The Middle East Is Biden’s Worst Crisis
As the White House ponders its response to the attack on Tower 22, the U.S. military outpost in Jordan, the news from the Middle East could hardly be worse. From Gaza to the Red Sea and from Jordan to Iraq, a stream of unprovoked attacks by Iran and its proxies are driving President Biden into the greatest crisis of his presidency.
This isn’t what the president or his top aides expected or hoped. In January 2021, Team Biden anticipated a quick agreement with Iran that would put Middle East tensions on ice while the U.S. focused on countering China’s rising power in the Indo-Pacific.
But that was not what the mullahs wanted, and Iran, not the U.S., has controlled the pace and direction of Middle East politics since Mr. Biden took office. Many Americans find our involvement in the Middle East both frustrating and confusing.
It is frustrating because peace and stability seem impossible and because American efforts to promote democracy or otherwise pursue a values-based agenda in the region produce nothing but disappointment. It is confusing because many Americans simply don’t understand why our country keeps investing so heavily in a faraway place when we face many urgent problems at home and in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, 10 successive American presidents repeatedly learned, often to their chagrin, that the Middle East can’t be ignored.
In 1973, Richard Nixon faced an oil embargo and the rise of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Gerald Ford’s short presidency was overshadowed by inflation driven in large part by high oil prices. The seizure of the U.S.
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