Biden’s Oval Office speech wrong on history and facts

Like other Americans, I watched President Biden’s Thursday evening speech and came away scratching my head in wonderment.  Evidently, he has a new speechwriter who has no grasp on history and doesn’t like sobering albeit contrary facts.

On the surface, I agree with much of what Mr. Biden said in his speech.  He rightly labeled Hamas’s attack on Israeli civilians as “horrific” and “evil.”  He promised an unprecedented commitment to Israel’s “security” as well.  That’s all proper.

On Ukraine, now 20 months into Putin’s war of choice, Biden labeled that fight as a brutal tragedy, which is marked by reports of mass graves, torture, rape, and thousands of Ukrainian children abducted into Russia.

Mr. Biden is correct regarding the broader picture of instability on global security demonstrated by these wars.  However, conveniently, Mr. Biden’s speechwriter forgot that these outcomes are partially his administration’s fault.  However, I heard no accepting of responsibility for any of this mess in the Oval Office speech.

Biden’s failed 2021 withdraw from Afghanistan contributed to Putin’s assessment that the United States would not do what was necessary to stop a Russian assault into Ukraine.  It wasn’t until after the Russian attack into Ukraine that Biden got serious about helping Kyiv.

Mr. Biden’s weak foreign policy also contributed to the Mideast mess.  Indirectly, he drained our insurance policy against Mideast tension — our strategic oil reserves to the current 17 days — by selling communist China our “excess.”  And Mr. Biden’s bankrupt energy policy crippled our petroleum industry to make space for his radical green energy agenda.  Thus, we are vulnerable to the likes of energy producers like Iran and Russia.  Also, resurrecting the Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran emboldened the Islamists in Tehran and Biden’s recent decision to pay $6 billion for hostages was a key signal of surrender — another mark of Biden's weakness.

The administration’s China policy is arguably worse, if that’s possible.  China’s President Xi has taken a measure of Mr. Biden and found him weak.  Thus, Beijing has its eye on Taiwan, at the same time manipulating much of the world through its strategic levers like the Belt & Road Initiative.  Mr. Xi has made no secret of the fact that he intends to resurrect the “Middle Kingdom” by remaking international order to favor totalitarians.  Mr. Biden sits on his hands and watches.

Further, thanks to Biden’s open southern border policy, many of our major cities and the entire southwest region are overrun by illegals and among them many suspected terrorists and known criminals flooded into this country to rob us of our national security.  Meanwhile, Biden is draining our arsenals of hard-to-replace weapons needed to secure our own future.  Also, don’t believe that money alone can quickly replenish our weapon stocks in time before the likes of China’s People’s Liberation Army takes advantage of American forces.

Finally, Mr. Biden wants to throw more money — $100 billion in new budget authority — at problems he helped to create.  This is atop our staggering $33-trillion budget deficit, which this spend-crazy president and his progressive Democrat party willingly embrace.  God help us!

Yes, Mr. Biden’s Thursday evening speech included many things that needed to be said.  But it is what he didn’t say about his own malfeasants in office and playing fast and loose with facts about energy, our overwhelming national debt, his bankrupt border policy, and our drained arsenals that are destabilizing red flags.

I fear the instability partially attributed to Mr. Biden’s policies over his two and a half years in office have contributed to global instability.  If we aren’t careful, the current series of crises will lead to a global war and the further implosion of America.

Mr. Maginnis is a retired U.S. Army officer and the author ten books.  The most recent is Divided We Stand: The Globalist Scheme for a One-World Government.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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