Congressional Republicans are displeased with President Joe Biden’s “weak” and “uncertain” response to the ongoing situation in Syria. As previously reported, Iranian forces killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six others during a drone strike Thursday. In response, President Biden ordered retaliatory airstrikes. The strikes reportedly killed eight Iranians. Following the president’s retaliatory strikes, Iranian-backed proxy forces carried out their own retaliatory strikes on Friday, launching rockets against a U.S. base in Syria. Since then, no additional counter-strikes have been ordered. Leading the charge against the president’s current strategy in Syria is Sen. Lindsey Graham. In a 13-tweet Twitter thread posted Friday afternoon, he framed the president’s actions thus far as “weak” and “uncertain.” “President Biden owes it to those Americans fighting radical Islam to respond vigorously to any attack on them and their position by Iranian proxies. The weak, uncertain response to the initial attack obviously did not work,” he wrote. He added that there’s “only one path available” when the U.S. is attacked, and that’s for the U.S. to “respond swiftly and vigorously with overwhelming, punishing force.” View the whole thread below: President Biden and his national security team are letting America down. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 24, 2023 I fear General Milley and Secretary of Defense Austin are not proving to be up to the task of providing the deterrence America needs to remain safe. However, the ultimate blame for the failing foreign policy and military situation we find ourselves in lies with President Biden. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 24, 2023 President Biden owes it to those Americans fighting radical Islam to respond vigorously to any attack on them and their position by Iranian proxies. The weak, uncertain response to the initial attack obviously did not work. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) March 24, 2023 America

President Joe Biden’s proclivity for mucking up his lines has been a constant headache for his handlers and on Friday, the befuddled octogenarian did it again during a trip to the Great White North where he mentally misfired by praising China instead of Canada in remarks to the Canadian parliament in Ottawa, another addition to the geriatric human gaffe machine’s greatest hits collection. The occasion of Biden’s visit was a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau where the two leaders discussed a variety of agenda items including the obsession with the radical reconfiguration of western civilization to stave off the purported climate change doomsday, Ukraine, and human trafficking among topics during the nation’s 46th president’s first official visit to the northern neighbor since he took office. It was while Biden was speaking on the exploitation of human trafficking that he flubbed, mixing up the human rights-abusing communist colossus with Trudeau’s own budding fascist regime which, while nowhere near China when it comes to sheer oppression, it isn’t for a lack of trying on the prissy prime minister’s part as was evident during his ruthless crackdown on truckers who were protesting Canada’s COVID tyranny last year. “So today, I applaud China for stepping up,” Biden said.“Excuse me, I applaud Canada,” he said as many in the gathering of Canadian politicians laughed at him. “You can tell what I’m thinking about China,” he added. “I won’t get into that yet.” Gaffe or Freudian slip? Biden “accidentally” praises China when addressing the Canadian Parliament. China is on his mind, and the @HouseGOP knows why. pic.twitter.com/0M8Rix5nds — Congressman Byron Donalds (@RepDonaldsPress) March 24, 2023 Twitter pounced on Biden’s mental misfire with many users noting that of all of the countries in the world, China was the first to slip off his tongue

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission. As Muslims around the world prepare to begin the holy month of Ramadan, China’s Muslims are facing fasting bans and their cultural and religious traditions are increasingly under attack. Uyghurs in the northwestern region of Xinjiang are being ordered not to allow their children to fast, with children quizzed by the authorities over whether their parents are fasting or not, local officials and rights groups say. “During Ramadan, the authorities are requiring 1,811 villages [in Xinjiang] to implement a round-the-clock monitoring system, including spot home inspections of Uyghur families,” World Uyghur Congress spokesperson Dilshat Rishit said. During Ramadan, Muslims are called to fast during daylight hours. And China’s 11.4 million Hui Muslims – close-knit communities of ethnic Chinese who have maintained their Muslim faith over centuries – are in danger of being erased entirely under the Communist Party’s draconian religious rules, rights groups have warned in a new report. They have been identified by Beijing as “a threat to be resolved through forcible assimilation,” a report from a coalition of rights groups, including the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said. This is in stark contrast to the relative freedoms they enjoyed before President Xi Jinping launched a renewed attack on religious worship, forcing Christians, Muslims and Buddhists alike to submit to party control and censorship of their religious lives under his “sinicization” program, the report said. “Hui community members were able to openly participate in mosque communities, Arabic schools, and private worship, albeit under restrictions facilitated by party liaisons,” it said. “Hui entrepreneurs were encouraged to develop business and tourism connections with the wider Muslim world as part of the Belt and Road Initiative.” But religious affairs under Xi have been “influenced by Islamophobic rhetoric that has pervaded global