The United States represents a highly polarized country, both in terms of divisions between the two major political parties and tensions among the public. But the White House still supports a vision in which a rich and powerful America leads an alliance of democracies to protect the world from tyranny.
U.S. foreign policy under Biden is slowly but surely pushing us toward the unthinkable
At the opening of the UN General Assembly session, US President Joe Biden said: “Being president has been the honor of my life, and there’s so much more I want to get done.” At the same time, looking at his record as the self-proclaimed world leader “sitting at the head table,” Americans, even in his party, want him to go away as soon as possible and stop embarrassing them and the country on the world’s stage. After years of pledging to reunite the country divided by Trump and making speeches about the importance of democracy and values, he managed to polarize it further when Democrats call Republicans nazis, and, in return, the latter call the former commies. What is much worse is that US foreign policy under Biden is slowly but surely pushing us to the unthinkable. Ignoring or not realizing that the American century is fading into an uncertain future, Biden still claims a vision in which a rich and powerful America leads an alliance of democracies to safeguard the globe from tyranny.
80% of Americans say the nation is “very divided” on core values
In his interview with the Times in June 2024, Biden calls America’s democratic values the “grounding wire of our global power” and its alliances “our greatest asset.” Three months later, a Gallup poll found that a record-high 80% of American adults say the nation is “greatly divided” regarding core values. The results, which were similar across all races, political identities, ages, and other demographic groups, showed that the values surrounding the issues of federal government power, the environment, education, abortion, foreign trade, immigration, gun control, health care, and taxes saw “the biggest increases in partisan differences.”
Add to this over 35 trillion dollars in national debt, which keeps growing daily, and more and more people in the know are worrying about the upcoming implosion of the soap bubble that will take down the American and world economies, which are still largely dependent on the US dollar.
Some think in Washington that World War III may be limited to the European theater and will not affect America
What makes it even more dangerous is that some in Washington might think that WWIII would be limited to European theater without affecting America. One wonders who gave them this assurance, but judging from the statements from those who push Biden to lift all limits on using long-range missiles deep into Russian territory, they feel pretty safe. State Secretary Anthony Blinken is one of them, and he has already indicated a willingness to change the US posture on the topic, saying that the US has routinely shown a willingness to adapt and adjust support for Ukraine based on “battlefield conditions.”
Senior Republicans also urge Biden to lift restrictions on Ukraine, hitting targets deep inside Russia. They argue that the restrictions “have hampered Ukraine’s ability to defeat Russia’s war of aggression and have given the Kremlin’s forces a sanctuary from which it can attack Ukraine with impunity.”
“It is far past time the administration reverses course and lifts the remaining restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US-provided weapons against legitimate military targets in Russia,” the lawmakers wrote.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Turner, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, House Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert, House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Thomas Kean, and Helsinki Commissioner Richard Hudson signed the letter. So, it looks like the Trump-Vance team, who pledged to end this war if they win in November, will have to fight not only the Democratic war party but also Republican leadership in Congress.
Paradoxically, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has resisted the idea of lifting restrictions and allowing Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia
Ironically, the Pentagon, which is expected to represent hawks, now sounds more dovish when Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pushed back on the notion that lifting the restrictions and hitting deeper into Russia is a silver bullet, saying that “there’s no one capability that will, in and of itself, be decisive in this campaign.”
Many others in Washington are concerned that allowing Ukraine to strike further inside Russia could escalate the conflict and cause Moscow to further accuse the US of being a part of the war. Still, their opponents, including the Republican lawmakers who signed this letter, argued that “the administration’s concerns about escalation have been consistently invalidated since Day One of the war. Neither Ukraine’s use of US-provided weapons in Russia nor its military incursion into Russia’s Kursk region – the first foreign occupation of Russian territory since World War II – have triggered a Russian escalatory response,” they wrote.
The debate on Ukraine’s request is ongoing, and some fateful decisions might be influenced by the events and discussions during the UN General Assembly session mentioned above, where many world leaders will have a chance to present their views.
