Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness
The American post-Cold War order from the Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush administration is over.
Barack Obama began its erosion with his tired lectures about the past sins of the United States.
Obama empowered radical Islamists. He invited Russia back into the Middle East after a forty-year hiatus. He snored while Vladimir Putin swallowed large areas of Ukraine. He nonchalantly allowed ISIS almost to take over Iraq. And he authored the Libyan misadventure.
Joe Biden has greatly amplified what Obama inaugurated. He accentuates the Obama-authored foreign policy disasters by his own family corruption.
If the U.S. had an honest media, a disinterested Department of Justice, and a professional FBI, the Biden family would likely be facing felony bribery charges and an impeachment vote for leveraging the interests of the U.S. for a few millions of Ukrainian and Chinese cash.
Biden has forfeited any moral credibility America once had in sermonizing to the world about the advantages of transparent democracy.
Instead, Washington under Biden went full Third-world. His family got rich from his offices, and Joe Biden warped government agencies in efforts to take out his next possible presidential rival.
Antony Blinken, Biden’s current Secretary of State, is known mostly for meekly accepting a dressing down from Chinese diplomats in 2021 and subsequent ritual humiliations.
Blinken was also the author of the 2020 election shenanigan of soliciting former intelligence authorities to publish a preposterous lie that Hunter Biden’s laptop had all the “hallmarks” of “Russian disinformation.” Blinken’s inspired farce was dreamed up to aid a then struggling candidate Biden in his last presidential debate.
The net result of the Obama-Biden continuum has been the moral and material collapse of U.S. foreign policy.
Americans are bewildered that China is now buzzing our jets. It plays chicken with American warships.
It mocks our homeland defenses by sending a spy balloon with impunity across the continental United States.
It is defiantly mum about its creation of a gain-of-function virus under the auspices of the People’s Liberation Army, despite the ensuing Covid epidemic that killed over 1 million Americans.
The weird reaction of the Biden administration to these affronts is either to contextualize Beijing’s aggression or to ignore them entirely.
Under the earlier Obama-Biden “reset” of Russia, we also paid little attention to the past aggressions of Vladimir Putin, appeased his provocations, and earned the 2014 Russian take-over of the Ukrainian border and Crimea.
Then the resetters flipped during the Trump administration.
They now preposterously claimed that Donald Trump—who had neutered Putin by flooding the world with cheap oil, pulled out of an asymmetrical missile deal with Moscow, killed attacking Russian mercenaries in Syria, and greenlighted offensive weapons to Ukraine—was a Putin “puppet.”
After sleeping when Putin invaded Ukraine twice under Obama, and once under Biden (but not at all under Trump), the Left abruptly adopted Ukrainian resistance as their last chance to prove that Russians should have been guilty of “Russian collusion” and “disinformation.”
Their new legacy is a Chinese-Russian-Iranian anti-American axis.
U.S. arms stockpiles are drained so that a beleaguered Ukraine might have the third largest military budget in the world—and a Verdun-like deathscape of static warfare on the borders of Europe.
Biden desperately sought to revive the failed Obama Iran deal. His subtext was to return to the bankrupt notion that by empowering Iran and its henchmen in Lebanon and Syria, and Hezbollah and Hamas, America could leverage allies like Israel and distance itself from friends such as the oil-exporting Gulf monarchies.
China and Russia loved the Obama-Biden resets. Now both are the guardians of Middle East oil and money, while the U.S. alienated our friends and drove allies away.
The Biden administration abandoned billions of dollars in military hardware as it fled in ignominy from Afghanistan.
It sent billions more in arms to Ukraine, while ending U.S. self-sufficiency in oil and gas, inflating the currency, exploding the debt, and ignoring replacing the arms we have sent abroad or abandoned.
Instead of restocking our depleted arms arsenals, Biden started tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for cheap political advantage on the eve of the midterm elections.
