President Biden’s first term has been fraught with several foreign policy challenges, leading some experts to give him low marks as he seeks a second term in November.
Vice President for National Security Victoria Coates said: “From the devastating capitulation in Afghanistan to the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine to the barbaric Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, President Biden’s foreign policy has been unpredictable. “It has been a series of disasters, to which the administration has responded incompetently.” She then spoke to Fox News Digital about the Heritage Foundation’s foreign policy.
The comments come as Biden continues to face several complex global challenges, including the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, continued attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian proxies, and the growing threat from China. Ta.
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president biden (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Some experts believe that given the plethora of challenges facing the president in his first term, especially when compared to former President Donald Trump, the most likely challenger in this year’s election, foreign policy challenges may be a challenge. I praise his response to this.
“President Trump’s attempt to encourage and intimidate President Putin [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] “Mr. Zelensky’s withholding of arms from Ukraine (for which he was impeached by the House of Representatives) led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more than anything Mr. Biden did,” said a foreign policy analyst who served as a foreign policy advisor. said David Tafuri. The Obama campaign told Fox News Digital last week that “the first line of defense for democracy and the rule of law now runs through eastern and southern Ukraine.”
Tafuri argued that that front was strengthened by a firm expectation of an imminent threat from Biden, noting that the president began preparing Ukraine for a potential invasion months ago.
“This gave Ukraine and its allies time to prepare for the invasion, which was critical to Ukraine’s initial success in defending Kiev and much of the territory that Russia thought it could capture. This has been proven,” Tafuri said. “Biden led NATO to work together more than in recent decades to provide Ukraine with billions of dollars in aid and advanced weapons systems, once again confusing Russia’s intentions.”
But not everyone is convinced by Biden’s handling of the Ukraine war, especially as the war drags on and the country’s resistance shows potential signs of stalling.
“Biden never authorized the delivery of enough weapons for Ukraine to win, choosing instead to show virtue and, in his words, simply ‘do something.’ ” said Rebecca Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and former senior Defense Intelligence Agency official. the author of “Putin’s Playbook” told Fox News Digital.
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Koffler said the Biden administration lacked a clear strategy from the start to counter Russian aggression, instead opting to “throw billions of dollars in weapons into Ukraine and slam President Putin.” He said he chose it.
“Weapons and technology do not win wars. We learned that in Afghanistan and many other places. President Putin is not afraid of words, he is afraid of actions,” Koffler said. “Biden announced early in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that he would not authorize the deployment of U.S. troops into theater to support Ukraine. It would be madness to abandon a critical element of deterrence.”
President Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office of the White House on September 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Asked for comment by FOX News Digital, the White House National Security Council spokesperson pushed back against the idea that U.S. arms aid is insufficient to help Ukraine, citing the Battle of Kiev fought by Ukrainian forces. He pointed out that U.S. aid was instrumental in Ukraine’s success in the United States. The spokesperson also pointed to the success of the Battle of Kharkov and the successful recapture of more than 50% of Russian territory by Ukrainian forces, and claimed that U.S. weapons contributed to the outcome.
The spokesperson said, “If Congress passes the president’s supplementary request on national security, Ukraine will be able to both continue offensive operations to regain sovereign territory in 2024 and strengthen its defenses against Russian attacks.” “It will be.” “That includes creating and defending shipping lanes in the Black Sea and reducing Russia’s capabilities throughout Russian-occupied territory in sovereign Ukraine.Our objective throughout these efforts is to protect Ukraine on the battlefield. It is to improve the position and put Ukraine in the best position to win the war. ”
Koffler also questioned the idea that Trump withheld weapons from Ukraine, noting that Trump was actually “the first person to approve lethal military aid to Ukraine.”
Former President Trump requested $250 million in lethal aid to Ukraine, including Javelin anti-tank weapons, as part of his 2020 budget request to Congress, according to a 2019 report by Defense News. This weapon will ultimately become important in the early stages. The battle against the better-equipped Russian army. Meanwhile, a June 2021 Politico report pointed out that the Biden administration temporarily froze a $100 million aid package to Ukraine that included lethal weapons, a move that could ultimately lead to Russia invading the country. It took place just a few months ago.
Overall, Koffler argued that Biden’s Russia policy is nothing more than “virtue signaling” and that Trump’s policy is “based on real actions to try to thwart President Putin.”
