Critics: Biden has been wrong on foreign policy since Vietnam

FPI / October 17, 2023

Joe Biden appears more frail and weak by the day, including his team's handling of foreign policy, critics say. His record on international affairs has been consistently bad dating back to the Vietnam War, they add.

From the complete U.S. surrender in Afghanistan to Team Biden's $6 billion hostage deal with Iran that preceded the Hamas massacre of more than 1,500 Israelis, the administration's foreign policy strategies are coming under scrutiny.

"Through weakness you get war. The Biden Administration is the weakest and most incompetent in the history of the U.S., except when using corrupt law enforcement to attack your Political Opponent — But actually, that’s weakness also!" said former President Donald Trump, who added that "the Carter Administration looks absolutely brilliant by comparison."

During the 2020 campaign, Biden had vowed to restore competency and credibility that he claimed had been lacking in four years of Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip diplomacy.

"Biden pledged to return stability to the world stage," Jeff Mordock noted in an Oct. 16 analysis for The Washington Times. "But the bungled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 shattered public confidence, and his approval ratings never recovered."

Biden's foreign policy approval rating is at a net negative 16 percentage points, according to a Real Clear Politics average of recent polls, with 56% disapproving and 40% approving.

"A profusion of overseas crises has raised doubts about Biden’s ability to manage international emergencies," Mordock added.

Nile Gardiner, a foreign affairs analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the U.S. "is in a far weaker position today than it was under previous administrations. Biden has projected weakness. You see it in the Middle East, where Iran has gained a lot of ground. You see it in Asia with growing Chinese aggression. The Biden administration is flailing on the world stage.”

Hamas launched its surprise attack on Israel as the war in Ukraine, in which the Biden team has pumped over $100 billion of U.S. taxpayer money into, continued with no resolution in sight.

"China is continuing its saber-rattling on Taiwan and making inroads in North Africa. Iran has become stronger, and North Korea is testing a missile capable of reaching the U.S.," Mordock noted.

Referring to China in his address to the United Nations last month, Biden said his administration seeks “to responsibly manage the competition between our countries so it does not tip into conflict.”

On Ukraine, he said Russia alone bears responsibility for the war, and he urged allies to keep providing aid to Kyiv.

“We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow,” Biden said.

Many analysts believe that Russian leader Vladimir Putin moved ahead with his invasion of Ukraine after witnessing the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Gregg Roman, a political adviser to Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said using a Cold War policy is an inadequate response to today’s threats: “The U.S. has to have a foreign policy check on itself. No more de-escalation and no more containment. The attack in Israel is a moment for Joe Biden to step up and shut Hamas down. I hope he takes it, or history will not forgive him.”

Biden spent five years as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was point man as vice president on several foreign policy issues for eight years under President Barack Obama.

"Yet history has repeatedly found Biden on the wrong side of major foreign policy decisions," Mordock pointed out:

• In 1975, Biden opposed aid for the South Vietnamese government, ensuring the North Vietnamese victory and causing a mass exodus of refugees.

• In 1991, he opposed the Persian Gulf War, one of the most successful U.S. military campaigns in history. He later said he regretted his vote and criticized President George H.W. Bush for not going further to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.

• In 2007, he called President George W. Bush’s counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq a “tragic mistake,” but the move was widely credited with reducing violence and civil casualties.

• In 2010, Vice President Biden opposed arresting Russian sleeper agents discovered in the U.S., fearing it would start a tiff with Moscow. Obama overruled him.

• In 2011, he urged Obama to scale down U.S. troops in Iraq, which he declared “stable and self-reliant.” The move escalated violence and created an opening for the rise of the terrorist group ISIS.

• In 2011, he advised Obama to abandon a plan to kill Osama bin Laden, one of the administration’s most significant foreign policy victories. Although Biden told lawmakers in 2012 that he said “Don’t go,” he completely changed his account by 2015 and insisted he told Obama to “go.”

The foreign affairs blunders inspired Obama Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to say Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”

The criticism does not seem to shake the Biden team as it has enough allies in Big Tech and legacy media to lean on for support.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby dutifully told reporters earlier this year that Biden’s “fine feel and touch, particularly on issues of foreign policy and national security, is very, very distinct. And he asks great questions.” He said Biden “is absolutely confident that he can continue and will continue to do what he has to do to defend our national security interests and advance our foreign policy overseas.”

Of course, as Trump points out, you don't have to "ask great questions" if you're already getting the answers fed to you:

"The show '60 Minutes' should be ashamed of themselves. They just interviewed Crooked Joe Biden, and led him along like a lost child. Each question contained the answer, and was so weakly and apologetically asked that it was a JOKE which should be considered a campaign contribution to the Democrat Party. Why should CBS get free public airwaves for this highly partisan 'show,' which never apologized to me for the mistakes they made on the 'Laptop from Hell?' They are protecting Biden even though he is the most corrupt and incompetent President in the history of the United States."

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