Biden battles accusations of 'weakness' against US rivals
By: AFP
Yes he is weak.......and the world knows it.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Is Joe Biden "weak" in the face of Russia, Iran or North Korea? This is the accusation leveled by opponents of the US president, who is trying to balance a firm hand with pragmatism to overcome multiple international crises and focus on a rising China.
"Is it any surprise that Chinese planes are flying over Taiwan? Or that North Korea is testing missiles again? Or that Iran is ramping up its nuclear program? They all sense Biden's weakness," Nikki Haley, who served as UN ambassador under Donald Trump, tweeted this week, summing up grievances of Republican hawks.
The standoff with Russia over its buildup of troops on Ukraine's borders fanned the flames of these accusations, which broke out in earnest amid the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August.
The Democratic president may have adopted a martial tone, amped up warnings and even sent troops to Eastern Europe this week, but his resolve is being called into question.
The Republican opposition, including its moderate fringe, have reproached Biden for ruling out preemptive sanctions against Moscow to discourage an attack on Ukraine.
The choice is, in fact, in the hands of Biden's administration, which is betting that the threat of "devastating" punitive measures in the event of an invasion will dissuade Russian President Vladimir Putin.
- 'Minor incursion' -
Some of the most hawkish in Washington have criticized the president for ruling out the option of direct military intervention to defend Ukraine.
But criticism came from many more corners when Biden made an apparent gaffe in mid-January.
The 79-year-old leader had sowed confusion by suggesting a "minor incursion" by Russia would prompt less pushback from the West, and indicated divisions between NATO countries on the scale of response that such an invasion would warrant.
Republican lawmakers quickly blasted Biden, accusing him of having tacitly "green-lighted" an invasion and forcing the White House to backpedal.
"It's typical of Biden: he responds often more like an analyst than a president," said Celia Belin, a researcher at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
She nonetheless deems the US handling of the Ukraine crisis effective so far.
But his analytical responses are "a mistake as a leader," she said, especially as "Republicans harp on the idea of weakness because it resonates with the general perception of Biden as elderly, frail and not determined enough."
However, she underscored that this "trial of weakness" is typical of America, with a "constant" push and pull between a neoconservative bent toward the use of force to re-establish order and a camp that prefers to "choose its battles."
For Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, these disparities don't negate that the US government is doing a "pretty good job balancing the competing demands" in the crisis.
- Hesitation -
US intelligence agencies quickly identified the "pattern of Russian aggression," allies were consulted early enough to "come to consensus," and the Pentagon has displayed "steadiness and readiness," she told AFP.
Biden entered the White House with a promise to US allies that "America is back," indicating a willingness to seek compromise at the risk of giving an impression of hesitation.
But this re-investment in the international arena, after the unilateralism of the Trump era, does not mean that Washington intends to play policeman everywhere at all times.
Democrats want to extract the United States from protracted conflicts and concentrate on a rising China, which the Biden and Trump administrations characterized as the top challenge of the 21st century.
Though Belin warned that pulling out isn't without consequence, like the withdrawal from Afghanistan "at the cost of a debacle," which she said may have pushed "Putin to legitimately say, 'I'm taking advantage of this.'"
And there is no shortage of challenges to divert the 46th US president from this priority, both new and protracted.
Iran looms large, with Biden in need of a deal to round off long-running multilateral talks with Tehran aimed at salvaging a 2015 nuclear deal and avoiding another crisis.
Here, too, he will likely be accused of weakness, even among Democrats, over the hot-button issue of containing Iran's nuclear program.
At the same time, the United States seems for the moment to be turning a blind eye to the recent flurry of North Korean missile launches.
On China, while Biden has held up the hard line adopted by predecessor Trump, some conservatives continue to criticize the current president for his willingness to engage in dialogue on climate issues or his refusal to boycott the Beijing Olympics entirely.
But for Schake, "Biden is no weaker on China or North Korea than the prior administration."
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Contrary to liberal beliefs. These are key.............
Still happy???
Nope, cowboy diplomacy is alive and well in this WH too.
SSDD
You think taking out the leader of an extremist Muslim terrorist group that wants to be a nation again is cowboy diplomacy? I agree with what Biden did for the first time since he became President
It fits the definition to a T.
I have heard that a broken clock is correct at least once a day...
Twice a day - unless it's a 24 hour military clock.
I'm very happy with President Biden. He is not weak against our rivals AT ALL.
The former 'president' was at their beck and call - especially Putin.
I am very unhappy with Biden.
He is worthless and weak and our rivals are laughing at his utter ineptitude.
Not that worker drones are capable of noticing such things.
I think he should go visit our adversaries and give them his whispering at the mic routine. They will think he is as unhinged as the rest of us think and be afraid to do anything because they are afraid he might do something unpredictable.
Sounds like a lot of alleged conservatives are quite blissful.
Biden's 'incursion gaffe' wasn't a gaffe. Biden needs a Russian incursion as vindication. If Russia keeps its troops in Russia then Biden has made much ado over nothing. The issue has been portrayed as a military buildup on Ukraine's border but it's necessary to keep in mind that the other side of that border is Russian territory. The military buildup is taking place inside Russia. The United States doesn't have any territorial borders with Russia in that region. So, Biden deploying the military to Russia's western border is a provocation that suggests the United States is preparing to invade Russia.
