Recognise Biden lacks leadership to erect suitable army base (8)

I believe the answer is:

identify

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'recognise' is the definition.
(I know that identify is a type of recognise)

'biden lacks leadership to erect suitable army base' is the wordplay.
'lacks leadership' means to remove the first letter (I've seen 'lacking leadership' mean this).
'to erect' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'suitable' becomes 'fit' (similar in meaning).
'army base' becomes 'y' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'fit' written backwards gives 'tif'.
'biden' with its first letter taken off is 'iden'.
'iden'+'tif'+'y'='IDENTIFY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for identify that I've seen before include "Discover name of" , "Detect" , "Recognise, put name to" , "associate" , "Diagnose" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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