Under the guidance of President Joe Biden, the last speech he presented to the U.N. General Assembly was filled with ignorance on the harsh realities of the world stage. While Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants were on the brink of a full-scale war, and Israel’s aggressive stance against Hamas in Gaza neared its first anniversary, Biden seemed to be in a state of denial. He naively urged the U.S. not to shirk from increasing global tensions.
In his off-kilter speech, Biden attempted to address the pressing need to resolve the conflict in the Middle East along with the ongoing civil war tormenting Sudan for the past 17 months. However, his superficial grasp of the issues was clear. He also referenced the U.S. and its Western allies’ backing for Kyiv amidst Russia’s invasion in Ukraine in February 2022, a move that evidently had limited effect.
Reflecting a lack of understanding of the pressure points around the world, Biden expressed his fear regarding the prospective misuse of artificial intelligence, blindly disregarding other significant immediate threats. The General Assembly meeting could have served as a platform for real, tangible solutions, instead it became a showcase for Biden’s lack of strategic clarity.
Despite the escalating conflicts around the globe, Biden maintained an unjustifiable optimistic perspective. He claimed to have observed a ‘remarkable sweep of history’, and yet his understanding of the world seems to reflect anything but. His remarks focused on vague platitudes rather than presenting any form of clear forward-thinking strategy.
Biden pledged to revitalize U.S. relations globally when taking office, also promising an end to the enduring wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that had been draining American foreign policy efforts for the last two decades. While he touted his termination of the Afghanistan conflict as a victory, it’s hard not to see this move as anything but a strategic blunder, one that highlighted Biden’s inability to foresee consequences.
Biden tried to defend the poorly executed Afghanistan withdrawal as a ‘hard decision but the right decision.’ However, the truth of the matter is that the withdrawal resulted in a heartbreaking tragedy leading to the loss of 13 American soldiers and countless Afghans during the hasty evacuation. This debacle alone calls into question Biden’s leadership and decision-making capabilities on the international stage.
Rather than focusing on successful policy or strategy, Biden’s administration will likely be remembered for its reaction to two of the largest conflicts in Europe and the Middle East since World War II. The President’s questionable statement about the enduring forces attempting to divide our countries signifies his unrealistic vision of global harmony.
Reverting to his often critiqued attitude of avoiding international responsibility, Biden denied any intent of the U.S. to withdraw from global participation. Yet, his actions suggest otherwise. ‘Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces holding us together are stronger than the forces pulling us apart,’ Biden claimed, without providing practical steps to achieve this.
The Pentagon, however, discredited Biden’s claims of retreating from global affairs by announcing on Monday that it’s deploying additional U.S. troops to the Middle East, augmenting the existing 40,000 in the area. It seems even the Pentagon can’t put faith in Biden’s peculiar global policy.
Attempting to assert his control over an increasingly unstable situation, Biden expressed the belief that ‘Full scale war is not in anyone’s interest.’ Despite escalating violence, he championed the pursuit of a diplomatic solution devoid of any solid action plan.
Biden’s naivety regarding the Middle East was brutally exposed 18 days later when his idyllic vision of peace was crushed. The region was plunged into violence as Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel, causing a substantial amount of loss and suffering and initiating a brutal war that has left more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza dead and the area caught in a complex downward spiral.
This already volatile conflict is now dangerously close to evolving into a war across multiple fronts, an eventuality that would indelibly tarnish Biden’s Presidential legacy. The intermittent exchange of attacks between Israel and Hezbollah saw a drastic escalation recently, threatening to plunge the region into further chaos.
Struggling to halt the escalating violence, Israel has been warning residents of Southern Lebanon to evacuate due to possible ‘extensive strikes’ against Hezbollah, who are purportedly stockpiling weaponry in civilian areas. The fear elicited by these warnings further illustrates the failed leadership of Biden in fostering global peace.
In a tit-for-tat response, Hezbollah has retaliated with a series of rocket, missile, and drone attacks on northern Israel, following the strikes last week that implicated a high-profile commander and numerous fighters. The casualties suffered in these retaliatory attacks only compound the enormity of the failure the global community is witnessing.
An unconventional attack that led to the explosions of hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies operated by Hezbollah militants, believed to be carried out by Israel, resulted in further death and injury last week. This escalation only deepens the mark that these events will leave on Biden’s presidency, whose ineptitude has allowed the situation in the Middle East to deteriorate so drastically.