How Obama, Biden Made Iran Believe It Could Take On the Whole World | Victor Davis Hanson

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🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Within a matter of weeks, Iran’s ability to wage war has been rendered inert by American and Israeli forces. Over the course of seven U.S. presidencies, Iran—the most populous Middle Eastern country—developed a self-inflated view of itself. But why? Whether through the Biden-backed Iran nuclear deal or Barack Obama’s “creative tension” approach to Middle East conflicts, numerous U.S. administrations gave the Iranian regime the impression that the Western world was afraid of them. Then Trump called their bluff, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.” (00:00) Iran War Status Check (01:12) How Tehran Misread Obama Biden (03:23) Myth of Iranian Invincibility (05:12) October 7 Changed Israel (06:37) Negotiations and Endgame 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal.
0:14.0	We're now beginning the seventh week of military operations against Iran.
0:20.0	They're in a lull now during a negotiation, but the war continues.
0:25.0	And if you look at Iran, it's a very strange situation because its command and control have
0:30.8	been decapitated.
0:32.8	Its military has been, I guess you'd call it inert.
0:37.8	There is no air force.
0:38.9	There's only PT boats left of its Navy.
0:42.3	Its army is of no use since this is an air war.
0:46.4	Its nuclear military industrial complex has been bombed smithereens.
0:52.2	It's probably lost a half a trillion dollars and a half-century
0:55.4	long investment in military hardware and military industries at the expense of a very restive
1:05.0	population. So what was it thinking? How did it get in itself in this place? How did it,
1:10.7	what happened to it? Well, it get in itself in this place? How did it? What happened to it?
1:12.1	Well, it had a it had a expansive view of itself, an inflated view. Why? During the Obama administration,
1:22.0	the Obama State Department and Obama himself sent these messages to Iran that maybe a Shia crescent,
1:31.1	maybe Tehran, Damascus, Beirut, Gaza, people in Yemen might balance the Sunni Arabs of the
1:41.6	Gulf with their money and the military power of the Jewish state of Israel,
1:46.2	and Obama might step in from time to time to adjudicate this, I guess they call it, creative
1:51.1	tension.
1:52.1	In other words, we said there was no moral difference between the Iranian bloc and its
1:57.9	opponents when there was, of course.
	...

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