President Biden’s threat to the national security AND personal safety comes in three major policy areas – reduced law enforcement, open borders and foreign policy. Whether his failure to address crime is incompetence, malfeasance or diminished mental capacity is arguable. We just know that he is not doing his job to protect the American people. In the first and second installments of the three-part series, we dealt with reduced law enforcement and the immigration problem. In this commentary, we take up foreign policy.
Foreign policy
The primary responsibility of the federal government – and the President of the United States – is to protect American citizens from all foreign threats. To do that, the United States must maintain its position as a world leader – with indisputably the strongest military in the world. It is the adage that a strong offense is the best defense.
Biden is not the first President to weaken America’s leadership in the world. Past presidents have all assured the American people – and more importantly, the rest of the world – that America has the most powerful military in the world.
Unfortunately, when there was a need to use it and prove it, America failed to live up to the bragging. It does not seem that the most powerful military in the world should have lost every war since the great victory of World War II. We settled with a draw in Korea – and clearly lost in Vietnam and Syria.
In 1991, we forced Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, but we failed to drive him out of power. That led to led to the second Iraq War, which succeeded in toppling Hussein — but then we lost the post war “peace” and America waged another war of attrition for another eight years at which time America basically surrendered.
But none of these foreign policy failures and partial failures impacted as much on the reputation and leadership of the United States as Biden’s unilateral surrender in Afghanistan. It shook the confidence in our allies and empowered the adventurism of our adversaries. It was a monumental human tragedy for the Afghan people
Biden’s decision created a greater danger for the American people – not only in America but for those who serve or live abroad. By strengthening the recruitment and deployment of American-hating terrorists, Biden has made attacks on Americans more likely – perhaps inevitable.
In a small way, we already saw one such attack when Malik Faisal Akram, a Muslim foreign national, who was on the British terrorist watch list, took four hostages at a synagogue in Texas to win the release of an imprisoned terrorist serving an 85-year sentence. The FBI managed to kill him without any harm to the hostages. His recorded message called upon Muslim brother to comet to America to commit acts of terror. There may well be some taking up his malignant invitation. It serves as notice that the Muslim terrorists are not forgetting about their Jihad against America.
Thanks to Biden’s surrender in Afghanistan, America lost an ally, access to natural assets, an on-the-ground intelligence network and a strategically important military base.
It was predicted at the time that Biden’s action would send a signal of American weakness to friends and foes alike. That is already happening. Virtually every adversary is talking tough – threatening — and taking actions against the best interests and national security of the United States.
North Korea is test launching missiles that can reach the United States. China is moving into Afghanistan – and threatening the United States against any action in the South China Sea. There is talk that Biden’s display of American weakness has Chinese President Xi Jinping looking more covetously at Taiwan.
The diminution of American leadership and power has our allies in NATO less willing to take up American interests. Biden’s call for allies to place sanctions on Russia if Putin invades Ukraine is getting a mixed response from such NATO nations as France and Germany. So far, Germany has not indicated a willingness to shut down the Russian pipeline as a punishment. There is even talk that some NATO countries may not sanction Russia if there was only a “minor incursion” – the kind Biden all but invited in his one-year anniversary speech.
Having lost one ally in his first year, Biden is about to lose another – Ukraine. No one really believes that there are enough sanctions to make Putin set aside his desire to take Ukraine into his new Soviet Union. Under Biden’s leadership, the United States will fail to exert effective leadership – and the world will become a much more dangerous place for Americans.
The loss of world leadership may not seem like an immediate threat to the lives and well-being of the average American citizen, but the suffering will be felt in economic strangulation as we will no longer are able to compete as effectively in the world market.
It will be felt with Russia, China, North Korea and Iran freely attacking the United States with cyber warfare, Internet meddling in elections and disruption campaigns on social media.
What happens overseas has a direct impact on the security and safety of every American citizen. Having lost world leadership, it may be more difficult to restore America’s strength and leadership in the eyes of the world than fix the crime and immigration fiascos. But Biden is not working on any of them.
Summary of the three-part series
Though America’s decline and vulnerability has been occurring over several presidential administrations, it has never suffered more serious damage in such a short time as it has under Biden’s spineless ineptitude. These three policy disasters – crime, immigration and foreign policy – stand out as the most dangerous among a number of other failures. His response to the Covid Pandemic has resulted in more deaths on Biden’s watch than on Trump’s – even though Biden has had the vaccine as the primary tool for his entire presidency. His policy to stimulate the economy at a time it was already over heating contributed to the worst inflation in 60 years.
In only one year, Biden has degraded American security and the people’s personal safety. There is an uneasiness in knowing that he will be in office for three more years – and even if he does not complete his term, the next in line may be an even more inept and dangerous person.
So, there ‘tis.