With a land war ongoing in Europe, rockets firing not only on Israel but American positions in the middle east, and China continuing to act aggressively toward Taiwan, it’s time to ask some blunt questions.   Do we want to win the wars, or do we just want to win the next election?

Some may be offended at the question while others will reject it outright.   America has one President at a time, and our Constitution gives broad powers to the Executive Branch to act as Commander in Chief.  Fear of who the next President might be should not provide cover for the current one to act in a haphazard manner that jeopardizes America’s national and economic security. 

Let’s start with the Biden Administration’s actions with respect to Iran.  Many of the operatives within this administration are holdovers from the Obama Administration, for which President Biden served as Vice President.  Then, America flew $1.7 Billion in actual pallets of cash to Europe where Swiss and Dutch banks converted the money to other currencies and forwarded the funds to the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism.  

In November of 2023 and again in March of this year, the Biden administration granted a $10 Billion waiver to Iran to access additional funds.  The excuse to allow Iran access to even more money was that the money is only to be used for humanitarian aid. 

This logic denies the fact that money is fungible, and ignores the now widely known secret that “humanitarian aid” is too often a ruse to launder money to terror supporting regimes.  Check out the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Relief if you need to better understand that pretending to fund food and medicine without direct U.S. oversight ends up building tunnels to launch ongoing acts of terrorism.

In addition to aiding the Iranian proxy group Hamas, the Biden Administration during its first full month in office removed the Houthis – Iran’s Yemen based terror franchise – from the list of Specially Designated Terrorist Groups.  The group was added back to the list in January of this year, only after the Houthis spent months attacking ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

What is maddening is that the U.S. has received nothing for these deals. You cannot appease people that chant “Death to America” in public.  You cannot force a two state solution with those who know what “From the river to the sea” actually means.

Iran also sells oil in violation of sanctions that the U.S. has little interest in enforcing, which produces funds for its terror network.  In January of this year, Iranian oil exports hit a 5 year high.  We look the other way because China is the largest buyer, and stopping the flow of this oil would cause our complicated relationship with one of our country’s largest supply chain bases to get even more complicated. 

We also allow it because of domestic politics.  Great deference is given for public backlash to inflation, and high gas prices are the barometer for which many feel instant pain as prices spike.  This goes well beyond Iran, but other rogue states which produce oil are ignored because this administration would rather have oil produced by sponsors of terror than by U.S. oil companies. 

At a time when the Administration is literally begging for more aid to Ukraine so as not to lose ground to the Russians, the Administration is making it clear that Ukraine should not be attacking Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure.  Toothless sanctions have been designed to keep that oil flowing to world markets, as much of Europe still depends on the energy from a country that NATO is designed to contain. 

So we have an Administration that puts out statements that we Stand with Israel, but we also don’t want them to either respond to incoming missiles and rockets with strategic attacks, nor to do the final invasion of Rafah to end Hamas once and for all.  We also want to keep arming Ukraine, but don’t want them to do what they must do to cripple the Russian Army’s ability to fund and resupply itself.

Our international policy is a glaring contradiction to itself, seen by everyone but apparently the White House Press Corps.  They remain content to supply us with edited videos of the President in the Situation Room after a press lid is called at 5pm during a major attack from Iran on Israel.  They remain content to have the President call on pre-selected members with planted questions and allow the President to read his answers to them.

They do this because they believe by protecting him, they are protecting us.  That’s not how a free press works, and Americans and the entire world can see through all of it.

It is time for the Biden Administration to level with the American people.  If we’re going to achieve our stated objectives, there will be a cost – both in federal expenditures, rising prices, and a hit to our economy.  If we’re not willing to pay those prices, then we need to be clear on what we’re not going to do, rather than continuing to pretend double-talk and platitudes are an acceptable substitute for strategy.