According to military historian Victor Davis Hanson, the answer to why the Obama and Biden administrations failed to bring peace to the Middle East is simple: they did exactly the opposite of what Donald Trump does today, whose actions have already led to a ceasefire and the reorganization of alliances.
First of all, Iran.
As Hanson notes, Tehran under the Democrats flourished, strengthened the network of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Houthis, and proceeded unchecked toward nuclear weapons.
Instead of restraining it, Obama and Biden chose to appease it, letting it benefit from oil sales while merely "postponing" its nuclear program.
At the same time, according to Hanson’s analysis, the Democrats constantly pressured Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu to make concessions, with no plan for the survival of the Jewish state in the event of a full-scale attack by Iran and its allies.
This stance undermined the trust of Arab allies, who now saw the U.S. as weak and unpredictable.
Moreover, Hanson recalls that both Obama and Biden personally clashed with key regional leaders — Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the Saudi royal family.
Biden called Saudi Arabia a "pariah state," until he needed its oil in 2022.
Obama, on the other hand, allowed the leak of offensive remarks about Netanyahu, such as the infamous "chicken sh—t," seriously damaging the Washington–Jerusalem relationship.
Cowardly leaders
As Hanson points out, both administrations were hesitant to use military power.
Neither Obama nor Biden would ever have neutralized Qassem Soleimani or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as Trump did, nor would they have struck the Houthis with determination.
The result was that no one in the Middle East trusted them — neither Israelis nor Arabs.
The international image of the U.S., Hanson writes, collapsed:
- Libya in 2011,
- Crimea in 2014,
- the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021,
- and the Chinese challenge with the balloon in 2023,
sent the message that Washington is in managed decline.
Trump knows how to assert himself
Hanson observes that the Democrats, fearing the anti-Israel leftist bloc, avoided taking risks. In contrast, Trump acted with realism and business logic, building respect with the Gulf Sheikhs, Sisi, and Netanyahu.
The Abraham Accords were not merely a diplomatic success – according to Hanson, they were a turning point in the history of Arab-Israeli relations, based on shared prosperity and security.
Finally, Hanson attributes much of the Democrats’ failure to their incompetent aides — Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Susan Rice, Jake Sullivan, Antony Blinken, Lloyd Austin — who reinforced naivety and confusion.
In contrast, Trump surrounded himself with realists such as Marco Rubio, Erik Kurilla, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, who implemented practical, targeted, and effective policies.
As Victor Davis Hanson summarizes:
“Where Obama and Biden appease, Trump asserts. Where the Democrats promise, Trump delivers. And in the Middle East, this means the difference between anarchy and peace”!
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