Joe Biden Is Our Worst Nightmare
DINESH D’SOUZA—
Joe Biden just gave a talk, perhaps his most detailed and, one might have to say coherent, presentation of how his foreign policy is likely to go over the next four years. This was at the Munich virtual security conference, and I read the talk carefully because Biden focuses on the issue of democracy. Biden basically says that the United States is going to stand for democratic values around the world and stand against the autocracies that are anti-democratic.
Now, right away, the question becomes, are you really going to stand against the largest autocracy in the world, the one that governs over a billion people? That is far more tyrannical than any other we can think of in the world today, namely China? And to this, Biden gives a few “eh hems”… “Well, I’ve gotten a lot of money from those guys over the last several years, guys. Don’t expect me to be too hard on them.” So right away, the sincerity of this project is somewhat called into question. Biden has made very favorable noises toward China, which raised the question of whether even this rhetoric of democracy is going to be honestly applied.
Now, I think Biden intends to apply it in all kinds of places, but the places he wants to apply it to, he’s not likely to be successful, for the simple reason that the United States has very little of any leverage in those places. For example, there was recently a coup in Myanmar, an attempt to overthrow the government, anti-democratic actions and movements in that country. But let’s think about it, what is the United States’ security interest in Myanmar? Zero.
What is our trade leverage over Myanmar? Pretty much zero.
So, what is the point of Biden jumping up and down on his podium and going, “There needs to be democracy in Myanmar! There must be democracy in Myanmar!” Well, the people in Myanmar don’t care. Why? Because what is Biden have to do with them? Biden’s not going to invade Myanmar, even if some neoconservatives’ eyes are lighting up, “Oh, another war! What a great idea!”
When you don’t have leverage over a country, your rhetoric doesn’t really matter. Now, the Biden administration is playing footsie with a very autocratic regime right now, and that’s Iran. And very interestingly, there have been some news reports in the last couple of weeks that key people who are now in the Biden administration, including John Kerry, have maintained an ongoing relationship with Iran. Kerry, for example, has had repeated contacts and meetings with the Iranian foreign minister, this guy named Javad Zarif.
Now, why? Very interestingly, this is motivated not even directly with anything to do with Iran. It’s motivated by the idea of let’s work with our enemies, Iran, to undermine Trump. And what that means is that from John Kerry’s point of view, and the point of view of some of these Biden people, there is a near enemy, Trump, and there’s a far enemy, Iran. But the far enemy is far away and a distant threat, so let’s not worry about it right now. In fact, let’s work with the far enemy to politically undermine the near enemy at home. This is a real departure in American foreign policy.
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