Bad Biden Foreign Policy
Bad Biden Foreign Policy
I have posted on this previously, but not for a while.
The main meme is that for reasons I mostly do not get, Biden has been carrying over a lot of bad Trump foreign policies. Some of them I understand for political reasons, even when they damage the US and world economies. But others seem to be just plain stupid. I am not sure who in his admin are behind these failures: SecState Blinken? NSA Sullivan? Of course in the end this stuff comes down to Biden himself, someone with much greater foreign policy experience than those two or anybody else in the admin. So failures really come down to him.
The worst, although it gets little news attention, is Iran.
Biden ran on getting back into the Obama-negotiated nuclear JCPOA deal. He should have done so quickly. Yes, there were timing details to negotiate, but apparently, those were negotiated. Somehow somebody decided they should push for crap that Trump wanted but which was dumped when the deal was originally negotiated with great effort, stuff like missile restrictions and Iran support for groups abroad. Anybody who knew anything about this, like me, knew this stuff was still non-negotiable. So why on earth Blinken et al insisted on Iran caving on any of this was utterly insane and stupid. They could have gotten this deal early, and it would not have triggered anywhere near the response the pullout from Afghanistan got (which I supported), but there was no way that was going to happen without a lot of bad publicity and damage in the polls, which has happened. He could have done this cleanly early with minimal fuss. But, no, and now it looks not to be done anywhere in the foreseeable future, and Iran has now accumulated nearly enough U fuel to make a bomb. And I read the admin is now looking to Israel for advice on this? This is a serious and massive failure on Biden’s part. I do not agree with Hannity that he is outright senile, but this borderline there, really seriously awful and stupid.
Another is the trade issue.
Yeah, this is complicated, and I get that Biden is being domestically political. So Obama and Biden negotiated the anti-China TTP, but Trump pulled out, and Hillary would have also, under domestic pressure. Now China is asking to join this actually existing trade group, with the US unbelievably stupidly out. So indeed many in the Dem Party are protectionist, especially those associated with AFL-CIO. And Biden is very close to this faction. But steel tariffs hurt autoworkers in Ohio, with the shutdown at Lordstown partly due to Trump’s steel tariffs. But the idiot workers there still supported Trump for standing up for them or whatever. So in OH, it is steel producing Youngstown and Cleveland versus auto-producing Lordstown, Akron, and Toledo, but no way any of them will not support protectionism and Trump. So why does Biden support this idiocy? I think in the end it is Pennsylvania, his home state, which is the ultimate steel-producing state, with no autos. So, in political terms understandable given what a key state his original home is.
There is much more, unfortunately.
Barkley Rosser
Barkley, I am sure you are right about the bottom line foreign policy decisions being less than ideal, but you acknowledge that there are domestic political influences and I dare say foreign political influences as well—recall the French getting their panties in a bunch over the submarine deal. Given the hand his predecessor left him I really do not think the Biden Blinken team is doing that badly but then I am not privy to the behind the scenes moves and counter moves taking place and probably never will. All I know is that for the first time in a long time we are not involved in a hot war, our economy is looking reasonably good and we have an administration that does not claim the existential threat of climate change is a hoax. And based on the FBI raid of Putin’s buddy today, we are apparently not having foreign policy dictated by the Kremlin any more. For me the real question is: Do you think the foreign policy decisions would be better if the former guy was in charge?
Barkley:
Who is the second in command for foreign policy and can they carry it alone for the time being. The reason I ask is Biden’s priorities have been domestic economics or the $3.5 trillion program which looks like it will be cut.
And getting Manchin and Sinema under control.