POLITICO Iran Just Handed Biden His First Credibility Test Rocket attacks on an American base in Iraq by an Iran-backed militia will require a clear response. Nuclear negotiations, not to mention the safety of U.S. troops, depend on it. AP Photo/Alex Brandon Link Copied Michael Knights is a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He has worked on Iraq since the 1990s and made multiple trips to Iraq each year since 2003, embedding with Iraqi security forces and interviewing local and national leaders. Joe Biden is squarely in the middle of a major foreign policy test as president, and while it has gone largely unremarked inside the U.S., the Middle East is watching closely to see how he responds to an attack on U.S. forces.