Emperor Biden wears no clothes, so who can stop escalation with Iran?

It is easy to forget that the United States has an executive these days. Following Biden's disastrous debate performance that resulted in his ousting from the presidential ticket, the media has largely been content with allowing him to sleepwalk to the end of his term. Their focus has pivoted to the race between Vice President Harris and President Trump.

As he has faded from the picture, so has the debate around his motivations for backing Israel to the hilt in its genocide of the Palestinian people. Is he a senile fool, given the runaround by Israel’s Netanyahu? Or is he an ideologue, so hardened in his Zionism that he is unmoved by the suffering in Gaza or the international consequences of Israel’s actions?

Between this week’s alarming ground invasion of Beirut, Iran’s inevitable response, and the Biden administration’s unwillingness or inability to prevent either, we seem to have an answer: some combination of the two. Biden is unwilling to put an end to Israel’s aggression and unable to rein it in.

Deescalation through escalation predictably did not pan out. Immediately after Iran managed to successfully land dozens of rockets within Israeli territory Tuesday evening, the condemnation from global leaders flowed thick and fast.

International law, having been a pesky inconvenience for the past year, was of interest to pundits and politicians alike. Suddenly the commentariat remembered that missiles have the ability to kill civilians and that they can name their country of origin and report on their resulting casualties in the active voice.

As with October 7, time itself had reset. Events had lost all context and floated unmoored from any causality. UK MP Robert Jenrick called the attack, “terrible and unprovoked,” as though we had not all been awaiting an Iranian response for some weeks.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave a suitably bizarre speech in which he once again gendered Israel, positioning “her” as a vestal maiden in a sea of barbarians instead of the military force that eliminated Hezbollah’s leadership.

And, of course, the usual chorus gathered, full of passionate intensity, cawing for the US to enter the fray. Senator Lindsey Graham — who never misses an opportunity to push for military action against Iran — called for the Biden administration to, “coordinate an overwhelming response with Israel, starting with Iran’s ability to refine oil.”

Senator Marco Rubio was quick with his prognosis. “Only threatening the survival of the [Iranian] regime through maximum pressure and direct and disproportionate measures has a chance to influence and alter their criminal activities,” he tweeted.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, seemingly still under the impression he’s a player in this game, tweeted “It’s Time to Strike Back at Iran: Appeasement has failed.”

Sleepy Joe Biden's zombie regime

The Democrats, for their part, remained relatively restrained into the night. Even Iran hawks among their ranks, such as Rep. Josh Gottheimer, issued largely empty condemnatory statements or said nothing at all. The hesitation perhaps reflects the leadership vacuum at the top. Biden stressed the US military’s assistance in shooting down the Iranian missiles and stated he would be speaking with Netanyahu. “The United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” he told reporters.

The most common response of the night from all corners was the well-worn refrain that Israel has the right to defend itself. Seemingly enjoying the irony, newly elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian tweeted out, “We have the right to defend ourselves.”

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Iran will likely need to utilise any defensive capabilities in the coming days. It is difficult to see, given the deployment of the same rhetoric and strategies by Biden, what could generate a different response from the Israelis. Biden lacks the appetite and/or finesse to deescalate through deescalation and the hawks are circling.

By Wednesday morning, the US had held its vice presidential debate and the first question from CNN’s moderator was whether the two candidates would support or oppose a preemptive strike on Iran by Israel. Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota waffled about consistent leadership and coalitions, while JD Vance said Israel had carte blanche.

For those of us not keen on an all-out regional war, the night was a sobering reminder that no one is in control and no one is coming to the rescue. The same off-ramps that have existed since the days after October 7 remain, unused. Notably absent from the various responses were any calls for a withdrawal from Southern Lebanon or a recommitment to ceasefire negotiations.

While the American government sends billions to Israel on autopilot, the hasbara machine is once again in high gear, manufacturing consent to expand the conflict once more. Israel and its representatives have deployed the usual vacillation between victimology and sabre rattling with increasing clumsiness.

The problem they face is that the Western public are not buying what they are selling any longer. It is difficult to take Eylon Levy’s claims that, “We are fighting for our lives,” seriously after seeing the emptied skulls of children for months. The playbook from Iraq and its disastrous consequences still loom large in the popular consciousness.

That this translates to any restraint remains to be seen. Already we have watched our governments fund and support Israel’s genocidal aggression in Gaza for the last year despite the wild unpopularity of these actions. We are all fully, fully, fully at the whim of the zombie American regime.

Perhaps no one more effectively summed up the situation than former president Donald Trump. Issuing a statement on Truth Social, he stated, “The World is on fire and spiralling out of control. We have no leadership, no one running the Country. We have a non-existent President in Joe Biden and a completely absent Vice President, Kamala Harris… Neither has any idea what is even going on.”

Alex Foley is an educator and painter living in Brighton, UK. They have a research background in molecular biology of health and disease. They currently work on preserving fragile digital materials related to mass death atrocities in the MENA region.

Follow them on X: @foleywoley

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.