President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly made clear its desire to end the country’s involvement in foreign conflicts across the globe and to stay out of new ones, but its cautious approach has only served to embolden its adversaries.

In various conflicts throughout his time as president, Biden has routinely and publicly said what the United States’s response likely would include if an adversary acted against U.S. interests. But that, in turn, has allowed those enemies to push those limits without the fear of the most consequential response. The pattern dates back to the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, reared its head again when Russia invaded Ukraine, and has been on display in the Middle East following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel that ushered in heightened tension and threatened a full-blown regional war.