Biden warns Israel: Don’t make the same mistakes the US did after 9/11

• Joe Biden warned Israel to be careful not to repeat the mistakes the US made after 9/11.
• Biden urged Israel to be clear about its objectives for the war in Gaza despite feeling “rage” after Hamas’ attacks.
• Before he pulled out all US troops, Biden had long advocated against continued military operations in Afghanistan.

President Joe Biden urged Israel to not make the same mistakes that the US made after 9/11 in a stunning and frank assessment of US foreign policy.

While visiting Tel Aviv on Wednesday after Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israeli civilians, Biden delivered a statement in which he warned Israel to not be driven by anger and to proceed with the war with caution.

“Justice must be done,” Biden said in his televised address. “But I caution this: while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11 we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes. ”

“I’ve made wartime decisions,” he continued. “I know the choices are never clear or easy for the leadership. There’s always cost. It requires being deliberate. It requires asking very hard questions. It requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you’re on will achieve those objectives.”

Biden had long advocated against the US staying in Afghanistan during Obama’s presidency, Reuters reported.

And ever since, he has been vocal about his belief that the US military stayed there for far too long.

When Biden finally pulled US troops out of the country in 2021, after 20 years of war, he said: “I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome.”

The US’s “War on Terror” would extend past Afghanistan after the Bush administration invaded Iraq in 2003, using a false justification that the country had weapons of mass destruction. While the initial invasion was a quick victory for the US and its allies, a brutal insurgency would follow that lasted years and proved extremely costly, both in US money and lives.

The war would claim the lives of an estimated 300,000 people, including 4,599 American troops, while also strengthening the influence of the US adversary Iran and leading to the rise of militant organizations.

Israel’s war with Gaza began after Hamas militants launched a brutal attack on Israel earlier this month, killing thousands of Israelis and taking more than 100 civilians hostage, including women, children, and the elderly. Since Hamas’ attacks, Israel has been bombarding the Gaza Strip with hundreds of tons of bombs, flattening mosques and residential areas, and killing at least 3,300 Palestinians.

And on Tuesday, an explosion rocked a hospital in Gaza City, killing hundreds of people, with both sides blaming the other for the attack.

Read the original article on Business Insider.