LOS ANGELES.–President Joe Biden, 81, badly miscalculated his belligerent strategy toward Russia and China, pushing both adversaries into an economic, military and strategic alliance against the United States. Biden’s rude awakening was when China refused to join his anti-Russian coalition after the Feb. 24, 2022 Ukraine invasion. Biden assumed wrongly that China would jump on the bandwagon in denouncing 71-year-old President Vladimir Putin, only to find out that Chinese President Xi Jinping actually agreed with Putin’s view that the U.S. encroached on Russia by arming Ukraine. Xi has seen Biden try to undermine Beijing’s clout by creating a Indo-Chinese coalition against Communist China. Xi didn’t appreciate Biden forming a coalition of Japan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and others to confront China’s growing power in the South China Sea.
Biden has watched the rift grow with China since he accused Beijing March 18, 2021 of genocide against Muslim Uygurs in Western China. If that weren’t bad enough, Biden boycotted the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, giving 71-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin a perfect opportunity to show his loyalty to Chinese President Xi Jinping. So when the Ukraine invasion happened, Xi was already turned off to Biden’s disrespectful acts, pushing Russia and China into an economic, military and strategic alliance. After Biden slapped Putin with a Russian oil embargo, it was Xi Jinping that made up for Russia’s loss of oil revenue. India’s Prime Minister Narenda Modi also didn’t jump on Biden’s anti-Putin bandwagon, buying more Russian oil than ever, mitigating Biden’s economic sanctions against the Kremlin. More than anything, Xi didn’t like Biden encroaching in Indo-China.
Biden has made so many foreign policy mistakes it’s put U.S. national security out on a limb, no longer having any clout on the world stage. You’d think Biden could use Putin’s help in getting Iran to back off his support of Yemen’s Houthi rebels currently attacking shipping in the Red Sea. Biden could use Putin’s clout with Iran, especially knowing the military alliance Putin has formed with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Khamenei would do anything to get back at the United States, an antagonistic partner in Russia. Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine has made mortal enemies out of the Kremlin, looking for any alliance to confront the West. Biden has pushed Russia and China into a dangerous economy, military and strategic alliance, all because Biden assumed he;’d get widespread support for opposing the Ukraine War, something that didn’t happen.
Instead of pivoting on Ukraine, Biden has dug in his heels, thinking that any change of policy would be an admission of defeat. Biden can’t admit that Putin, once again, has beat him at his old anti-Communist game. When Biden was former President Barack Obama’s Vice President, Russia invaded Crimea Feb. 22, 2014, with Obama and Biden doing almost nothing. Biden watched firsthand Putin defeat the U.S. in Syria, where Putin went to the defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Eight years later, Obama and Biden’s proxy war in Syria has failed to do anything other than drive millions of Syrians into exile in Europe and neighboring countries. Biden carried a vendetta with Putin, thinking he could get the better of him by funding a proxy war against the Kremlin. Now Biden finds himself in a quagmire, supplying unlimited cash-and-arms to Ukraine.
Biden faces real doubts in Ukraine with waning support in the U.S. and Europe. No European Country thought that Biden would actually go to war against the Kremlin, whether a proxy war or not. “It’s clear that the two states see themselves as military partners, and that this partnership is growing deeper and more experienced even if it is no a formal alliance in the Western sense,” said Jonathan Ward, CEO of the Atlas Group. Reports of Iran supplying kamikaze drones and North Korea supplying munitions to Russia, shows clear signs of a military alliance between Russia, Iran and North Korea. “The Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era has always been about military power,” said Ward. Russia and China have launched joint naval exercise attesting to the fact that the military alliance has only increased.
When you look at the alliance between Russia and China, Biden must end the Ukraine War, the single-most factor driving Russia and China into a economic, military and strategic alliance. If Biden wants to get U.S. foreign back on track, the Ukraine War must be ended to reestablish pragmatic diplomatic relations with the Kremlin. As it stands now, Biden has turned decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control into an adversarial relations with the U.S. no longer counting on Russia for any help in crisis situations around the planet. Recent attacks by Iran’s Houthi rebels on oil tankers in the Red Sea shows the need for global cooperation. Biden could use Putin’s help in containing Iran that seems hell-bent on destroying U.S. clout around the Mideast. Whatever happens in the Israeli-Hamas War, the U.S. still needs Russia and China to conduct global foreign policy and national security.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma
