Joe Biden’s Provocative Weakness

No president in this century has demonstrated more tolerance for setbacks abroad than Joe Biden. This is dangerous.

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President Joe Biden speaks to the media before departing the White House for North Carolina, in Washington, D.C., January 18, 2024.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Almost everywhere you look, it seems like the wheels are coming off.

Iran is now participating directly in a campaign of region-wide violence it had previously orchestrated through its terrorist proxies beginning on October 7. Iranian forces claimed credit for missile attacks in northern Iraq conspicuously — perhaps deliberately — close to the new U.S. consulate in Erbil. Iranian forces also executed strikes on what it regards as terrorist elements inside Syria and Pakistan in response to the deadly bombing of a January 3 commemoration for Qasem Soleimani, strikes for which the Pakistani government retaliated on Thursday. “Iranian media said several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that borders Pakistan, killing at least nine people, including four children,” Reuters reported.

Noah Rothman

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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