There are lots of mostly bad things that Joe Biden can justly take credit for, but the fall of Syria is not one of them. The only real reason this happened is because Israel threw off the shackles and decided to to after Hezbollah after a year of terror. And Biden did everything to prevent that.

At the very end, he used an arms embargo to force Israel into a fake ‘ceasefire’ with Hezbollah. But by then Israel had done enough damage to Hezbollah that Turkey’s Jihadists were able to just roll in, and Iran decided to sell them out and pull back.

But now Biden is trying to take credit.

Biden delivered a mumbling teleprompter speech that looked like an Arab Spring leftover, calling it “a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country” and promised that “the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk.”

And promised more “humanitarian relief”.

Mostly though Joe tried to take credit.

“For years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, but over the last week, their support collapsed, all three of them, because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office,” Biden mumbled. “For the first time ever, neither Russia nor Iran or Hezbollah could defend this abhorrent regime in Syria. This is a direct result of the blows that Ukraine Israel have delivered upon their own self-defense with unflagging support of the United States.”

Ukraine certainly had the support of the administration. And that contributed to Assad’s fall. But Israel did not. And it was Israel’s campaign against Hezbollah that most directly led to this moment.

Biden provided Iran with sanctions relief and bailed out Hezbollah just as it was on the verge of defeat. He’s trying to take credit for other people’s victories while pretending that this was a desired outcome rather than Turkey taking the initiative and exploiting a weakened Hezbollah.

Joe Biden gets no credit here for anything except trying to save Hezbollah. And therefore by extension, Assad.