Four more years of phobia about escalation would make the world a more dangerous place.
When it comes to war, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t be more self-contradictory. They talk about their unwavering commitments to the defense of Israel and Ukraine, but they hedge by trying to restrain Israelis and Ukrainians.
After the Israel Defense Forces killed Hezbollah honcho Hassan Nasrallah, Ms. Harris issued a three-paragraph statement. She expressed support for Israel and condemned Nasrallah. The beginning of the last paragraph was the most predictable: “President Biden and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional war.”
Fears of escalation have been a theme of the Biden-Harris administration. Such fears have contributed to the current stalemate in Ukraine. Out of concern for escalation, the U.S. has delivered advanced weapons too late and denied Ukraine permission to attack Russian supply lines inside Russia.
Israelis have faced a similar challenge. The Biden-Harris administration prevented them from acting sooner in Lebanon. It tried to prevent Israel from moving into Rafah. Ms. Harris predicted that a Rafah operation would be a humanitarian disaster because she claimed she had “studied the maps.”
In every case these fears have proved baseless. When Ms. Harris issued a statement celebrating the death of Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, she omitted that Israel had ignored her persistent calls for a cease-fire. In fact, she restated that call, apparently undeterred by having gotten it so wrong for so long.
Carl von Clausewitz, the German military theorist, observed that the nature of war is dual: It pulls you simultaneously in opposite extremes, to escalate in pursuit of victory and to de-escalate fearing annihilation. For Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, this is half true: They are pulled only to de-escalate.
Read the rest in the Wall Street Journal.
