RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/28/biden-abroad-the-moral-and-material-collapse-of-u-s-foreign-policy/

The American post-Cold War order from the Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush administration is over.

Barack Obama began its erosion with his tired lectures about the past sins of the United States.

Obama empowered radical Islamists. He invited Russia back into the Middle East after a forty-year hiatus. He snored while Vladimir Putin swallowed large areas of Ukraine. He nonchalantly allowed ISIS almost to take over Iraq. And he authored the Libyan misadventure.

Joe Biden has greatly amplified what Obama inaugurated. He accentuates the Obama-authored foreign policy disasters by his own family corruption.

If the U.S. had an honest media, a disinterested Department of Justice, and a professional FBI, the Biden family would likely be facing felony bribery charges and an impeachment vote for leveraging the interests of the U.S. for a few millions of Ukrainian and Chinese cash.

Biden has forfeited any moral credibility America once had in sermonizing to the world about the advantages of transparent democracy.

Instead, Washington under Biden went full Third-world. His family got rich from his offices, and Joe Biden warped government agencies in efforts to take out his next possible presidential rival.

Antony Blinken, Biden’s current Secretary of State, is known mostly for meekly accepting a dressing down from Chinese diplomats in 2021 and subsequent ritual humiliations.

Blinken was also the author of the 2020 election shenanigan of soliciting former intelligence authorities to publish a preposterous lie that Hunter Biden’s laptop had all the “hallmarks” of “Russian disinformation.” Blinken’s inspired farce was dreamed up to aid a then struggling candidate Biden in his last presidential debate.

The net result of the Obama-Biden continuum has been the moral and material collapse of U.S. foreign policy.

Americans are bewildered that China is now buzzing our jets. It plays chicken with American warships.

It mocks our homeland defenses by sending a spy balloon with impunity across the continental United States.

It is defiantly mum about its creation of a gain-of-function virus under the auspices of the People’s Liberation Army, despite the ensuing Covid epidemic that killed over 1 million Americans.

The weird reaction of the Biden administration to these affronts is either to contextualize Beijing’s aggression or to ignore them entirely.

Under the earlier Obama-Biden “reset” of Russia, we also paid little attention to the past aggressions of Vladimir Putin, appeased his provocations, and earned the 2014 Russian take-over of the Ukrainian border and Crimea.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/still-appeasing-after-all-these-years/

Despite the Biden administration’s two years of cringing, futile negotiations with the Iranian theocrats, he’s back with yet another disastrous proposal–– an unwritten “understanding” regarding the mullahcracy’s efforts to build nuclear weapons. But the regime is close, perhaps mere months, to having enough enriched uranium at the purity needed to manufacture weapons. The current outreach, if successful, will lead to a much more dangerous Middle East, especially for our allies like Israel and Sunni Muslim states.

The “understanding” as reported does nothing to fix the deep flaws in our foreign policy toward Iran for the last 44 years, particularly the failings of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed in 2015 by the U.S. and six other world powers. The provisions of this new plan include pledges from Iran not to enrich uranium any closer to the 90% needed for nuclear weapons, along with the return of American hostages. As a down payment, Iran a few weeks ago received from Iraq $2.76 billion after Biden waived sanctions on the funds. But don’t worry, Iran will spend the windfall on “food and medicine,” an old bait-and-switch we saw Saddam Hussein pull on us after the first Gulf War.

In return for our feckless generosity, Iran will receive further sanctions relief and other payments totaling as much as $20 billion, with a promise of no new sanctions, even as Iran keeps possession of its 60% enriched uranium, enough for five bombs. Nor is it clear the mullahs will face inspections and censures from the International Atomic Energy Agency. By the way, there’s no word on an IAEA finding in February that Iran has already enriched uranium to 84%, a claim that Iran brushed off as an “inspector’s error.”

As the Wall Street Journal editorial said, ‘“Trust but verify’ is being turned on its head. There’s no trust and little verification. The new strategy is hope and pay.”

