Since Joe Biden was inaugurated in January 2021, there has been a constant barrage of bad news from both within and beyond the US.
The recent addition to that ignominious list of bad news is North Korea and Iran.
Early this week, North Korea test-launched an unparalleled number of
ballistic missiles and purportedly has plans to resume nuclear testing after a
five-year hiatus.
In early 2021, Biden attempted a new outreach to North Korea which went largely ignored. Finally, North Korea rejected Biden's friendly overtures saying "no dialogue would be possible until the United States rolled back its hostile policy toward North Korea and both parties were able to exchange words on an equal basis."
The Biden administration even proposed humanitarian assistance in
response to the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea, which once again fell on deaf ears.
These rejections made Kim Jong-un appear like the one in
charge while Biden appeared like the weaker individual failing in his attempt at
appeasement.
The Biden Administration downplayed the missile testing by North Korea claiming that they "have seen periods of provocation; we've seen periods of engagement.“
During his tenure, President Trump had met with North Korean
Chairman Kim Jong-un on two occasions. Trump had adopted a clever mix of
carrot(in the form of building a personal rapport and promises to help North
Korea to prosper if they chose the right path) and stick (in the form of
sanctions and tough talk) which seemed to work. After Trump’s summit, the testing
of ballistic missiles had come to a halt and it looked like there was a chance
that progress was going to occur.
Biden has blown it all to smithereens.
We now look at Iran
President Trump withdrew from the Iran
nuclear deal and imposed tough sanctions on Iran which retarded Iran's nuclear
program. Trump also expressed support to the oppressed people of Iran who were
protesting against the regime. Trump ordered the killing of Iran Revolutionary
Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, which sent a message to aspiring trouble
makers within Iran. Trump designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as a foreign
terrorist organization, marking the first time the U.S. has blacklisted part of
another nation’s military in this way.
Those days are over. Recently the International Atomic Energy
Agency warned of Iran's stockpiling of enriched Uranium. To make matters worse Tehran
removed UN 27 cameras monitoring its nuclear sites.
Back in 2021, Biden had loosened the enforcement of some
sanctions to create a climate conducive to negotiations.
Then in April 2021, Iran and the U.S. begin ‘indirect’
negotiations in Vienna over how to restore the nuclear deal, Russia was and
continues to be involved in these talks. Biden should have insisted on having negotiations without interlocutors, especially one such as Russia, that they claim is a hostile force.
Days later, Iran began enriching uranium up to 60% – its
highest purity ever and a technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. It was at this junture that Biden should have withdrawn from the talk, but he did not.
Months later during the talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov linked restoring Iran’s nuclear deal to American sanctions targeting
Moscow over its war on Ukraine, further complicating negotiations. Once again Biden should have withdrawn, but he didnt.
By March 2022, the talks in Vienna paused without an agreement
due to Russia’s demand for guarantees that its ties with Tehran be exempt from
Western sanctions over Ukraine.
Iran is now said to be mere weeks away from enriching enough
uranium to potentially manufacture a nuclear explosive device. The removal of surveillance cameras seems ample proof that this may be true.
This is another mess that Biden has presided over.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Biden's disgracefully hasty and unplanned withdrawal from Afghanistan left that country volatile. It undid all the stability and progress in that historically troubled nation. It took just a few days for the Taliban to take over. There was also a terror attack that left 170 people dead. Biden also left behind billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry. According to an Israeli think tank, the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, ISIS killed and injured more people in Afghanistan last year than it did anywhere else.
Overall Biden has made the US appear an unreliable, and
uncaring ally.
Biden’s recklessness has not only left Afghanistan volatile
but was obviously going to embolden others to demonstrate aggression.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan occurred on 30 August 2021, just eight months later Putin began a military intervention in Ukraine. China is making aggressive overtures toward Taiwan.
To sum it up Iran, North Korea and Russia are either overtly
or covertly presenting a nuclear threat to the US.
Why is this happening?
While the US may be a superpower, power, however, superlative it may be, is worthless if it isn’t judiciously applied.
Biden’s rapidly declining cognitive abilities are apparent to the entire world. He forgets the names of his colleagues. When he read off a teleprompter it often looks as if he is discovering the words for the very first time. He ambles aimlessly on the White House lawn like a man lost. He often makes reckless remarks which the White House is compelled to walk back.
The regime in Iran and China, and the likes of Kim Jong and Putin minutely scrutinize their adversary prior to acting hostile. When they see Biden they see senility, incompetence, and weakness.
Contrast this with President Trump, who without engaging in
any ground conflict, kept maintained peace merely by a projection of strength.
There are some who criticized Trump for being impulsive and rough around the edges,
but it was this unpredictability that worked to restrain various aspiring
troublemakers. The fact that he eliminated both Solemani and the leader of
ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, or launched surgical strikes on a chemical plant in
Syria was a demonstration that he wasn’t merely a man or word.
The actions from Pyongyang and Tehran, sadly, may just be the beginning. It is likely that other hostile nations may be emboldened to also display hostility, at times the display may not just be symbolic.
Also appears on American Thinker
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