The Administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, rather than trying to resolve conflicts with outright victory or at least a new balance of power more favorable to the US and our allies, has instead sought primarily to be an escalation manager amid wars burning in Europe and the Middle East. This policy is both morally and strategically unsound, effectively making the US an advocate for our enemies while simultaneously impeding our allies’ quest for safety and security. While the current administration holds Ukraine and Israel back, it assumes Russia and Hamas can be counted on as good-faith negotiators. There are also unreasonable expectations for helpful participation from their allies such as China, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Belarus.
It’s not a profound observation to say that a state should value the security and wellbeing of its allies over its enemies, yet recent decisions raise the question of whether this administration even understands our enemies as such. In contrast, our war-stricken allies recognize their enemies for what they are: uncompromising evil regimes bent on the destruction of anyone who stands in their way. In Kyiv, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, while there are certainly debates about how to win today’s wars, there is no question they must be won. The United States does a profound moral and strategic disservice by trying to pressure our allies for peace at the expense of their security.
In the Israel-Hamas war, this effort is obvious and multilateral, as the United States pushes for ceasefire talks in Doha while still clinging to some hope of a nuclear deal with Hamas’ patron, Iran. The Biden Administration has effectively bought into the first half of Israeli war aims and utterly rejected the second: the murdered ceasefire talks are entirely centered on the return of surviving hostages and the remains of those by Hamas, but in no way touch on any permanent defanging of Hamas. While the Netanyahu government has laid out aims for the destruction of Hamas as a military threat and governing body in Gaza, the White House simply does not accept this policy or expect to see it carried out. The latter hesitation is likely the lasting effect of American counterinsurgency and counterterrorism struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan, although this ignores the geographic differences between America fighting a war 7000 miles from home versus Israel engaging in a conflict just over its border.
Destroying Hamas’ capacity to control Gaza and fight Israel is a daunting long-term task, something that Israeli military leadership acknowledges. The solutions proposed by the Biden Administration, however, are either fantastical or gravely disturbing. The fantastical solution is that the corrupt, ineffectual, and unpopular Palestinian Authority (PA) which de jure rules the West Bank will somehow take control of a post-war Gaza. The gravely disturbing and far more likely reality is that the PA has tacitly accepted the inevitability of Hamas’ return to power in Gaza, effectively setting the stage for another war once Iran rearms its proxy. Yet it’s a stretch to even describe the acceptance of Hamas’ return as tacit; U.S. negotiations involve talks with Hamas leadership, and the only way for these ceasefire talks to succeed on the White House’s terms is for Hamas to have some sort of protection against Israel continuing the war. Hamas is never going to return its hostages willingly. They remain the linchpin for negotiations that stall Israeli politics and force the IDF to continue risky hostage rescue operations. With each ceasefire deal that’s proposed, negotiated, and then rejected at the last minute by Hamas, the more clear it is that the administration is being manipulated because it cannot separate friend from foe.
The administration’s hope for region-wide peace is even more self-defeating. Israel is effectively at war with Iran, and Iran is fighting via Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and with its own missile and drone strikes. The U.S. has done little other than intercept missiles in the Red Sea and not at all responded to Houthi attacks directed at Israel. American diplomats urge restraint as Hezbollah attacks Israel from the north, murdering children with advanced missiles supplied by Iran. When Iran launched a massive barrage of missiles and drones at Israel in April, Israeli, U.S., British, French, Jordanian, and Saudi defense systems effectively nullified the greatest direct attack Israel has faced from another nation-state since 1973, but then President Biden pressured Israel to not response. “Take the win,” President Biden urged Prime Minister Netanyahu, as if successfully not being struck by hundreds of munitions is a lasting victory.
Israel is fighting on all fronts against a revolutionary regime that is wholeheartedly dedicated to exterminating the Jewish State. There is no victory to be had that does not at least entail leaving Iran militarily and economically unable to strike at Israel or to arm other forces with the same genocidal ideology. The problem is that this administration does not understand what Iran is – a revolutionary state that sees the American-led international order as fundamentally illegitimate and oppressive and must therefore be destroyed at any cost.
Washington’s hope for a peace sooner than later in Ukraine is less obvious yet no less misguided. Russia has rejected negotiations outright. Dmitri Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s security council and the anointed voice of the most extreme Kremlin views, has promised the destruction of the Ukrainian state as well as NATO. The Biden Administration hasn’t pressured Ukraine into talks yet, but the incredible limitations on the use of NATO-supplied weapons has forced Ukrainians to fight an existential war essentially with one hand tied behind their back. By hindering Ukraine’s warfighting abilities, Washington is setting Kyiv up for either a long war it cannot win or negotiations that will see Ukraine’s territorial integrity sacrificed. The last year has shifted into grinding, attritional warfare that favors Moscow. While Russia is losing men at a horrifying rate to gain ground—possibly a demographically suicidal rate, argues Francis Dearnley in The Daily Telegraph—the fact is that the Russians are gaining ground. Putin and his generals seem to believe this operational pace will eventually wear down the West and win the war. So why is the administration encouraging such thinking?
Washington surely hopes for a peace in Europe that invites another ‘reset’ with Russia, as if the previous attempt was not horribly counterproductive in hindsight. While Putin’s regime does not have the revolutionary underpinning of the Ayatollahs, its nevertheless long-standing anti-American worldview has only been further calcified with this war. The Russian state and the Russian elite have accepted that they are in an existential conflict with the West. To them, destroying Ukraine is the first step in crumpling the Western alliance and the restoration of Russia’s hegemony in Eurasia. It might not be possible to break that mindset. Western military power and Ukrainian bravery should at least aim to neutralize Russian hegemonic aspirations. Instead, there seems to be the expectation of a “day after” plan that would forgive Russian aggression in exchange for natural gas and easy foreign investment opportunities. All it requires is forgiving an organized campaign of murder, rape, destruction of cities, and the kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children, all carried out while Russian politicians threatened nuclear war.
The wars in Europe and the Middle East showcase the real limits of diplomatic engagement with authoritarians entirely unconcerned with our ideas of good and evil. Russia is waging a war of genocide and conquest against Ukraine and Iran controls a coalition set on laying siege to Israel. Washington’s support has been vital for both the allies’ war effort, but the Biden Administration’s efforts at diplomacy, rather than working in tandem with our military assistance, seem to go against the very idea of a lasting military victory.