“Most importantly, Biden’s policy of bringing Ukraine into NATO was a death sentence for Ukraine,” Koffler said. “To think that President Putin could fail to enforce his version of the Monroe Doctrine and allow Ukraine, on which Russia has relied for security for centuries, to be absorbed into NATO is not just incompetence. .That would be tantamount to signing Ukraine’s death sentence.”
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But Coates said the administration’s struggles extend beyond Ukraine, pointing to the US’ “catastrophic capitulation in Afghanistan” and the president’s failure to secure sufficient investment in defense by European allies. .
“President Trump continues to tolerate insufficient defense spending and investment by EU countries, which he has rightly criticized, leaving American taxpayers to bear a disproportionate share of the cost of the war,” Coats said. Stated.
Meanwhile, Bill Roggio, editor-in-chief of the Long War Journal, argued that the administration has had its fair share of struggles in the Middle East, and that Biden’s “general policy” in the region is one of “withdrawal.” He told Fox News Digital.
“I think there is a policy of wishful thinking in the administration,” Roggio said. “The Taliban believe that they can impose their will on the Middle East when the exact opposite is happening. Afghanistan is one example, and they believe that if they withdraw from Afghanistan, the problem of terrorism will be solved. , we’ve seen it happen. The Taliban have a different view of it.”
Roggio also pointed to continued attacks on U.S. forces by Iranian-backed proxies and argued that the administration is not doing enough to deter them.
“The current administration believes it can go after the agents themselves, albeit in a very limited way, to restore deterrence, but it doesn’t get to the root cause of the problem,” Roggio said. Ta.
The root cause lies with “the Iranians themselves,” Roggio argued, calling on the administration to target Iranian assets across the Middle East.
President Biden and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (Probst/ullstein bild via Getty Images | Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
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“If the administration is serious about restoring deterrence, it will go after Iranian assets themselves, not just proxies,” Roggio said. “Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps destroyed an Iranian intelligence ship that was providing targeting information.”
“This doesn’t have to be an attack inside Iran,” Roggio added. “Iran has a lot of assets across the Middle East that we can target. That’s what needs to be done.”
However, a White House National Security Council spokesperson defended the administration’s record on Iran, saying the United States has implemented more than 55 sanctions against Iran targeting more than 550 individuals and entities, and said He pointed out that he continued to seize oil and indict Iranian leaders in order to carry out enforcement actions. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was charged with terrorism and other crimes.
White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates also pointed to Biden’s efforts to secure additional national security funding to target Iran, saying the administration would cut off Tehran’s financial aid to Russia and that Israel would It pointed out that it is trying to help strengthen its defense capabilities against the group. He argued that a small group of Republicans in the House of Representatives, supported by the state, worked to delay critical aid.
Away from the battlefields of the Middle East and Europe, Biden is also forced to confront the growing threat from China. Eurasia Group President Ian Bremer believes the president has handled relations with China well, telling Fox News Digital last week that Biden would promote a “more functional and more stable” relationship with China. “We haven’t given up on anything important,” he said. “Tense negotiations are underway.
Bremer pointed to the fact that Biden has maintained tariffs on China at Trump administration-era levels and has also secured export controls on “semiconductors, cloud computing, the CHIPS Act, and chip agreements with the Netherlands, South Korea, and Japan.” It pointed out.
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“This is an adjustment to U.S. industrial policy, perhaps the most strategically important part of a developed economy,” Bremer said.
But Koffler also rejected the idea that his administration was succeeding in China, saying the deal the president struck with China on climate change was a “colossal failure” and would only benefit Beijing’s communist-led government. he told Fox News Digital.
On November 14, 2022, President Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo)
“Through regulation, the Biden team is trying to force Americans to buy more electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries and less gasoline-powered vehicles,” Koffler said. “The United States is oil-rich, China controls 58% of the world’s production of lithium compounds, and dominates the electric vehicle supply chain. Biden therefore effectively supports the growth of the Chinese economy and the US economy. The impact of these policies on the United States’ national security will be profound. ”
Meanwhile, Koffler noted that the crisis on the southern border also benefits China, allowing it to potentially sneak in people hostile to U.S. interests.
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“Biden’s watch shows record numbers of Chinese people entering the United States through the southern border, which Biden lifted when he took office after Trump,” Koffler said. ” he said. “More than 24,000 Chinese people entered the United States illegally in 2023. It is almost certain that the Chinese Communist Party sent a significant number of them.”