A frail and disorientated Biden may be considered useful by his controllers to implement a hard-left agenda. But otherwise, an enfeebled Biden personified the decline in American stature that he had wrought.
He was recently helped to steady himself by a Mexican President.
He was shuffled into place for a photo-op by a Japanese Prime Minister.
In a conversation with the British Prime Minister, he forgot the name of Winston Churchill, a British icon.
And he entered the G-7 summit by falling down the steps of Air Force One.
It would be hard for a Chinese or Russian strategist to come up with a record better than Biden’s to emasculate America’s military and radically reduce its global stature.
Ukraine was supposed to be left to decide its own future and act as neutral buffer zone between Europe and Russia. Sending arms to Ukraine after the installation of the corrupt govt installed by Barack & Sen no name was a blunder as Ukraine was previously a state of Russia and had at least one third of it still Russian speaking . 2 Leaders in Russian high rank are Ukrainian. Sending arms from U.S. to Ukraine was like sending missiles to Florida to protect them from The United States ! Every agreement to keep NATO out of Ukraine was broken by NATO / U.S. The installation of an illegitimate government by Barack && Sen. No Name was big mistake as it helped Nazi Battalion gain more power & cemented their control of various illegal enterprises , one of those being money laundering which the Dem-Rino’s use often to enrich themselves while telling U.S. citizens it’s foreign aid ! Billions wasted while American citizens including veterans remain homeless and destitute in this land of plenty. If allowed to continue this support for corruption in both Ukraine & U.S. , will completely destroy The States and tear us asunder. Establishing a government in Ukraine in 2014 that was as corrupt as senator no name & Barack , who were the architects could lead to no good end. I.S. & NATO must get all weapons off Ukraine soil , abide by treaty that was to have left Ukraine as a self governing nation neither fully aligned with Russia not NATO. Elections in Ukraine must be held with no interferen
Your projected plan is fundamentally incoherent. How is Ukraine going to be a buffer state when Russia keeps invading it? What if fair and free Ukrainian elections produce a government that doesn’t want to be a buffer state? What if that new government wants to retake Crimea or join NATO? Who will enforce Ukrainian neutrality?
Also, if you want money for poor veterans, far more will be lost if Biden finds a way around the Supreme Court strike-down of his loan forgiveness program. If it’s money you’re after, don’t waste time and effort on the Ukraine funding issue: it’s chump change compared with what the Dems are blowing elsewhere.
Thank you VDH. Your work and insights are very much appreciated.
Reminder:
[Regarding Bribing key people]
Peter Schweizer: China’s Main Strategy to Win Is ‘Elite Capture’
Jan 29, 2022″They’re not looking for, you know, leaders to be clones.
There’s a strategic concept they use that loosely translated means ‘big help with a little bad mouth,’
and what that basically means is, you know,
if somebody says occasionally things about the Uyghurs or about human rights,
they may get irritated about it, but that’s not a big deal.
Good reminder!
Here’s a proverb regarding a corrupt ruler and his advisers –
If a ruler listens to falsehood,
all his officials will be wicked.
Proverbs 29:12
Truisms regarding bribes –
By justice a king builds up the land,
but he who exacts gifts tears it down.
Proverbs 29:4
To show partiality is not good,
but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.
Proverbs 28:21
The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.
Proverbs 17:23
A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;
wherever he turns he prospers.
Proverbs 17:8
Truisms regarding bribes –
To show partiality is not good,
but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.
Proverbs 28:21
The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.
Proverbs 17:23
A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it;
wherever he turns he prospers.
Proverbs 17:8
Truisms regarding bribes –
To show partiality is not good,
but for a piece of bread a man will do wrong.
Proverbs 28:21
The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.
Proverbs 17:23
One biblical observation regarding the loss of money –
He who loves wisdom makes his father glad,
but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
Proverbs 29:3
“The net result of the Obama-Biden continuum has been the moral and material collapse of U.S. foreign policy.” Sad, true.. what is keeping our “leaders” “ (representatives-ha!) from taking him out… oh, right, Kamala Harris!
