The Wars of President Joe Biden (2021-Present)

 

The Wars of Joe Biden: 

When Joseph R. Biden took the presidential oath of office on January 20, 2021, he inherited several ongoing wars and military conflicts from his predecessors.  From the decades-long war in Afghanistan to the continuing Ukraine War, President Biden’s need to focus on foreign affairs and military situations has grown in his time in the Oval Office.  This record of Biden’s wars will update as wars and crisis situations unfold in the world.  

The wars that President Biden has dealt with in his Administration so far include: the War in Afghanistan; the ongoing war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq; hostile relations with Iran; American involvement in the War in Yemen; the War in Ukraine, ongoing attacks on U.S. forces by Shiite militias in Syria and Iraq, and the 2023 Israel-Hamas War.

 

War in Afghanistan (2001-2021) In the aftermath of the al-Qaida terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2011 (i.e. the 9/11 attacks), President George W. Bush launched an invasion of Afghanistan in October of 2001.  That landlocked Central Asian nation was used by al-Qaida as their main base of operations, protected by the Islamist Taliban group that had seized power several years earlier in one phase of the decades-long Afghan Civil War.

The U.S. military, aided by other NATO partners and by the anti-Taliban Afghan faction called the Northern Alliance, drove the Taliban into the mountains, while also chasing down the al-Qaida leadership, in particular looking for Osama bin Laden.  Over the next two decades and through the Bush, Obama, and Trump presidential administrations, the U.S. engaged in nation-building in Afghanistan, while also fending off the Taliban, who resisted through guerrilla warfare.  Al-Qaida and other Jihadist groups remained active in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. One result of denying bin Laden’s terrorist network a safe haven in Afghanistan, was the spread of that group into other parts of the world.

President Trump announced that he intended to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan, but had not done so by the time he left office in January, 2021, leaving the lingering war in Afghanistan to Joe Biden, who had defeated Trump in the tumultuous 2020 election.

President Biden, determined to end the Afghan phase of America’s “Forever Wars,” announced that U.S. forces would be withdrawn by September 11, 2021. On Monday, August 30, 2021, the last American military plane flew out of Kabul.

The American withdrawal, which in theory would result in turning over full responsibility for the war with the Taliban over to the Afghan government, turned into a rout, as Taliban forces advanced across the nation and most of the Afghan military either surrendered to the Taliban, or just faded away.  Thus, by the time the U.S. evacuation was in full swing, the Taliban had seized control of the entire country, including Kabul. Only the airport being used by the U.S. and allied nations remained out of Taliban hands. U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, was the last American soldier to leave Afghan territory as he stepped onto the last plane out of Kabul.  

The chaos of the departure brought comparisons to the U.S. evacuation of Saigon, South Vietnam in 1975. In that situation, the North Vietnamese overwhelmed the South Vietnamese forces and seized the city of Saigon, very similarly to what happened in Kabul.  In the two years since the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. and the Taliban governement in Kabul have still not resumed normal diplomatic relations.

 

Sources on American Withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021:

U.S. ends 20-year war in Afghanistan with final evacuation flights out of Kabul-from CNBC.

Joe Biden’s Saigon-from the Atlantic

 

Wars of President Joe Biden: Ongoing Hostility with Iran

American-Iranian relations have been hostile since the 1979 Iranian Revolution overthrew the pro-U.S. Iranian monarch, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, AKA the Shah of Iran.  Iranian revolutionaries founded the Islamic Republic of Iran, and almost immediately found itself in conflict with America, in part due to the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran, and the illegal imprisonment of 52 American Embassy workers for 444 days.  This almost led to war, and, even after the release of the hostages, and the end of the U.S.-Iran Hostage Crisis, relations continued to deteriorate.  Iran, through their Revolutinary Guards organization engaged in hostile acts towards American, Israeli and other Western targets through a decades-long campaign of terrorism and bombings.  

 

As Iran began developing nuclear capability, and with fears of Iran building and using nuclear weapons, the U.S. and Israel have engaged in covert ops (along with overt diplomacy) to head off this development.

Iran has worked hard to export their brand of Islamic revolution.  Actively engaged in regional wars, Iran has sent soldiers (mostly Iranian Revolutionary Guards), to intervene in the Syrian Civil War, and the Yemen Civil War, while also providing significant support to anti-Israeli and anti-Western groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.  

 

Iran also supported Iraqi Shiite militias as they fought American troops during the American Occupation of Iraq from 2003-2011.

In recent years, the U.S. and Iran nearly went to war in January of 2020 following an exchange of rocket fire and the assassination of the leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, on orders  of then-President Trump.

Joe Biden inherited this tense and hostile relationship with Iran, with the full range of over 40 years of a very hateful and violent history.

 

Over the past few years, Iran’s support of Shiite forces in both Iraq and Yemen have enabled those forces to project their power through drone strikes, long-range missiles, and other long-range weaponry. Several of these drone and missile strikes have targeted American forces and American allies in the Middle East.

 

In response to attacks (rockets and drones, primarily) the U.S. during the Biden Administration has engaged with or launched retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed (i.e. proxies for Iran) on these dates:

February 25, 2021: President Biden ordered  retaliatory airstrikes on Iraqi Shiite militia targets located in eastern Syria. This was in response to an attack in February of 2021, when Iranian proxies (again, Iraqi Shiite militias) launched three attacks on American targets inside Iraq.  One U.S.-employed contractor was killed and U.S. troops were injured.  

June 27, 2021: President Biden ordered  retaliatory airstrikes on Iraqi Shiite militia targets located along the Iraq/Syria border. This was in response to drone attacks on bases in northern Iraq that housed U.S. forces. The two Shiite groups hit were the Kata’ib Hezbollah and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada militia groups. Iraqi media reported that four militia members died in the attack.

