The issue is currently being ignored, but the attacks on our troops in the Middle East continue, unabated. Our warships in the Red Sea are under constant attack by the Houthis, and America’s response to those attacks has been as ineffective and weak as all previous responses. But back in February, the Mummified Meat Puppet Administration talked tough—tragically, as tough as they get.

President Biden, and his Secretary of Defense have announced a major change in US policy: As a result of the Iranian attack on Tower 22 that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded scores more, they are going to begin protecting US troops! Don’t believe me? Here it is from the horse’s mouth at Secretary Austin’s February 1 press conference: “The President will not tolerate attacks on American troops, and neither will I.”

Graphic: Warships steam in formation for a photo exercise during exercise Baltic Operations 2018.

CMCS America A. Henry. Wikimedia Commons.org. Public Domain.

Why would our enemies believe that? We’ve suffered more than 200 attacks thus far during Biden’s term. That’s a lot of tolerance.

So, is it fair to say that Biden tolerated these attacks? The best evidence that they have been tolerated is that, in the absence of a strong response by the U.S., they have continued. Further, judge for yourself from Biden’s actions, not his words: Billions of dollars to Iran; loosened and unenforced economic sanctions, a series of sporadic, periodic pinprick attacks on warehouses, storage depots, and the like; and more talk, talk, talk.

At least we’ve progressed from “don’t,” which obviously didn’t work. Unfortunately, the next “warning” which is more verbose, is no more effective.

Even after our three soldiers’ lives were abruptly taken while they were sleeping on January 28, Biden’s and his entire administration’s initial response reinforced their prior signals of weakness.  Reuters reported, “But officials across the Biden administration said they did not want the situation to escalate.” It quoted Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh as saying, “We certainly don't seek a war and frankly we don't see Iran wanting to seek a war with the United States.”

Iran declared war on us in 1979 and has been killing and kidnapping Americans since, including during the Obama and Biden years. Virtually every day they make clear they want to obliterate Israel and America. When your enemies say nothing other than they want to kill you, it’s a good idea to believe them. Donald Trump, who understands the value of deterrence, did and does:

In January 2020, the U.S. killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani the commander of Iran’s Quds force. President Trump authorized the strike targeting Soleimani personally after Iran killed a U.S. contractor and attacked the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Often described as the most powerful man in Iran after “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Komeini, Soleimani headed up all of Iran’s terrorist organizations and military operations in the Middle East. According to a Pentagon statement, when he was struck, Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.” After a face-saving response (that Iran told us it would make), reports from the region show that things got very quiet after that.

And what have President Biden and his national security and defense advisors done? They’ve bombed a few empty warehouses and similar targets, after first telling our enemies we were going to attack, giving them time to move men and materials far away. To really show Iran he means business, President Biden is about to waive sanctions yet again and give Iran as much as another $10 billion dollars. One does have to give Biden credit, however. Giving Iran additional billions to develop nuclear weapons and spread around to its Islamist proxies to continue to attack Israel and our troops will certainly help convince Iran we don’t seek a war with them.

Our self-imagined elite believe Normal Americans are stupid, easy to fool. They believe the same of our troops, the troops that leave the military as soon as they can, and potential recruits who no longer want to enlist. I wonder: could the refusal of our self-imagined elite to allow our troops to deter attacks, to protect themselves, and to strike back have anything to do with our debilitating recruitment shortfalls?

Our current “leaders” would deny it. Normal Americans, our troops, and those who would otherwise become our troops, know better.

So do our enemies.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.