The Patriot Post® · Biden's Blundering Foreign Policy
Joe Biden hasn’t even reached the 100-day mark of his presidency, but the verdict is out on the world stage that he is a wet noodle when it comes to projecting American strength abroad. As Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have no doubt already surmised, if Biden can’t (or won’t) even keep America’s southern border secure, what can he possibly do to advance American interests abroad?
Biden, a lifelong politician who meandered his way through an unimpressive decades-long career as a senator and vice president, was never a strong thinker. His former boss, Barack Obama, used to like to pretend that Biden was the “tough guy” in the White House. “You don’t wanna mess with Joe,” he would tell reporters. But everyone from the president to the press corps knew that Biden was the living embodiment of what happens when a man rises to the level of his own incompetence.
But now, for no other reason than the Left’s unshakable determination to get Donald Trump out of office by any means necessary, Biden is president of the United States. His shallow grasp of world affairs and his backward view of foreign policy have combined with his clearly diminished mind to put America into a precarious state on the world stage. It’s a good time for the dictators.
Biden came into office signaling his desire to renew the nuclear deal with Iran, a foolish gesture that seems motivated by his desire to shore up Obama’s legacy, such as it is, and also because it’s 180 degrees in the opposite direction of what Trump did. There can be no sane reason for trying to rebuild such an awful agreement that was built on bad faith and a lot of U.S. cash paid directly to the biggest terrorist supporter in the Middle East. To top it all off, Biden has indicated that he’s willing to remove sanctions against Iran and unfreeze Iranian assets just to bring the mullahs to the negotiating table. In boxing, this strategy is mockingly called leading with your chin. And Biden has a what grizzled old pugilists would call a glass jaw.
Iran is obviously quite happy with this state of affairs. The country, which never really halted its nuclear weapons program, will be able to keep going, and it will be rewarded for destabilizing the Middle East. Biden seems unconcerned with what happens in that region, though, as the halting of military sales to Saudi Arabia and a planned withdrawal from Iraq indicate.
China is likewise pleased with the Biden administration these days — and why not? Biden’s in Beijing’s pocket. As that country continues to aggressively expand its footprint in the South China Sea, intimidate its regional neighbors, and expand its presence in Africa and South America in its quest to corner world markets on precious minerals, Biden has yet to make any substantive moves to check China’s power. He hasn’t even confronted Xi over China’s role in the spread of the ChiCom Virus pandemic. China has deliberately blocked international efforts to investigate the pandemic’s origins and insists on blaming the outbreak on the U.S. military. Biden has sent the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group into the South China Sea. But even this show of force isn’t what it used to be when one considers the rapid materiel and technological growth of China’s military in the past two decades; growth that has gone largely unchecked by the United States.
Russia is also ramping up its territorial ambitions, leaning hard on Ukraine as Putin continues his private quest to rebuild the old Soviet empire under the flag of the Russian Federation. Putin has used political maneuvering to extend his term of office indefinitely, and we can be pretty much certain by this point that he fully intends to remain president of Russia until the day he dies. Xi has similarly removed pesky rules that could remove him from office through elections, and the two leaders have grown close in recent months, forging an alliance to position as a counterweight to U.S. power.
Sad to say, but with Joe Biden as president, this will not be difficult. Biden sorely underestimates the cunning and savvy nature of the adversaries the U.S. faces, and he also dreadfully overestimates his own ability to steer America through the tough times that are sure to come as our country’s enemies prepare to challenge America head-on in the international arena. Will someone please send some backbone and some brains to the White House? We will surely need both in the months and years to come.