By TIPP EDITORIAL BOARD, TIPP Insights

For generations, Congress has funded the Pentagon on a basic premise: American forces should have the resources to fight and win significant wars in two different theaters.

The emphasis got more serious after 9/11 when the country had to defend against multiple global threats from non-state actors while fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The defense budget soared from $303 billion in 2000 to a whopping $715 billion in 2022.

Yet, the Biden administration has shown that it is so inept that battles previously won are slipping away, putting America in grave danger.

The latest threat is brewing in Iran. According to the New York Times, Iran has told international inspectors that it plans to begin making near-bomb-grade nuclear fuel deep inside a mountain that is hard to bomb. It also plans to dramatically expand its nuclear fuel production at a plant that Israel and the United States have repeatedly sabotaged.

In the report, Henry Rome, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, described the precarious situation in which America finds itself. “Imagine telling the incoming administration in January 2021 that within two years, Iran would be enriching to near weapons-grade uranium at Fordow, deploying its most advanced centrifuges in large numbers, accepting severely limited international monitoring, accumulating multiple bombs’ worth of highly enriched uranium and rejecting diplomatic efforts. That’s not quite a worst-case scenario, but it’s pretty close.”

In Ukraine, as the administration continues to press for its Russia oil-cap policy that we said in June was unserious and absurd, G7 allies and European nations abandoned talks about setting a price point owing to deep disagreements. Europe has already committed energy suicide by imposing a ban on Russian energy effective December 5. If all 27 E.U. nations do not unanimously agree on the price, world oil prices will likely skyrocket as Russian oil will essentially come off world markets, except for contracts Russia has with countries like China and India.

In Afghanistan, after Biden’s hasty and reckless withdrawal last August when American forces left behind $85 billion in weapons, the ruthless Taliban regime has stepped up its enforcement of Sharia law. A recent Deutsche Welle report described how both men and women accused of adultery and other crimes were lashed in a public square. Other than the single mantra that America has had of imposing sanctions that deeply hurt the ordinary person, the United States has largely ignored the plight of the average Afghani.

Meanwhile, Democrats beginning with Nancy Pelosi and, most recently, VP Harris, continue to saber-rattle China by making provocative statements about islands in the South China Sea. Rather than work toward peaceful agreements, America has continued to express solidarity with self-ruled Taiwan – including participating in military exercises – while insisting that the One China policy hasn’t changed. It was little wonder that President Xi Jinping warned President Biden not to cross Beijing’s “red line” over Taiwan, which the Chinese government claims as its territory.

America has so alienated both China and Russia that no meaningful action is possible in the U.N. Security Council, even against a rogue nation such as North Korea that is violating every rule in the global order. Under Kim Jong-un, the isolated country has steadily stepped up its missile launches, culminating last week in the test launch of a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), spreading unease among the citizens of South Korea and Japan.

Strong opposition in the U.N. Security Council by Russia and China, permanent members of the elite body, killed any hopes of punitive action against Kim Jong-un. In a first, China and Russia seemed to hold the American sanctions regime at fault for North Korea’s actions. Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva, criticized “Washington’s desire to force Pyongyang into unilateral disarmament by implementing sanctions and exerting force.” China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, urged the U.S. to show “initiative, put up realistic proposals, respond positively to North Korea’s concerns, stop military exercises and ease sanctions.”

In despair, the U.S. could only issue a joint statement, whining: “The DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is acting with impunity in the face of the Security Council’s inaction.” The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, delivered the statement signed by just 14 countries.

The U.S. remains a potent leader in the G-7, the 27-member E.U. family of nations, and for a few other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand. But across the BRIC zone, Turkey, the larger Arab world, and Saudi Arabia in particular, America is increasingly seen as a country that has lost its sense of direction and is, therefore, vulnerable.

Isn’t the president’s foreign policy team responsible for bringing us to this point?

READ MORE BY TIPP INSIGHTS

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