President Joe Biden’s approval of airstrikes in Syria has sparked controversy among progressive Democrats. In response to the February 15 rocket attack on the airport in Erbil, in Northern Iraq, which killed one and injured six, United States military officials dropped seven 500-pound bombs on a cluster of buildings near the Iraqi-Syrian border, killing 17 fighters, as reported by the New York Times. Although President Biden deserves recognition for his tremendous effort in undoing the damage done during the Trump era, he still needs to be held accountable for his errors.

In the wake of former President Donald Trump’s reckless and damaging foreign policy  actions, the fate of United States relations with China and other countries such as Russia, Iraq, Syria and Mexico lies in President Biden’s hands.

While President Biden has vowed to bolster America’s name around the world, he has been focusing his energy primarily on European countries and has done little to improve the United States’s fraught relationship with China. During his first call with Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Biden was quite blunt while discussing topics such as trade, war and the pandemic, which is not the right approach for improving foreign relations. Afterward, President Biden tweeted he will only cooperate with China when “it benefits the American people.”

Balancing international relations, however, is only one of the many issues that President Biden has been struggling to tackle.

Joshua Rand (IV), officer of Boston Latin School Voices of the Empowered, comments, “I really hope that he does something about climate change and global warming, because he talked about […] that [and] I was very impressed that he mentioned that so much on the campaign trail [because] a lot of politicians tend to just ignore it. So I think as long as he follows through, that would be a big boost to his presidency.”

Similar to the pandemic, climate change is also a global issue that will have long-term effects on the future of our environment. The political divide over this issue has only caused back-tracking in the fight to save our environment. Former President Trump promoted the harmful ideology that climate change is merely a myth. As the heir to this propagation of lies, it is crucial that President Biden approaches this issue with a greater sense of urgency.

Although we are in a time of crisis in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic, which is undoubtedly the Biden Administration’s top priority, other issues such as increasing the minimum wage and relieving student loans cannot simply be put on pause. The work should be delegated so that each issue gets its fair share of attention.

“I think [President] Biden has to be a little bit like the juggler with too many balls in his hands […] I think one of the things Americans sometimes forget is the need for patience,” says Ms. Judi Freeman, Boston Latin School Facing History teacher.

Though change is, of course, never immediate, especially with such a starkly divided Congress, a sense of urgency is still legitimate and necessary, particularly amongst the younger generation that will experience the consequences of President Biden’s decisions.

Electing President Biden as former President Trump’s successor was certainly a feat in itself, but his supporters must remain vigilant. Americans cannot afford to be blinded by performative humanitarian motives and must call him out for his broken promises. Progressives settled for President Biden. Now, it is time to hold him accountable.