Since Joe Biden was inaugurated in January 2021, there has been a constant barrage of bad news from both within and beyond the U.S.

The recent additions to that ignominious list of bad news are from North Korea and Iran.

Early this week, North Korea test-launched an unparalleled number of ballistic missiles and purportedly has plans to resume nuclear testing after a five-year hiatus.

In early 2021, Biden attempted a new outreach to North Korea, which went largely ignored.  North Korea eventually rejected Biden's friendly overtures, saying "no dialogue would be possible until the United States rolled back its hostile policy toward North Korea and both parties were able to exchange words on an equal basis."

The Biden administration even proposed humanitarian assistance in response to the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea, which once again fell on deaf ears.

Last May, Biden attempted to personally reach out to Kim Jong-un.

These rejections made Kim Jong-un appear like the man in charge while Biden appeared like the weaker individual, failing in his attempt at appeasement. 

Much like with all their crises, the Biden administration downplayed the missile testing by North Korea, claiming that they "have seen periods of provocation; we've seen periods of engagement."

During his tenure, President Trump had met with North Korean chairman Kim Jong-un on two occasions.  Trump had adopted a clever mix of carrot (in the form of building a personal rapport and promises to help North Korea to prosper if they chose the right path) and stick (in the form of sanctions and tough talk), which seemed to work.  After Trump's summit, the testing of ballistic missiles had come to a halt and it looked like there was a slim chance that progress was going to occur.

Biden has blown it all to smithereens.

We now look at Iran:

President Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and imposed tough sanctions on Iran, which retarded Iran's nuclear program.  Trump also expressed support to the oppressed people of Iran who were protesting against the regime.  Trump ordered the killing of Iran Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, which sent a message to aspiring troublemakers within Iran.  Trump designated Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a foreign terrorist organization, marking the first time the U.S. has blacklisted part of another nation's military in this way.

Those days are over.  Recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of Iran's stockpiling of enriched uranium.  To make matters worse, Tehran removed U.N. 27 cameras monitoring its nuclear sites.

Back in 2021, Biden had loosened the enforcement of some sanctions to create a climate conducive to negotiations.

Then, in April 2021, Iran and the U.S. begin "indirect" negotiations in Vienna over how to restore the nuclear deal, Russia was and continues to be involved in these talks.  Biden should have insisted on having negotiations without interlocutors, especially one such as Russia, that they claim is a hostile force.

Days later, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% — its highest purity ever and a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%.  It was at this juncture that Biden should have withdrawn from the talks, but he did not.

Months later during the talks, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov linked restoring Iran's nuclear deal to American sanctions targeting Moscow over its war on Ukraine, further complicating negotiations.  Once again, Biden should have withdrawn, but once again, he didn't.

By March 2022, the talks in Vienna paused without an agreement due to Russia's demand for guarantees that its ties with Tehran be exempt from Western sanctions over Ukraine.

Iran is now said to be mere weeks away from enriching enough uranium to potentially manufacture a nuclear explosive device.  The removal of surveillance cameras seems ample proof that they are acting in a brazen manner.

This is another mess that Biden has presided over.

This should not come as a surprise to anyone.

Biden's disgracefully hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan left that country volatile.  It undid all the progress in that historically troubled nation.  It took just a few days for the Taliban to take over.  There was also a terror attack that left 170 people dead.  In addition, Biden left behind billions of dollars' worth of advanced weaponry.  According to an Israeli think-tank, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, ISIS killed and injured more people in Afghanistan last year than it did anywhere else.

Overall, Biden has made the U.S. appear an unreliable and uncaring ally.

Biden's recklessness not only left Afghanistan volatile, but was obviously going to embolden others to demonstrate aggression.

Eight months after Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Russia's President Vladimir Putin began a military intervention in Ukraine.  China, too, began making aggressive overtures toward Taiwan and India.

Iran, North Korea, and Russia, either overtly or covertly, present a nuclear threat to the U.S. 

Why is this happening?

The U.S. is a superpower, but power, however superlative it may be, is worthless if it isn't judiciously applied. 

Biden's rapidly declining cognitive abilities are apparent to the entire world.  He forgets the names of his colleagues.  When he read off a teleprompter, it often looks and sounds as if he is discovering the words for the very first time.  He ambles aimlessly on the White House lawn like a man lost.  He often makes reckless remarks, which the White House is compelled to walk back. 

The regime in Iran and China, and the likes of Kim and Putin, minutely scrutinize their adversary prior to taking any action.  When they see Biden, they see senility, incompetence, and weakness.  Biden's mess in Afghanistan provided them with proof that he wasn't in control and presented no threat to them whatsoever.

Contrast this with President Trump, who, without engaging in any ground conflict, maintained peace merely by a projection of strength.  There are some who criticized Trump for being impulsive and rough around the edges, but it was this unpredictability that worked to restrain various aspiring troublemakers.  The fact that he eliminated both Soleimani and the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and launched surgical strikes on a chemical plant in Syria, was a demonstration that he wasn't merely a man of words.

The actions from Pyongyang and Tehran, sadly, may just be the beginning.  It is likely that other hostile nations may be emboldened to also display hostility.  At times, the display may not just be symbolic.

Image: U.S. Department of Defense via Flickr, public domain.