Biden’s failure to avenge the Abbey Gate bombing is a national disgrace
Israel quickly responded to an attack. Why won’t Biden do the same for the U.S.?
By Marc A. ThiessenAugust 1, 2024 at 5:39 p.m. EDTIt took just over 72 hours after a dozen children were killed on an Israeli soccer field for Israel to exact justice — taking out Fuad Shukr, the senior Hezbollah leader Israel says was behind the attack, with a missile strike in Beirut. A day later, an explosive attack widely attributed to Israel killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh — less than eight months after the brutal Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas terrorists killed almost 1,200 Israelis, most of them civilians.
That second attack not only killed Haniyeh, it did so in the heart of downtown Tehran, soon after Haniyeh met his patron, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, while leaders of virtually every Iranian-backed terrorist group had gathered for the inauguration of the regime’s new supreme leader.
The message was clear: If any of you kill Israelis, there is nowhere you can hide.
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Contrast Jerusalem’s resolute response to the slaughter of its citizens with the United States’ failure to do the same. In just a few weeks, we will mark the third anniversary of the Islamic State-Khorasan suicide bombing at the Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members and injured 45 more. Yet, three years later, not a single person responsible for orchestrating those deaths has received justice.
Follow this authorMarc A. Thiessen's opinionsFollowImmediately after the attack, President Biden struck the pose of a resolute commander in chief, warning that he had “ordered my commanders to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership, and facilities” and that the United States “will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose, and the moment of our choosing.” And he spoke directly to the terrorists: “We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
When the president of the United States makes a promise like that, he’d better deliver.
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But Biden didn’t deliver. A few days later, the United States launched a drone strike in Kabul and Biden declared victory: “We struck ISIS-K remotely, days after they murdered 13 of our servicemembers and dozens of innocent Afghans. And to ISIS-K: We are not done with you yet.” Not only had he delivered justice, Biden bragged, he had also delivered proof that the U.S. withdrawal would not hamper our capability to hunt down terrorists who threaten Americans. “We have what’s called over-the-horizon capabilities,” he said, “which means we can strike terrorists and targets........
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