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Even Ireland, possibly the most welcoming country on the planet for an American president, proved challenging for Joe Biden.
First, he committed yet another embarrassing gaffe, mixing up New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team with a British military force known as the Black and Tans that terrorized Ireland in the early 20th century. The goof provoked hilarity on social media and a sorrowful Times of London headline: “Gaffe spoils Biden’s charm offensive.”
More important was Biden’s underwhelming visit to Northern Ireland, which might have put some meat on the bones of his taxpayer-funded family vacation. The visit coincided with the 25th anniversary of the U.S.-brokered Friday Agreement, which ended the long-standing “troubles” pitting unionist loyalists (mostly protestants) against nationalist republicans (mostly Catholics.)
Unhappily, the power-sharing arrangement included in that pact has broken down, mired in post-Brexit negotiations. The government of Northern Ireland is barely functioning. Biden spent only a few hours in the north, and while there accomplished nothing. The reaction to his remarks and proposals, according even to left-leaning NPR, was “lukewarm”; an opinion column in the Belfast Telegraph declared Biden’s contributions “as bland and beige as they come.” So much for muscular diplomacy.
BIDEN MIXES UP ‘ALL BLACKS’ RUGBY SQUAD WITH ‘BLACK AND TAN’ MILITARY FORCE
Biden was much happier scurrying off to the Republic of Ireland, where he enchanted his hosts with long-winded anecdotes about “Grandpa Finnegan.”
All of which is reminds us that one of the most dubious claims of Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign was that his decades of public service had enriched his mastery of world affairs. His experience, he promised, would renew America’s global leadership, undoing the wreckage he claimed Donald Trump had left behind.
This optimism contradicts the opinions of people who have actually seen the president in action. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for instance, famously concluded that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Gates, for the record, was Director of the CIA and spent nearly nine years at the National Security Council and in the White House, serving four presidents of both political parties. Gates is no slouch on foreign policy.
Even President Barack Obama, who refused to back Biden’s run in 2016 – his own VP! – had serious misgivings about Biden’s capabilities.
None of these doubts dent Biden’s own self confidence. In Ireland, he told Parliament that his many years have gained him “a little bit of wisdom” and that “I come to the job with more experience than any president in American history.”
Experience, yes. Wisdom, no.
BIDEN RAISES EYEBROWS BY TELLING IRISH LEADERS TO ‘LICK THE WORLD’
Since Biden took office, we have seen no trade deals concluded and indeed commercial relations with our allies have soured, the U.S. has led the West into backing a costly (and possibly preventable) war with Russia that has no visible path to victory, the U.S. has ceded leadership in the Middle East, the dominance of the U.S. dollar has begun to fracture, and Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia and even France – France! – have moved closer to China.
FILE – President Joe Biden speaks at the official banquet dinner at Dublin Castle on April 13, 2023 in Dublin, Ireland. US President Joe Biden has travelled to Northern Ireland and Ireland with his sister Valerie Biden Owens and son Hunter Biden to explore his family’s Irish heritage and mark the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Peace Agreement. (Julien Behal/Irish Government via Getty Images)
It appears that Biden’s overarching foreign policy mandate is to undo everything accomplished by President Trump, and to alienate all world leaders with whom Trump got on well. Turns out, that’s a worse directive that President Obama’s lame resolve to not “do stupid stuff.”
China, our most dangerous adversary, has become increasingly belligerent and its leader Xi Jinping said recently he is preparing for war. He also appears intent on embarrassing Joe Biden. Recently leaked documents reveal that the spy balloon which drifted over the U.S. for a week sucked up considerable intel on our military installations. It also indicated that there have been other balloons, also probing our military. Americans are waiting for Biden’s response.
Elsewhere, and mostly ignored by our liberal press, the EU, Korea and Japan are furious that Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act allocated $369 billion in government subsidies and tax credits for climate-friendly products exclusively to U.S.-sourced goods.
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Biden’s protectionist measures cover everything from EVs to batteries to solar panels, cutting out foreign suppliers and put U.S.-based manufacturers first, going against the basic World Trade Organization principle of non-discrimination. The EU has already retaliated by adopting their own protectionist measures, called the Green Deal Industrial Plan, which provides higher state subsidies to help Europe compete in manufacturing clean energy products. Biden appears to be leading the U.S. into a full-fledged trade war.
Meanwhile, OPEC+ recently announced that the oil-producing group would cut output by nearly 2 million barrels per day, or by 1.5% of global supply, starting in March.
The cuts, led by Saudi Arabia, surprised U.S. analysts, especially as OPEC continues to forecast rising demand for oil. Historically, Saudi Arabia has raised or lowered marginal production levels to stabilize prices, both to accommodate an unspoken understanding with the United States, its ally against Iran, and to prevent producers in the U.S. and elsewhere from ramping up production and gaining market share.
No longer. Just weeks into his presidency, Joe Biden gratuitously insulted Mohamed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia in various ways, seeking to show that unlike Trump, he was too high-minded to put Realpolitik above virtue. Numerous snubs deep-sixed negotiations underway to expand the extraordinary Abraham Accords to include Saudi Arabia. The campaign to isolate Saudi’s Crown Prince is a fiasco, costing Americans dearly as the Saudis have led OPEC to cut production twice and ignored Biden’s pleas for more oil. It has also driven Saudi Arabia closer to Iran, Syria and China.
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Whereas in the past the Saudis might have worried that U.S. producers would immediately bump up production in response to higher prices, costing OPEC some market share, they know that Joe Biden’s climate zealots will not allow that to happen.
The U.S., under Biden’s wrong-footed leadership, is losing ground across the globe. In Ireland, Biden said his many years of experience “doesn’t make me better or worse, but it gives me few excuses.” Very true.
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