Despite the fast-moving news cycle, can you remember when we had an actual Secretary of State? By any measure, SECSTATE is a highly responsible job, the most senior Cabinet official and fourth in line for the presidency should that ever become an issue. You might remember back when Donald Trump appointed Mike Pompeo to the job, a distinguished West Pointer, congressman and former head of the CIA. Pompeo seemed like a natural, never losing his cool despite Trump’s occasional antics. Remember also that Trump had a way of regularly upsetting the foreign-policy applecart: even concluding peace treaties between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors. Oh yeah, and no real wars either!.

Sadly, however, Mike Pompeo was succeeded in office by Anthony J. Blinken, a Harvard product educated at all the right schools where future lawyer-diplomats hone their qualifications to run our foreign policy establishment. Even more sadly: his subsequent won-lost record suggests that either those schools were mistaken in their judgment of Mr. Blinken – or maybe his fastballs and curves were no longer capable of fooling many hitters. First there was the Afghan debacle, easily the most embarrassing spectacle since the fall of Saigon; all that modern military equipment surrendered to the Taliban while President Biden was photographed checking his watch as American caskets passed by. Why hadn’t Blinkin (or somebody!) told Biden to salute as the caskets were being carried to their final resting places?

Second, there was persistent winkin’ going on when a steady stream of stories established that the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story was far more substantive than some people were willing to admit. In April, 2023 testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, for example, “A former CIA official testified that then-Biden campaign senior adviser, now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken "played a role in the inception" of the public statement signed by current and past intelligence officials that claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.” Since the 51 signatories of that statement were a veritable who’s who of the American intelligence establishment, it was reasonable to wonder why a soon-to-be-named Secretary of State would have begun his tenure in such a grotesquely dishonorable fashion. https://judiciary.house.gov/media/in-the-news/biden-campaign-blinken-orchestrated-intel-letter-discredit-hunter-biden-laptop

Given the rapid turn-over of the news cycle, however, the Hunter laptop fiasco was soon eclipsed by what became routine stories suggesting that Biden foreign policy was a thinly disguised retreat. Sanctions on Iran were rapidly lifted, recent advances with the Arab world were never followed up and, most worrying of all, defense spending kept declining. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022 should not have surprised anyone understanding Russian history or Putin’s personal animus. But while Biden made a brave show of backing Ukraine and sending US equipment to stave off Russian advances, he was at best a reluctant warrior. Was he trying to deter Putin from engaging in a wider war with NATO – or was he being deterred by Putin since US weapons deliveries were often painfully slow. Was Ukraine being forced to pay an endless price in blood for US/NATO woolliness?

Then came October 7^th – badly surprising Israel and her allies, but particularly Washington. Both Putin and the ayatollahs had drawn the correct conclusions about the new American fecklessness. With sanctions lifted, Iran was flush with oil and cash, thus extending their arcs of weaponry on all sides of Israel. Before anyone fully knew it, US naval forces assigned to the Middle East found themselves in a 360-degree shooting war not seen since the kamikazes. Throughout a daunting year of combat on many fronts, the most rueful marker was Joe Biden’s pathetic attempt at deterrence: “Don’t.”

The president’s limited support of Israel became clear even before his de facto abdication. Fortunately, Israel has a tradition of self-reliance dating back three millennia - shown off again last week by their Great Pager Caper. So don’t be surprised that they also knew which Lebanese houses concealed missiles aimed at Israel and are now eliminating them with painstaking accuracy.

Or to quote Benjamin Netanyahu: "I want to clarify Israel's policy - we do not wait for a threat, we anticipate it. Everywhere, in every arena, at any time. We eliminate senior officials, eliminate terrorists, eliminate missiles…Whoever tries to hurt us, we hurt him even more.” https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dovid-weiss-49860b212_another-statement-by-prime-minister-binyamin/

Got it??

Colonel (Ret.) Kenneth Allard is a former West Point professor, Dean of the National War College and NBC News military analyst.