President Biden and the Iranian-Chinese-Russian axis of evil
Blind pursuit of utopian goals comes at a high price
The most maddening aspect of Biden Administration’s inept conduct of geo-strategic moves on the world stage is its steadfast refusal to see the most-evil regimes for what they are. China aims at world dominance, Russia seeks to restore its past glory and Iran wages war against Israel and America. But these serious challenges to the world order are seen from only the most narrow perspective, resulting in hapless, ineffective and useless responses.
Let’s focus on Iran, which has mounted at latest count 66 attacks on American forces in Syria and Iraq since the Hamas criminal invasion of Israel. The United States has responded with merely half a dozen bombings of weapons storage areas, but not of actual armed personnel. This piddling tactic is intended to prevent a full-scale Middle East war, the object of the wide American commitment of two aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, destroyers in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. But the whole process is static, meaning the intended “deterrence” is not working as the Iranian regime continues to enable its various proxy forces to continue harassing our forces.
As strongly and as visibly that the U.S. backed Israel, it was apparent from the beginning that bad statesmanship preceded it and continues to plague the prospects of a successful outcome. Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan signaled to the world’s tyrants as well as to our allies and friends that we were not serious about keeping our commitment to restrain Islamo-fascism in Afghanistan, having grown weary of 20 years of fighting. Thereupon, Russia’s Vladimir Putin saw an opportunity to seize Ukraine by force, which has been thwarted to some extent by Biden’s belated response, but more by a combination of Ukrainian determination and courage and Russia’s lack of a credible fighting force.
While the threat to Taiwan from Communist China has been real, it has become intensified while the Middle East festers, as they have put direct pressure on the island and challenged the Philippines in the South China Sea. President Xi does not want war, but he knows that as long as America and the West are involved elsewhere, he can accomplish much short of complete takeover.
Most recently, yet another Iran-sponsored terrorist group has actually seized an English merchant ship in the Red Sea. Known as the Houthis, they have fired missiles at Irael, but they were largely intercepted. On the same day, though, Iran announced that it was providing rockets (gleaming on screen!) to Russia for its war against Ukraine.
The menacing alliance against the free world is a curious blend of modern atheism, medieval pining and religious fanaticism. Whatever their differences, it displays a common hatred of human freedom and dignity, which of course they share with the now oft-expressed hatred by Palestinians, their supporters and the ill-informed who confuse enlightenment with rejecting the heritage of Western civilization.
But the tangible factors are just as important. None of the three tyrannies are anywhere near as prosperous as the United States, yet they manage to generate enough income, particularly Russia and Iran in the sale of oil, to obtain weapons or provide them to others. Not only did President Biden negotiate a disastrous hostage deal with Iran that freed six Americans but supplied $6 billion dollars ostensibly dedicated to non-military purposes but which freed that regime to funnel funds for military purposes.
If that wasn’t enough, Biden actually lifted the sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil, estimated at $10 billion, which enables the mullahs to continue their mischief. Indeed, Biden officials have been taking credit for the current decline in gasoline prices which, if tied to the easing of sanctions, is surely a high price to pay for domestic political gain. All I can learn from the internet is that world oil prices have fallen, but not the explanation.
The conduct of foreign policy in the absence of a clear grasp of the geopolitical realities comes at a very high price. President Barack Obama commenced what President Biden has continued, which is the appeasement of the world’s dictators. The result is a combination of world events spinning out of control and domestic politics that threatens to eviscerate any serious prospect of policy correction.
The next year holds out the prospect of a national disaster or renewal, depending upon whether the American people see matters clearly. I am encouraged that, despite the massive demonstrations and violence in support of Hamas, the vast majority of our fellow citizens are not fooled. Democrats are stuck with a cognitively impaired leader and Republicans are being treated as the equivalent of domestic terrorists. May the hand of Providence guide us through this crisis as it has in our historic past.