June 28, 2021: In response to the previous day’s airstrikes, militia forces respond with rocket attacks on U.S. troops on the ground in Syria near al-Omar.  The U.S. reported no American casualties, and responded with artillery fire at the “rocket-launching platforms.”

August, 2022: Two Airstrikes against Shiite militia targets in Syria following rocket attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq in which American troops were wounded.

Iranian support for Hamas is also a key concern, especially with the new Hamas-Israel Gaza War and American support for Israel.

 

Wars of President Joe Biden: Wars Against ISIS, al-Qaida and other Islamic Jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, northern Africa and elsewhere 

This ongoing conflict with the terrorist group includes a successful special forces raid on the leader of ISIS, conducted in February of 2022. American forces attacked the ISIS -held building in the Idlib area of Syria. The ISIS leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, died in the raid on February 3, 2022. Rather than be captured, al-Qurashi blew himself, and his family up. The U.S. forces reported no American casualties. 

Also, around the same time period as the killing of al-Qurashi, ISIS commandos attacked a prison in Syria, run by pro-American militias) in an attempt to free ISIS prisoners. A ten-day battle ensued, in which American Special Forces (aided by U.S. airstrikes) assisted the allied militias in retaking the prison.

As part of a coalition including other Western nations, as well as the Iraqi government and allied Kurdish and Syrian militias, American warplanes regularly take part in anti-ISIS airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria.

Yemen War

In addition to the ongoing war with ISIS, U.S. forces have also sporadically been drawn into conflict with the Houthi faction in the Yemeni Civil War.  The U.S. under Presidents Obama and Trump supported the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis, though President Biden rescinded that support in 2021.  However, in February, 2022, Houthi and allied Shiite Iraqi militias (the True Promise Brigades) conducted missile and drone attacks on targets in the United Arab Emirates (the UAE). The UAE is a member of the anti-Houthi coalition.  American anti-missile defense units stationed in the UAE (where the U.S. has military bases), launched Patriot missiles at the incoming missiles.  This was the first combat use by the United States of Patriot Missiles since the 1991 Gulf War. Source: Military Times

 

Wars of President Joe Biden: The Ukraine Crisis and War

In late 2021 and early 2022, Russia mobilized over 100,000 troops around Ukraine in an apparent attempt to force NATO (of which the U.S. is a leading member), to make concessions such as agreeing to never allow Ukraine to join NATO, and the withdrawal of NATO forces from eastern NATO members such as Poland, Romania, and the Baltic States. 

The U.S. under Biden, and NATO as a whole, rejected these demands.  On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. and several other NATO nations have sent additional troops to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank (Poland, Romania, and the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).  U.S. and other allied nations sent large amounts of military aid to Ukraine, and invoked significant economic sanctions on Russia after the invasion began.  No U.S. troops have been sent to Ukraine, but billions of dollars worth of military equipment and weapons have been supplied to Ukraine. American and other allied forces are training Ukrainian troops outside of Ukraine.  Also, it is generally believed that the U.S. is proving real-time intelligence to Ukrainian forces to assist in targeting their American-supplied artillery against Russian forces.

Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and therefore there is no legal or treaty obligation by any NATO member to defend that nation.  If Russia were to attack a NATO member though (which is an ongoing concern), that would trigger Article V (5) of the NATO  treaty that states that an attack on one member is an attack on all members.

With the massive amount of U.S. weaponry and the training and other military and intelligence support given Ukraine, along with the massive diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed on Russia, it is clear that the U.S. is engaged in a proxy war with Russia.  As of August, 2023, Ukraine is slowly retaking occupied land from the Russians, and American military aid to Ukraine is contributing to the continued degrading of the Russian military.

 

Wars of President Joe Biden: Israel-Hamas War in Gaza (2023)

 

In October, 2023, the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel in a surprise offensive.  President Biden declared American support for Israel in this new war, sending a U.S. Navy carrier group to nearby waters, while promising delivery of weapons and ammunition to Israel. Several American citizens were killed in the Hamas attack, which could also further U.S. involvement.  

U.S. Involvement in Israel-Hamas War:

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas War, American involvment has increased.  The U.S. is supplying massive amounts of munitions and equipment to Israel. Also, President Biden ordered a second Carrier Task Force to the region.  As expected, Iranian-allied (and most likely Iranian-controlled) Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria have targeted American forces in the region. Also, a U.S. Navy Destroyer interecpted mulitple missiles and drones launched by Yemen’s Houthi regime that were aimed at Israel.  

-Oct. 18, 2023-U.S. troops at al-Tanf base in Syria targeted by drones launched by Iran-allied Shiite militia. One drone was shot down, the other hit the base, causing minor injuries.

-Another drone targeted the U.S. base at al-Asad in western Iraq. The drone was shot down. Rockets hit the Baghdad airport, where U.S. and coalition forces are based. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

-Oct. 19, 2023–USS Carney, in the northern Red Sea, shot down four cruise missiles and 15 drones over a period of nine hours launched by Houthi forces in Yemen. The attack appeared headed toward Israel.

U.S. retaliatory strikes on militia targets in Syria and Iraq have continued, but attacks on American and Coalition forces continued.

By January, 2024, American forces in Iraq and Syria had incurred dozens of casualties in over 80 attacks by Iran-backed militia forces. In addition, on January 11, 2024, U.S. and UK forces retaliated against Houthi targets in Yemen.  Allied airstrikes continued, though Houthi attacks on ships continued.

 

 

This page will be updated as events develop in the wars and conflicts of Joe Biden’s term in office.

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