On March 10, President Joe Biden declared Qatar to be a major non-NATO ally. It took less than two weeks for the tiny Persian Gulf emirate — a country with fewer citizens than Lincoln, Nebraska, has people — to embarrass the president gratuitously.

Major non-NATO ally status should not just be a diplomatic bauble, although that is how Biden’s team treats it. Instead, the designation allows countries preferentially to receive U.S. military hardware and depleted uranium ammunition. Put aside the fact that Qatar outsources most of its security to non-Qataris; even if not, there would be very little reason why the country would ever need the types of military benefits Biden now bestows. For the past several years, Qatar’s greatest military relationships have been with Turkey, to whom it provides a base, Hamas, and the Taliban.