I am trusting in God who sees all and knows all, and I can begin to see the picture that is unfolding…
King Jehoshaphat’s prayer:
2 Chronicles 20:6 AMP
“O LORD, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? And do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, there is no one able to take a stand against You.”
The LORD’s answer: 2 Chronicles 20:15-16 AMP
He said, “Listen carefully, all [you people of] Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat. The LORD says this to you: ‘Be not afraid or dismayed at this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
Go down against them tomorrow.
Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the river valley, in front of the Wilderness of Jeruel.”
2 Chronicles 20:17 AMP
You need not fight in this battle; take your positions, stand and witness the salvation of the LORD who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem.
Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.'”
We will go out against them!
Thanks for your encouragement. God is in control of the nations and does great things when things look dire. It has taken the Marxists about one hundred years to fulfill their plans to permeate the institutions of our country to influence how Americans think and it may take generations to reverse this damage. If that is true then the fight may be a slow process of retaking the institutions that formulate our worldview.
God also judges the nations for their sin. It very well could be that what we are experiencing is his righteous wrath of abandonment. He may have withdrawn his blessing and is allowing our nation to experience the repercussions of our immorality. The irrationality of our times may be the consequence for our sin. If true, then the solution for out problems is repentance from sin and turning to Christ.
Well said! The Obama – Biden administrations have “sold us down the river” – at a remarkably rapid pace. Sadly, our military is far different than the one I remember from my 20 years of USAF service. Reports from my friends, still active at a local air base, indicate that “woke” ideology has permeated not only daily operations, but also negatively impacts the promotion system. This will be extremely detrimental to our current and future readiness unless we “wake up” and implement a major course correction.
Thanks for giving us an update on the infiltration of Wokeism in the military. The pernicious philosophy must be removed from our war fighting institutions.
I am waiting for a moment of absolute disillusionment when Hunter Biden will publicly say, as his senile old man has, “My word as a Biden”.
That will truly make my day!
They tell us Joe Biden got 81 million 282 thousand and 916 votes in 2020. Now all should see his regime is destroying the USA and its position of maintaining order in the world. So in 2024, we’ll vote him, or an alternate Dem dummy, out and rebuild the republic, right?
But wait, to paraphrase Tucker, the Dems are pretty sure they can win again. In fact, they know they can. Our country has electronic voting machines. So they’re not worried.
As Bezos’ rag puts it: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
Dark days are indeed upon us. However, this “dragon” you reference is toothless and feeble. Its limited energies already spent on useless contenders, phonies, and establishment plants splitting the “opposition party” vote while its dreaded enemy is united, behind either a California mannequin or a DC corpse, whatever it takes. I don’t think there will be an “election”, as our elites will concoct a reason for an “emergency”, but we’ll see i guess. On a final annoying note, I would like it very much if you addressed the actions and conduct of your friend Mike Pompeo, treacherous snake and important cog in the Deep State’s machinations.
Don’t worry about little Mikey. He was looking a bit depressed during our mind wiping session the other day, so I wacked him, ate him, and turned his face into a delightfully comfortable mask.
The Conspiracy behind the conspiracy,
Serpentor of the Third Circle, Keeper of the Shiny Thing
On a lighter note amid the darkness, one might wonder whether wokeism will infect the rising dragon in the far east known as the PRC.
All of USA Govt (State, CIA, DOD) involvement in Brazil election in order to get Lula elected. Lula subsequently signs $100 Billion non-dollar trade deal with China. Refuses to support Ukraine sanctions.
USA/Nato trains troops shelling civilian areas of eastern Ukraine.
USA/NATO refuse to negotiate on 3 draft treaties sent by Russia Dec. 2021.
USA/UK forces Ukraine pull out of Istanbul peace negations in March 2022, which Ukraine had already initialed.