Moreover, these terms are even worse than the JCPOA that serially has failed to slow down Iran’s march to nuclear weapons, its international adventurism, or its support for terrorism. The “understanding” merely reprises the fatal assumption that signing multinational agreements and joining globalist institutions, absent a credible threat of force, can slow down or stop an aggressor. In particular we shouldn’t put our faith in Iran. After all, in 1970 Iran had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but after the ’79 revolution secretly began violating its terms. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the mullahs started violating the JCPOA before the ink on the agreement had dried.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-iran-deal-that-must-not-be-named/

The bad, no, terrible, deal — no, sorry, terrible “understanding” – that the Bidenites are about to conclude with Iran is now clear. It is so bad that the Bidenites don’t want it to be reviewed by the Senate, where even Democrats, such as the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Robert Menendez, and Richard Blumenthal, have expressed great reservations. The Bidenites think that by sleight of word, calling this agreement a mere “understanding” rather than an “agreement,” Joe Biden won’t have to submit it to the Senate for its approval. Robert Spencer wrote about this here, and more on this mini-deal, that gives Iran potentially tens of billions of dollars in exchange for the same kind of promises the Islamic Republic broke before, can be found here: “Biden admin. won’t acknowledge Iran deal explicitly to skirt Congress – analysis,” by Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post, June 18, 2023:

In the Harry Potter books, characters call the villain “He Who Must Not Be Named,” for fear that saying “Voldemort” will conjure up the evil villain.

The Biden administration won’t say “Iran Deal,” apparently because it fears Congress. It is negotiating “the deal that must not be named.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19751/biden-gifts-to-china

The gifts the Biden Administration has already given the Chinese Communist Party in just two years have been nothing short of exorbitant — and often to the detriment of the US.

The Biden Administration intends to spend more than half a trillion dollars on “clean energy and climate action over the next decade”, according to the US Department of Energy. That amount would reportedly include projects for climate change and investments in renewable energy, such as solar panels and wind turbines.

The problem is: these policies are all gifts to China.

In solar energy… China produces between 70% and 98% of the world’s silicon-based raw material and other components for solar panels — a solid world monopoly.

“Most solar panels are imported, with three-quarters of the imports originating from Chinese subsidiaries manufacturing in Southeast Asia…. the US… fell to just 0.5% in 2017.” — USA Facts, August 16, 2022.

Not enough is being invested in the manufacturing of solar panels in the US… The solar cells will mainly be coming from China.

The Biden Administration has placed a massive bet on electric vehicles. The goal is that 50% of new vehicles sold in the US should be electric by 2030. Electric vehicles need lithium-ion batteries. China has almost a global monopoly on producing them.

The average cost of raw materials, including lithium, nickel and cobalt, was more than $8,000 per electric vehicle in June 2022. That amount represented an increase of more than 140% since 2020, resulting in the cost of producing an electric vehicle being 125% more to that of an internal combustion vehicle. How many American consumers can afford such expensive cars? Furthermore, electric vehicles have a tendency to burst into flames. None of these problems seems to bother the Biden Administration.

There are several problems with wind turbines. One is that the US still relies on foreign imports to make them, including from — China. Another is that wind turbines endanger wildlife, such as birds and whales.

The Biden Administration has also set a goal to “achieve a carbon-pollution-free electricity sector by 2035.” All these measures clearly hobble the US and reduce its power to compete, while China, already the world’s largest user of fossil fuels, has announced that by 2030, its carbon dioxide emissions will peak… China last year built more new coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined — the equivalent of two new coal-fired plants per week.

The proposal [by the Environmental Protection Agency to limit how much carbon dioxide US coal- and gas-fired power plants may emit] means that US electric power plants would have to transform the way that they operate, either costing them billions in new equipment, or closing them down entirely.

All these Biden policies seem almost custom-tailored to reduce America’s ability to compete internationally, while giving China even more room to grow its economy and gain an even greater edge over the US.

