The Biden-Harris Admin's Fatal and Foolish Foreign Policy

The Biden-Harris Administration’s foreign policy has left America, and the world, in its most unstable state since the Cold War ended more than three decades ago.  This fact was on full display this week at the United Nations General Assembly meetings.  As conflicts rage from the Middle East to Ukraine – conflicts that began on his Administration’s watch – President Biden delivered his final speech to the U.N. General Assembly and made extraordinary claims about his Administration’s accomplishments in maintaining peace and freedom throughout the world.  America and the world should see these claims for what they are – lies – and we should understand together what will happen if this same foreign policy is embraced for another four years.

Biden began his defense by whitewashing his Administration’s utterly botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.  He said, “It was a hard decision but the right decision.”  This is a lie.  It was not the right decision to make a politically motivated decision to commit to pulling America’s military out by a date certain without requiring the Taliban to meet the conditions previously negotiated by the Trump Administration.  It was not the right decision to pull our military forces out before American civilians and our friends and partners operating in the country had been safely evacuated.  It was not the right decision to allow the security situation to deteriorate to the point where we could not keep our own soldiers safe – resulting in the deaths of 13 American soldiers. 

President Biden correctly noted that, “Hezbollah, unprovoked, joined the October 7th attack launching rockets into Israel,” but stated in the same breath that, “a diplomatic solution is still possible,” and that it “remains the only path to lasting security.”  Again, this is a lie.  The Trump Administration showed it to be a lie.  The path to lasting peace in the region does not require routine castigation of Israel and support for terrorists, be they in Gaza, the West Bank, Tehran, or Yemen.  Lasting peace in the Middle East can only be achieved by fully supporting Israel and working with friends and allies to deter the Iranian regime.  Biden and Harris have done the opposite, and war has engulfed much of the region as a result.  Absurdly, Biden called in his speech for nations of the world to “deny oxygen to terrorists,” while it was his Administration that made ransom payments to the regime and refused to enforce sanctions, allowing Iran to make hundreds of billions of dollars in oil exports.  In fact, Iran’s oil exports hit a 5-year high in the last year alone.  The regime was on life support when the Trump Administration left office – the Biden Administration saved the regime and paid the hospital bills.

Finally, there is Ukraine.  President Biden said that when Russia invaded Ukraine, he and Kamala Harris did not merely stand by and protest; they ensured that America stepped up and provided Ukraine with the tools it needed to defend itself.  Conveniently, President Biden omitted that it was actually the Trump Administration that provided the weapons that allowed Ukraine to defend itself when Russia invaded.  Biden essentially invited Putin to invade by claiming an invasion (or, a “slight incursion”) would not warrant a serious U.S. response.  Yes, the American and European response to assist Ukraine after the invasion has been massive – but for Biden to congratulate himself and Europe on a job well done entirely misses the point.  The very fact that this invasion happened means that both America and Europe failed to deter Putin.  This is the true legacy of this Administration’s foreign policy.

Joe Biden closed his remarks by quoting Nelson Mandela, saying, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”  Ironically, Biden and Harris have conducted their foreign policy as if certain outcomes seemed impossible, until they happened.  They were caught off guard by how quickly Afghanistan fell, putting our soldiers and civilians there in harm’s way.  They were caught off guard by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.  Mere days before the October 7th massacre, Biden’s National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, wrote that the Middle East was “quieter” than it had been in two decades. 

Biden and Harris’ foreign policy has been marked by this fatal and foolish hubris.  Biden and Harris seem incapable of understanding that the world as we know it today is not robust, but fragile.  The relative peace many Americans have known for their entire lives exists because the United States has led the way in establishing deterrence and keeping bad actors at bay.  When this commitment is perceived as slipping, as it was in Afghanistan, our adversaries strike.  Then, what once seemed impossible happens: War in Europe. War in the Middle East.  An increasingly strained situation in the Taiwan strait. Americans – and the world – cannot afford to find out what else will happen in the face of weakening American deterrence and resolve.