retaliation is used repeatedly throughout NBC's report. The U.S. should've let Iran know what the consequences of military strikes against the U.S. would be. That wouldn't stop an Iran strike. It would've told Iran what we'd do if they hit us.

The other part of securing the nation through red lines is to follow through on what you said you'd do. For instance, if Iran attacks a U.S. military base in Syria, the proportional response is to take out an Iranian oil refinery. If Iran or one of its proxies kills a U.S. soldier, the price is taking out Iran's military leaders. If Iran or one of its proxies takes out a military base, the price is killing Iran's top military leaders, taking out Iran's refineries and restoring Trump's maximum pressure sanctions.

The time for diplomacy is over. The time for establishing harsh realities is here. The time for Biden's wimpy airstrikes is past.