[A]ccording to John Kerry, the Biden Administration’s “climate envoy,” whatever the US does unilaterally, without similar action by China and other major economies, is utterly pointless. Kerry admitted in January 2021 that even if the US were to have zero carbon emissions, “almost 90 percent of all of the planet’s global emissions come from outside of US borders. We could go to zero tomorrow and the problem isn’t solved.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19747/empowering-iran-deadly-regime

Since the Biden Administration assumed office, the Iranian regime has been steadily gaining more power, funds, and becoming more emboldened to export weapons, advance its nuclear program, deepen its presence in Latin America, and spread its radical Islamist ideology around the globe.

Iran has also become key exporter of weapons to Russia. Last week it was reported that the Biden Administration is also planning to release $17 billion in frozen assets to Iran, a country that the US Department of State has called the top state sponsor of terrorism. The mullahs will likely use this windfall to fund terror groups abroad, suppress opposition at home, enrich even more uranium, enlarge its military, export more weapons, and arm Russia even further against Ukraine.

Thanks to the Biden Administration’s policy of reviving the rancid nuclear deal enabling the mullahs to have as many nuclear weapons as they like — and bribing them with $17 billion, most likely not to use these weapons on the Biden Administration’s watch — the regime is at its peak.

Since the Biden Administration assumed office, the Iranian regime has been steadily gaining more power, funds, and becoming more emboldened to export weapons, advance its nuclear program, deepen its presence in Latin America, and spread its radical Islamist ideology around the globe.

When US President Joe Biden was elected, Senator Ted Cruz told Fox News Digital:

“Iran’s nuclear program was in a box, and their economy was in a downward spiral. Biden looked the other way as the Ayatollah steadily advanced to nuclear weapons, and the regime resumed exports of millions of barrels of oil a day.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/mr_secretary_what_are_you_telling_cuba.html

China moving in on Cuba, Antony Blinken about to burst into tears.

Our Secretary of State just got back from China and said this:   

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States would have deep concerns about Chinese military activities in Cuba, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Beijing was planning a new training facility there.

Speaking at a press conference in London after wrapping up a trip this week to Beijing, Blinken said he made clear to his Chinese counterparts “that we would have deep concerns about PRC intelligence or military activities in Cuba”.    

Blinken added: “This is something we’re going to be monitoring very, very closely and we’ve been very clear about that. And we will protect our homeland, we will protect our interests.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing current and former U.S. officials, reported on Tuesday that China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a joint military training facility on the island that could lead to the stationing of Chinese troops just 100 miles off Florida’s coast.

Well, I’m sure that the Chinese are really concerned, too. Don’t expect that ship from China to turn around anytime soon, unless we are prepared to go to “blockade” mode and shut down the island.  

The Chinese are just taking advantage of our weakness.  The key player is Cuba, and that’s where the behind the scenes talk need to be directed.

https://nypost.com/2023/06/19/blinken-ruffles-feathers-by-stating-us-does-not-support-taiwan-independence-after-meeting-chinas-xi/

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Antony Blinken raised eyebrows Monday, telling reporters the US “does not support Taiwan independence” after meeting in Beijing with officials including Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Blinken’s statement ruffled the feathers of many Republicans in Congress, who viewed the statement – and the secretary’s inability to re-establish military-to-military communications – as an inappropriate kowtow to America’s greatest adversary.

“Blinken flew to Communist China to appease Xi Jinping and state the Biden administration does not support Taiwan’s independence,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said on Twitter. “Why won’t this administration stand up to bullies and stand for freedom?”

The Taiwan issue is among the most contentious in the US-China relationship, with Xi making it his No. 1 priority to “reunite” Taiwan with China — though the island about 100 miles off the country’s southeastern coast has never actually been part of it.

Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) tweeted that Blinken’s statement was a “dangerous display of weakness towards our adversaries on the world stage.”

