Iran
April 16, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Two friends of mine comment on the Obama/Biden administration’s bizarre partiality toward Iran. In the New York Post, Glenn Reynolds writes: Post-[Iran’s] attack [on Israel]— going further yet beyond parody — the Biden administration’s chief effort has been aimed at demanding Israel not retaliate. That’s right. Israel has had more than a thousand of its citizens raped, tortured, murdered and kidnapped, it’s been subjected to a massive missile attack, and
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April 15, 2024 — Scott Johnson
When it comes to Iran’s massive missile and drone attack on Israel this past Saturday evening, President Biden has instructed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to let bygones be bygones. I don’t think he cited Sun Tzu in support of the Biden doctrine, but the White House has not released a readout of Biden’s call to Netanyahu following the attack. Rather, the White House released this statement publicly seeking to deter
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April 14, 2024 — John Hinderaker
That’s a post title you won’t often see on this site! I want to move on to Iran, but first, what did Joe Biden actually tell Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday? I can’t see that an official readout of the conversation has been published, but this account, based on conversation with a “senior White House official,” seems as authoritative as any: Biden told Netanyahu the joint defensive efforts by Israel, the
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April 14, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Iranian regime has been at war with Israel, the United States, and the West roughly since the Ayatollah overthrew the Shah of Iran. It is not a war that Israel has chosen. It is a war that has been thrust upon it by a regime of genocidal maniacs. Thirty years after the fact the Court of Cassation in Buenos Aires issued a ruling blaming Iran for bombing the Asociación
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April 13, 2024 — John Hinderaker
War has broken out between Iran and Israel, with Iran for the first time launching attacks against Israeli soil. By the time you read this, the situation likely will have changed. But for now, according to the frequently-updated Times of Israel, Iran has launched more than 100 unmanned drones toward Israel proper. Those drones will take some hours to reach Israel, and in the meantime the Iron Dome system and
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April 13, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Would that President Biden had not warned the Iranian regime not to attack Israel with his pitiful “don’t” yesterday. In Bidenspeak, “don’t” is an invitation. It something like the shout-out for contestants to “come on down” on The Price Is Right. And as night follows day, the Iranian regime has launched a large drone attack on Israel from Iranian territory. At the moment the targets are unclear. Among the many
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April 13, 2024 — Steven Hayward
It is hard to conclude from media accounts exactly what is up between Israel and Iran right now, because for all of the leaked and disclosed information, there is always more going on behind the scenes that we never find out about for a long time. But this news item just breaking a couple hours ago seems possibly significant: Biden Rushes Back to White House as Iran Weighs Attack on
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April 12, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Iran reportedly is considering an attack on Israel that would widen the war in the Middle East. This is from the Wall Street Journal: Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran on southern or northern Israel as soon as Friday or Saturday, according to a person familiar with the matter. A person briefed by the Iranian leadership, however, said that while plans to attack are being discussed, no
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April 12, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Aaron MacLean is host of the School of War podcast and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Before that, Aaron worked on Capitol Hill as senior foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Senator Tom Cotton and served on active duty as a U.S. Marine for seven years, deploying to Afghanistan as an infantry officer in 2009–2010. Following his time in the operating forces, he was
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March 16, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Biden administration conveys a pathetic weakness for which the physical person of President Biden serves as an apt metaphor. In its current story on administration negotiations with Iran that date back to January, the New York Times reports: Two Iranian officials, one with the foreign ministry, said that Iran had maintained in the talks that it did not control the activity of the militia [targeting Americans], particularly the Houthis,
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February 3, 2024 — Scott Johnson
In response to the killing of three American soldiers in a drone strike conducted by Iranian proxy forces, the United States struck over 85 Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force and Iranian-backed militia targets in Iraq and Syria yesterday. According to Critical Threats, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias said that they will continue attacks targeting US forces until US forces are expelled from Iraq. Centcom’s press release announcing the strikes is
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February 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Cliff May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times. He is a veteran reporter, foreign correspondent, and editor for the New York Times and other publications. Cliff’s current column is “No better enemy” (at FDD, where it is posted with links). Cliff has kindly given us his permission to post his columns on Power Line. He writes: Seven
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January 31, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Andrew McCarthy has posted “Biden’s Iran Crisis Overlaps with His Border Crisis” in the accessible Corner cubby of NRO. This is his opening (links omitted): For many years, Iran has had an operational alliance with the Marxist totalitarian regime in Venezuela. This gives Iran a toehold in the West and a well-trod route to infiltrate operatives across the southern border. Biden has appeared blithely indifferent to this — which is
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January 30, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The Department of Defense has identified the three American soldiers killed in Jordan. They were by an Iranian proxy using a drone. More than 40 other service members were injured in the attack on Tower 22. The three soldiers killed are Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Georgia; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross, Georgia; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah, Georgia. All three were assigned to the 718th
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January 29, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Andrew Luger is the United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Much of the work his office performs is directed to filling the role that local law enforcement has proved itself unable and/or unwilling to play over the past few years. Today, however, Luger’s office has charged out a case that originates in Iran. The charges are brought against an Iranian operative named Naji Sharifi Zindashti, a/k/a Big and
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January 29, 2024 — Scott Johnson
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child,” King Lear memorably observes in Shakespeare’s play named after him. John Bolton’s New York Post column reminds me — I had forgotten when I wrote my own comments on Iran’s latest proxy strike on American forces — that I can top that for ingratitude. Only last week the Biden administration leaked a story to the Wall Street
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January 28, 2024 — Scott Johnson
CentCom has issued a bare-bones press release (below) announcing the death of three American service members and the injury of 25 more in a drone attack last night at a base in Jordan near the border with Syria and Iraq. Axios and others identify the base as Tower 22. A White House statement attributed to President Biden discloses that “we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups
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