The fall of former President Bashar Assad’s tyranny in Syria is a strategic victory for the United States and a defeat for the U.S.’s main enemies in the region, Iran and Russia. It was not a victory authored by President Joe Biden’s foreign policy but the direct result of Israel’s brave and legitimate response to Iran’s proxy war against the Middle East’s only democracy. Biden’s weak and clumsy policy in the region undermined Israel rather than supporting it as it should have.
Principal credit for Assad’s overthrow belongs to Syrians. In the end, it was an armed popular uprising of Syrian militias that captured cities and forced Assad to flee to his masters in Moscow. But the Syrian civil war has been raging for over a decade, and it wasn’t until Israel’s recent military actions that new conditions made it possible for the rebels to win.
After Hezbollah attacked Israel with rockets to support Hamas, with which Israel was locked in an existential war after the Oct. 7 massacres, Israel decapitated the Iranian-backed terrorist organization in Lebanon in a stunningly impressive and swift fashion. First, it destroyed the Iranian Consulate in Syria, then blew up pagers used by Hezbollah operatives, putting the users out of action, and then eliminated Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, before going on to dismantle the remaining upper tiers of the Hezbollah hierarchy.
Finally, Israel invaded Lebanon, engaging Hezbollah fighters with withering fire. Assad relied on the Iranian proxy’s infantry to maintain his grip on the country, and with Hezbollah’s fighting ranks beaten to a pulp, if not to submission, and their leaders gone up (mostly in smoke), Assad’s forces were left alone and proved no match for the Syrian rebels.
Iran has lost its proxy foothold in Gaza and Lebanon and its puppet dictator in Syria, significantly weakening the mullah’s “Axis of Resistance” and its ability to project power in the region. All this demonstrates how misguided former President Barack Obama and Biden were in the Middle East, with both men basing their identical strategies on the fantasy that Iran could become a responsible security partner.
This was always dangerously naive, misconstruing both the nature and capabilities of the clerical tyranny in Tehran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has always been a source of violence and instability in the Middle East, additionally intent on damaging America. It was always an enemy and should have been treated as one, contained and neutered, not empowered and trusted.
President-elect Donald Trump understood this during his first term in office and pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” that included ending Obama’s foolish nuclear deal with Iran and enforcing sanctions against its oil industry and leaders. Biden undid these policies, providing resources to the mullah’s terrorist network, setting the stage for the Oct. 7 pogrom of Israeli civilians by Hamas.
Once Israel responded, Biden undermined its efforts, calling for restraint and ceasefires that would let Hamas and Hezbollah rest, regroup, and return to the battlefield to kill again. Thankfully, Israel ignored Biden and did what was needed to protect its security.
Trump would be wise to support Israel in its campaign to rid its neighborhood of Iranian influence, and there is much he could do to help. He could increase pressure on Tehran by revoking the sanctions waivers granted to Tehran by Biden’s administration. He could further weaken Iran’s economy by cracking down on smugglers who buy Iranian oil illicitly. Finally, Trump could make it clear that any attack on U.S. interests by Iran or its proxies would prompt military retaliation.
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Trump knows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine played a role in Assad’s downfall as well, noting on social media that Moscow “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.”
Now that Russia is feeling the sting of its strategic miscalculation, Trump can also help bring an end to that conflict.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
