OPINION:
When it comes to foreign policy, President Biden is confused. No foreign leader can have much respect for a U.S. president who is variously led around by Italy’s prime minister, the king of Britain and the Easter Bunny. It’s worth bringing up in Thursday’s debate.
Earlier in the month, the Russian missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov and the nuclear-powered submarine Kazan came within 30 miles of the Florida coast on their way to Cuba. This bold display of naval power was meant to be provocative — an example of how Russia feels having advanced U.S. weapons parked in Ukraine, on Russia’s border.
Instead of hobbling the Russian economy, the administration’s reckless sanctions policy has invigorated the ruble and driven Moscow into an alliance with Pyongyang. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands on a mutual defense pact that could be triggered should Mr. Biden escalate U.S. involvement in Ukraine — perhaps by allowing American-built cluster munitions to fall on Russian beachgoers.
This reverses the progress Donald Trump made when he became the first U.S. president willing to set foot in North Korea, ending Mr. Kim’s rocket-firing brinkmanship. Mr. Putin also ceased incursions into Ukraine on Mr. Trump’s watch.
The lesson is clear: Displaying strength deters foreign aggression; weakness invites it. The current administration’s bumbling foreign policy team drove the Kremlin to strengthen ties with China and Iran as a matter of survival — filling in trade gaps created by the sanctions and increasing the cost of further Western intervention.
Aware of White House weakness, Beijing has continued to press its nonsensical nautical claims in the South China Sea. Last week, Chinese coast guard sailors brandished knives and hatchets as they attacked a Philippine vessel near the Second Thomas Shoal, severing the thumb of one of the Filipino sailors.
China is bullying a country that was a U.S. territory until 1946 and with which we have an “enhanced” defense cooperation agreement. When Mr. Biden fails to respond to provocation, Chinese President Xi Jinping knows he can continue advancing his extraterritorial designs.
The same is true in the Taiwan Strait, where last week a Chinese nuclear submarine was spotted probing the territorial waters of our ally. On Friday, China’s highest court declared that anyone in Taiwan stating the fact that the nation is not a part of China could be found guilty of an offense punishable by death.
Iran is also creating maritime havoc through proxy attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. Iran-backed Houthi forces sunk a Greek coal carrier on June 12, setting operators of merchant vessels on edge. Most are no longer willing to put their lives on the line to traverse the area, despite the presence of U.S. warships.
Islamic radicals pack small fishing boats with explosives and pilot them remotely into cargo ships while harassing the U.S. fleet with cheap drones. To the delight of defense contractors, we’re tossing volleys of $2 million missiles to intercept improvised weapons that might cost a few thousand. Nothing is done to address the threat at its source.
Mr. Biden’s appeasement of Iran and coddling of China have made the world a less safe place. It’s time to put the adults back in charge.
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