Biden's Mistaken View of the World

How a President views the world, to include our allies and our adversaries, is one of the most critical responsibilities in any presidential administration. It directly impacts national security and the general well-being of the American people. It impacts domestic policy and foreign relations. Over two years into his presidency, Joe Biden’s view is frightenedly off the mark. Seemingly unaware, President Biden assumes much that simply is not true as to the threat of our enemies and the opinions of our friends.

President Biden thinks our allies respect him and he touts his relationships with foreign leaders. In reality, our partners around the world respect the United States and value the benefits that come from a healthy relationship with the world’s superpower that still possesses the largest economy in the world. Biden just happens to be the President of that country. Biden’s missteps, verbal gaffes, and vacillation give our allies serious pause. They are not reassured by the actions of this President.

This fact is illustrated in a number of ways. Biden has had significant difficulty, for example, in getting our international partners to join with the U.S. in supporting Ukraine.  While 51 nations meet monthly to discuss supporting the Ukrainian war effort, their actual assistance to Ukraine is a pittance. The U.S. still provides the largest amounts of weapons, ammunition, and supplies by a huge margin. We are actually depleting our own arsenal by our support of Ukraine, while many of Ukraine’s European neighbors are hesitant to deplete theirs. Some countries provide nothing. Even our ally Germany has not followed through on many of its promises to support Ukraine’s defense. Turkey, our NATO ally, still tries its balancing act that supports Ukraine with words but still maintains a strategic relationship with Russia.

The President of Mexico, Biden’s supposed friend to the south, is harshly critical of his neighbor to the north and denies that fentanyl is either being made in Mexico or sent across the border by cartels—even as we give his country hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid and as over 100,000 Americans die each year from fentanyl poisoning. President Lopez Obrador resents U.S. leaders even talking about securing the border between Mexico and the U.S.  He abandoned his predecessor’s actions to secure Mexico’s southern border in order to help the U.S. to curb illegal immigration.  Obrador actually blamed the migrant crisis on Joe Biden. He condemns any attempt by the United States to target the drug cartels financially or through the use of force. At the American Leaders’ Conference, he criticized President Biden on his “forgetfulness” to keep promises to Mexico and Latin America.

Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, something economically important and popular politically in Canada. He issued an Executive order preventing Canadian suppliers from bidding on U.S. government contracts. This drew a cool reception from Canada’s Prime Minister Trudeau and severe criticism from Canadian leaders. He also placed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from key allies—citing national security concerns even though the materials come from our friends. 

President Biden continues to alienate our important allies in the Middle East. His criticism of Saudi Arabia—despite his fist bump with the Crown Prince and celebration of his friendship with that leader—has pushed the oil-rich kingdom into the arms of China and Russia, instigated Saudi Arabia’s renewed relationship with Iran, and caused alarm and consternation among our key Arab allies. He placed new tariffs on the United Arab Emirates and delayed shipments of defensive weapons to Arab Gulf States. Biden’s embracing the Palestinians and violating U.S. law by giving them U.S. dollars, even though they continue to financially reward terrorists, distanced us from Israel and put new relationships between Israel and its Arab neighbors in the balance.

These are but a few examples of Biden’s shallow and tenuous relationship with U.S. allies.

President Biden’s actions toward our adversaries are even more troubling than his relationships with our friends.

• President Biden and his team, in the lead-up to the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, deemed the Taliban to be “business-like and professional” and who would seek to normalize their relationship with the civilized world.  Thinking he could trust the Taliban led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths and abandoning U.S. weapons and equipment, making the Taliban the best-armed terrorist group in the world. Biden deemed the withdrawal an “extraordinary success” yet 13 American service members died.

• The Biden Administration spent nearly two years courting Iran and was convinced that Iran was a true negotiating partner and would abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Some sanctions were lifted and promises were made to lift more.  Today Iran is weeks, if not days, away from producing a nuclear weapon, still exports terrorism, and is a threat to its neighbors in the region.

• Biden did not want to provoke Russia and was, thus, extremely late in helping Ukraine defend itself. Even before Russia invaded its neighbor, Biden was convinced that if he did not confront Vladimir Putin and preemptively support Ukraine with weapons, that Russia would not invade Ukraine. He completely misread the geo-political situation and the Ukrainians’ resolve to remain free and independent. Russia is more aggressive than ever now and did not hesitate to down a U.S. unmanned aircraft in international airspace. Russia was convinced that the Biden Administration would not really react—and the Russians were right.

• After years of not rattling its sabers, North Korea has begun firing missiles again and has resumed nuclear weapons testing. Even though they are a threat to our Indo-Pacific allies, North Korea correctly assumes they can violate U.N. sanctions and issue threats to its neighbors and the world—without consequence.

• With complete impunity and complete non-reaction from the U.S., China flew a balloon with electronic devices for spying on U.S. military bases through U.S. territorial waters and across the continental United States. When Biden finally gave the order to shoot it down (after it left the U.S. mainland), China was indignant. China continues to steal intellectual property, aggressively violate Taiwan’s airspace and territorial waters, and import cheap products made by slave labor into the United States without anything more than the expression of verbal concerns from the Biden team. China uses U.S. universities for espionage and spying—with thousands of Chinese students connected to the Chinese Communist Party allowed annually into the U.S. Also, China openly declares its intent to replace America as the only superpower and now has the largest navy and standing army in the world. Meanwhile, the U.S. military faces budget cuts:  The 3.2% increase in military spending proposed by the Biden Administration is undercut by inflation due to Biden’s economic policies.

President Biden often shouts angrily in his speeches and tries to project himself as a tough guy. The anger is often misplaced, and he is not so tough when it comes to protecting vital U.S. national security interests. It appears that to Biden, his political adversaries at home are more of a threat to American democracy than our country’s foreign enemies, who delight in seeing the U.S. falter. Our enemies are often given a pass.

Peace comes through strength and a willingness to act—not mere words. Weakness invites aggression. Whether intentionally or not, President Biden discourages our allies and emboldens our adversaries. It is not always easy being a friend to the United States under the current Administration. And our enemies are convinced that, for the time being, they have the winning hand.

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