BIDEN’S CHINA NAÏVETÉ IS RUSSIA AND ISIS DÉJÀ VU

CHINA ISN’T OUR GEOPOLITICAL COMPETITOR? …

Unfortunately for America and its allies, the Obama / Biden administration’s geopolitical naiveté in underestimating Russian and ISIS threats resulted in five foreign policy disasters and led to at least half a million lives lost.

RUSSIA

In the Obama / Biden administration’s first term, their weak attempt to reset U.S. – Russia relations was a complete failure. Instead of improving relations, Russia became increasingly belligerent to U.S. interests around the world, threatened our NATO allies and destabilized the Middle East.

Another example of Obama / Biden geopolitical weakness was on display when, during the campaign for their second term, President Obama was caught on a hot mic telling Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have more flexibility after the election to deal with contentious issues such as missile defense.

And remember the televised presidential debate in October 2012 when Obama chided Republican candidate Mitt Romney for referring to Russia as “our number one geopolitical foe.” Obama sarcastically mocked Romney: “The 80’s are calling because they want their foreign policy back.”

So was the Obama / Biden administration correct in their underestimation of the Russian threat? Well, in a word, no … Russia: invaded Ukraine, intervened militarily in Syria to undermine U.S. interests and prop up President Al-Assad; sold the S-300 air defense missile system to Iran; violated the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty; committed cyberattacks against a U.S. political party and meddled in the 2016 presidential election … all on their watch.

ISIS

As The Atlantic wrote: “The Western political establishment underestimated ISIS. President Obama famously told The New Yorker’s David Remnick in early 2014 that ISIS was al-Qaeda’s “JV team.” He was wrong about that. Once ISIS captured Mosul, however, and then started beheading Western hostages, the freak-out commenced in earnest. By September 2014, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein was insisting that the ‘threat ISIS poses’ could not ‘be overstated.’ ” Over 500,000 people have been killed, including civilians, fighters on all sides, and others fleeing the conflict. Compare and contrast the failed Obama / Biden head-in-the-sand assessment of the terrorist threat with the Trump administration’s absolute annihilation of the ISIS caliphate within the first two years of their first term. There is no comparison.

CHINA

Now fast forward to the beginning of the 2020 election campaign, and it appears we’re experiencing geopolitical naiveté déjà vu all over again.

Joe Biden, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, is downplaying President Trump’s long-held assessment of China as a geopolitical and economic rival to the United States: “Come on, man,” Biden scoffed, “they’re not bad people” and “they’re not competition for us.”

They’re not bad people? Chinese citizens are not bad people, but the U.S. government doesn’t deal with them, it deals with their leadership. And, as Vision Times, a China watchdog organization, notes: “The history of the Communist Party of China is marked by the massive use of violence against the Chinese people as a means of total control.” The U.S. government stands for freedom and against tyranny.

They’re not competition for us? Soooo … You’re okay with China stealing U.S. business intellectual property? You’re okay with China benefiting economically from WTO membership while not abiding to the same rules applicable to every other member? You’re okay with the massive U.S. trade deficit with China because of their unfair import tariffs and trade barriers? You’re okay with the Chinese geopolitical influence tactics of their Belt & Road Initiative? You’re okay with China reneging on their promise to President Obama not to militarize the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea? You’re okay with China cyberwarfare attacks during the Obama / Biden administration against: the U.S Office of Personnel Management (OPM) records of 21.5 million people; 45 US tech companies and government agencies, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center; computer systems belonging to U.S. airlines and contractors involved with the movement of U.S. troops and military equipment? As FBI Director Christopher Wray has said: “The threats we face have never been more severe, or more pervasive, or more potentially damaging to our national security, and no country poses a broader, more severe long-term threat to our nation’s economy and cyber infrastructure than China. China’s goal, simply put, is to replace the U.S. as the world’s leading superpower, and they’re using illegal methods to get there.”

Even a geopolitical neophyte’s cursory examination of the world’s leading nuclear and economic country’s (EU, Russia, China) basic stats — population, labor force, GDP, balance of trade, defense spending, armed forces — would smartly conclude that China is a rising force to be reckoned with.

C’mon, Joe! You and President Obama were both wrong about Russia and ISIS, and now you’re wrong again about China.

The U.S. can’t afford more Democratic geopolitical naiveté … our economic and national security are at stake!