“The Biden admin is giving China a green light to increase its intimidation of our ally, Taiwan,” he said.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/secretary-of-state-blinkens-peculiar-visit-to-china/

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to China this past weekend for meetings with senior Chinese officials, months after canceling his trip there in the wake of the Chinese spy balloon encroachment of U.S. airspace. He met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang for hours, followed by a meeting with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi. It was uncertain whether China’s President Xi Jinping would agree to give an audience to Secretary Blinken until, with about 45 minutes notice, Xi and Blinken ended up meeting for about a half hour.

Secretary Blinken conveyed the same message in person to China’s leadership that the Biden administration has been uttering for months. Keep the channels of communication open “to ensure competition does not veer into conflict,” Blinken told Wang Yi.

China’s message during Secretary Blinken’s visit was also the same as its leaders have uttered many times before. According to China’s view of why tensions between China and the United States have risen so sharply, the U.S. has failed to show due respect for China’s vital national interests, particularly regarding China’s territorial claim to Taiwan. “State-to-state interactions should always be based on mutual respect and sincerity,” President Xi remarked.

A few days before Secretary Blinken’s visit, China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang spoke more bluntly during his phone call with Secretary Blinken. He demanded that the United States “show respect” for China’s core concerns and “stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests in the name of competition.” That is a bit rich coming from the country which sent a spy balloon over U.S. sovereign airspace earlier this year to surveil sensitive U.S. military sites, and which set up a secret Chinese police station on U.S. soil.

There was not a single reported acknowledgement of responsibility by China’s leaders, much less an apology, for China’s invasions of U.S. sovereignty and security. Then again, they see no reason to do so with President Biden in the White House. President Biden showed how weak and out of touch with reality he is when he said, shortly before Secretary Blinken’s arrival in China, that the spy balloon incursion was more “embarrassing” for China’s leadership “than it was intentional.”

Secretary Blinken’s face-to-face meetings with China’s leaders were not only a waste of time. As Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York warned, Secretary Blinken’s trip would only serve to “legitimize” the Chinese Communist Party’s “continued subversion of our sovereignty.”

The Biden administration would rather patch things up with China as an end in itself than confront the Chinese regime’s increasingly provocative actions. Recently, for example, one of China’s warships came within 150 yards of an American destroyer conducting a freedom-of-navigation exercise with Canada in international waters. And one of China’s jet fighters flew directly in front of an American surveillance plane flying in international airspace. The Biden administration’s response was a feckless call to “keep the lines open with the Chinese to make it clear how unacceptable those particular intercepts are.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/god-save-the-queen-and-bidens-foreign-policy-blinken-china-iran-deal-ukraine-79c598c0?mod=opinion_lead_pos7

‘God save the queen, man!” said Joe Biden, in an unexpected windup to remarks in Connecticut about gun control last week. Like many of his utterances, the strange outburst prompted widespread confusion. What could this latest eructation from the presidential brain mean?

He knows that Elizabeth II, for 70 years the usual subject of the prayer, is already beyond the good Lord’s earthly protection, surely? He was at the funeral, and apparently awake throughout. Perhaps with all those tasteful Pride Month displays around the White House last week, his loyalty has been captured by a queen of the drag variety. Or maybe it was just an indication that he’s decided the nation needs to amp up the deference it’s been showing the first lady, and a more regal honorific than “Dr. Jill” will now be expected.

But to me the remark made a curious sort of sense, inadvertently reflecting the confused, uncertain and slightly out-of-touch approach to the rest of the world that characterizes the administration’s foreign policy.

What else could explain the news last week that the Biden team is putting together a deal that isn’t a deal with the ayatollahs in Iran?

The plan, according to multiple reports, is for Iran to agree not to enrich its uranium too close to the 90% level needed for weaponization and to release some American hostages, in exchange for sanctions relief and other assistance.

Aside from the naiveté you need to think that Tehran will abide by an agreement that doesn’t even require a signature, the tentative deal betrays trademark confusion and inconsistency in Biden administration policy.