If only Joe Biden had packed his double barrel shotgun, perhaps this situation could have been avoided altogether. While visiting Israel this week, Biden received news that Iran launched ballistic missiles that were well within striking distance of Israel. One of those missiles contained a vitriolic message: “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth.” An Investor’s Business Daily editorial explains, “It’s a quotation from the late Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamofascist regime that has ruled Iran for more than three-and-a-half decades now, thanks to Jimmy Carter pulling the Persian rug out from under our ally the Shah.”

The launches do not technically break the terms of the nuclear deal, though frankly that’s beside the point. The move was intended to be embarrassing and provocative. According to the Associated Press, “One Security Council diplomat said the tests don’t violate the nuclear deal, but ‘there are obligations on Iran’ that stem from the resolution and ‘they need to abide by those obligations.’ Another diplomat acknowledged, ‘We’re not mounting an argument that it’s a binding obligation.’” In other words, golly, at least show some respect guys! Good luck with that.

Iranian military official Amir Ali Hajizadeh said, “The 2,000-kilometer range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime. Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war.” The IBD quips, “The left wants to convince us that ‘Iran has no serious intentions of wiping out the Jews or the West’; apparently the Iranians write Khomeini quotations about obliterating the Jews, on missiles that can reach Israel, just for fun.” Well, actually, they probably did. But point taken.

The Wall Street Journal observes, “The lesson — as always in arms control, from Brezhnev’s Soviet Union to North Korea — is that a regime that can’t be trusted with nuclear weapons also can’t be trusted to honor the agreements it signs promising to eliminate them.” We’d note additionally that the Axis of Evil — the term given by President George W. Bush to Iraq, Iran and North Korea — is basically back in business. As voters consider the 2016 election and who they should elect as America’s next commander in chief, it’s critical they keep attune to global affairs. Because the next president will inherit a tumultuous situation.