U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters on Sept. 24.Manuel Balce Ceneta/The Associated Press

As world leaders prepared to gather in New York for the United Nations General Assembly – the annual parade of UN speeches on the state of the world and geopolitical grandstanding – U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield remarked wistfully on the timing of this year’s event as the wars in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza rage on with no end in sight.

“It feels like we say this every year, but this UNGA could not come at a more critical and more challenging moment,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield mused last week as Israel began stepping up attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. “The list of crises and conflicts that demand attention and action only seem to grow and grow.”

Her comments were not intended as a swipe at her boss. But they nevertheless underscored President Joe Biden’s complicated foreign-policy legacy as he prepares to exit the world stage. Mr. Biden’s handling of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza will define his presidency for decades to come, and barring a breakthrough soon, he will bequeath to his successor an intractable tangle of foreign-policy messes.

This is not how he envisioned........

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