Iran

The Biden administration’s nuclear policy concerning Iran’s nuclear program and its ability to acquire nuclear weapons is a complete disaster. Under the Biden administration’s leadership, Iran has made significant advances in its nuclear program that surpass the progress achieved under any previous administrations.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. secretly warned Iran that Islamic State was preparing to carry out the terrorist attack early this month that killed more than 80 Iranians in a pair of coordinated suicide bombings, U.S. officials said.

The confidential alert came after the U.S. acquired intelligence that Islamic State’s affiliate in Afghanistan, ISIS-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, was plotting to attack Iran, they said.

American officials said the information passed to Iran was specific enough about the location and sufficiently timely that it might have proved useful to Tehran in thwarting the attack on Jan. 3 or at least mitigating the casualty toll.

Someone should tell Joe Biden.

Each morning for the last several days I’ve turned first for news concerning the two SEALs lost at sea off the coast of Somalia, hoping—by this moment, hoping against all hope—that they will somehow be found alive. I’ve been privileged over the years to know and work with a few members of this very small and very special community. I use the word “community” advisedly. It’s a term they often use to describe themselves, and, when one listens to them talk about each other, it seems exactly right—they are a true community, one built on shared values, shared experience, shared commitment to excellence. Surely, they are already hurting deeply as they contemplate the fate of their fellow SEALs. Surely, too, they are wishing that those responsible are held to account. For these are not simply the victims of an unfortunate accident—they are the casualties of war.

The Biden administration’s reluctance to robustly respond to the rogue Islamist regime of Iran apparently only reinforces the inclination of Iran’s political and military leadership to inflict more harm.

When US responses lack decisiveness, the Islamic Republic interprets this “restraint” as a failure of nerve on the part of the US and the international community. Such leniency, it seems, simply invigorates the regime to persist in disrupting regional and global stability, and escalate its assertive military maneuvers and support for terrorist activities.