WhatsappThe two foreign policy disasters – yes, disasters, that the Biden administration will probably be remembered for are the Afghanistan fiasco and the Chinese balloon dithering. The Afghanistan failure broadcast to the entire world that Joe Biden will do anything to not engage. It also broadcast to many people around the world that Biden is probably not really running the show either. But the Chinese balloon embarrassment showed what everybody already knew, namely, that Joe Biden is not able to react in a timely manner to national security threats.
Before the Afghanistan run away, Afghanistan was known as a hot spot and an area that America was working on getting out of. Donald Trump was also looking for a less disgraceful exit strategy from Afghanistan. But China was viewed as a short-term economic power that would threaten the Western world’s economic interests.
Only Taiwan and the area of the South Chinese Sea seemed to be in danger of a Chinese attack. Taiwan is not a minor issue. A conflagration there could turn into the match that brings the entire free world to unite against China and Russia. That is a scary thought that could truly turn escalate into a World War.
It would not be the first time that weak leadership emboldened tyrants. World War II would have been a fraction as deadly as it was had Neville Chamberlain, England’s Prime Minister, not been a pacifist who believed that written agreements with Adolf Hitler had value. Appeasement breeds aggression among tyrants.
The China threat is proportional to the level of cooperation between China and Russia. Each country distrusts their mega-neighbor in Asia. But Putin and Xinping understand well that they cannot withstand world pressure without the cooperation of their neighbor. So they are cooperating with each other.
Russia cannot handle world sanctions unless China keeps buying it’s gas and oil. China cannot risk attacking Taiwan if it’s northern border with Russia requires resources too. The problem today is that the USA and the West are not implementing a powerful triangulation strategy that would isolate China or Russia from each other and the entire Western world if they become too aggressive.
Only a leader who will scare Putin or Xinping should be elected into the White House. Their first appointment should be a new leader of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who would never allow a foreign object into America’s air space to spy on American military installations.