While there has been a lot of discussion about Russia and China, everyone has been ignoring Turkey. Is Biden prepared to get tough with Erdogan? Is Biden prepared to deploy troops to Syria to defend the Kurds? Russia pulling troops out of northern Syria to defend Russia's western border would allow Erdogan to ramp up attacks on the Kurds. And there is still the threat of waves of refugees being sent into Europe. Biden pushing Putin too hard could reignite the conflict in Syria.
Biden has created another mess for himself and for the United States. And extricating himself from the mess he has created won't be as clean as was the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
One disaster after another with Brandon.
Its wasting taxpayer money in true Democrat fashion.
Biden wants another little war somewhere, he needs the distraction from his disastrous domestic agenda...
Wag the tail….
Of course, DON'T cooperate on climate issues, with a little effort America is capable of outdoing China on polluting the environment, as it is Americans already pollute the environment more than the Chinese on a per capita basis. As well, tell the American athletes who have worked their asses off for four years in order to do their best to make America shine to leave China immediately, abandon the Olympics, because after all, Biden already threw dirt on it by politicizing it, spit on the spirit of the Olympics which was and is the only thing in the world that provides a spirit of the unity of mankind. My advice to all Americans is....
DON'T EVEN WATCH THE OLYMPICS, ESPECIALLY THE SPECTACULAR OPENING AND CLOSING CEREMONIES. THAT'LL REALLY TEACH CHINA A LESSON.
The opening ceremony starts in an hour and a half. I'll be sitting in front of the TV enjoying the show, but hey, maybe there's some football or basketball game on for you.
China is the biggest polluter in the world by far and they get significantly worse every year. The US on the other hand is going in the other direction and will continue to do so.
Hiding behind their massive population with the per capital argument is simply obtuse.
I would agree completely; but with Biden allowing a constant stream of illegals into our country it will tax all of our resources- including energy.
We could double in size and still pump out less pollution than China. Last time I checked China pumps out more pollution than the rest of the world combined.
All they have is the per capita argument since their population is so much larger than anywhere else.
We could double in size and still pump out less pollution than China. Last time I checked China pumps out more pollution than the rest of the world combined.
All they have is the per capita argument since their population is so much larger than anywhere else.
yep by the thousands of tons....
While you're at it let's hear your comparison on a per capita basis for incarceration and gun violence. You can't argue that America isn't "exceptional" in those matters.
Don’t have those stats.
Do you have the stats on how many are held against their will, with no due process in China for no other reason that their religious choice? You know, in Chinese concentration camps?
The per capital for that in America is zero.
A simple search will give you the stats that the incarceration rate in America is the highest in the world. As for stats for gun violence, if I were an American I sure as hell wouldn't be proud of those stats. This is just an example of "MASS" shootings, lesser ones are even worse:
Death toll from mass shootings in United States is rising ...
It found that of all the mass shootings that took place between 1966 and 2019, more than half took place since 2000, with 20% of them occurring between 2010 and 2019. In …
As for, as you say, those " held against their will, with no due process in China for no other reason that their religious choice", you are obviously speaking of the Uyghurs. There are more than 30 million Muslims in China (you can search and discover that as well) including about 11 million Uyghurs. Nobody knows for sure but let us say that between one and two million are being held, NOT because of their religious choice (or else ALL Muslims would be held), but because they were terrorists, religious extremists or separatists or else had indicated a propensity for being so. Sure, the terrorists are in concentrations camps, but the others could be reeducated to peacefully fit into Chinese society.
However the vast majority of those who have made that "religious choice" live normal lives no different than any other Chinese citizens, pray in their mosques, celebrate their festivals and holy days, run their businesses (I always preferred to eat in their restaurants because lamb is my favourite meat), send their kids to school (when I taught English here there were Muslims in my classes), and that includes the great majority of Uyghurs as well. Why aren't they all being reeducated, Sparty On? Do you not have an explanation? It was up until five or six years ago that there were serious acts of terrorism in China, mass attacks, innocent people being killed. Then the government did something about it, and since then the only couple of "terrorist" acts (and yes, Sparty On, they ARE reported) were carried out by deranged old men with cleavers or knives who were able to sneak into unguarded schools - and now most of them are guarded because of that having happened.
Don't be convinced by Adrian Zenz, an ultra-Christian anti-Communist who earns a living by demonizing China, who came up with the word "genocide', that was picked up by Pompeo and broadcast around, while "witnesses" who were proven to have been paid for their "evidence", helped to spread the lies, or by the Australian organization that is funded by an American anti-Communist organization. I am NOT saying the CPC is innocent of being draconian in its efforts to make sure the population here is safe from harm, but it works. You can believe what a couple of your right-wing anti-China zealot colleagues who have never been to China have to say about it, or you can believe a person who has lived in China for more than 15 years. I really don't care, because it's no skin off my teeth.
That's my melodrama for today.
[deleted, comments about a member are always off topic and no value]
[deleted] Like most Americans I have little to fear from the narrative you are pushing. I’m free, free from the crime you speak of, free of incarceration you speak of, free to watch what I want, free to say what I want, free to do what I want, etc, etc. There are powers now here in the states that want to limit some of that but they will be defeated if needed. Pay attention to the election in November for your next object lesson on that topic.
[deleted,]
I want to hear our resident liberals respond to that. Agree or disagree?
"Nobody knows for sure..." - speaks volumes about CCP totalitarian oppression!
Are you also saying that the very young Uyghur children who are tortured, medically experimented on, and raped in Communist Chinese concentration camps are terrorists? That would be breaking news in the Free World ... if it were true. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
They are either okay with, or support, genocide, as their years long silence on the topic demonstrates.
Genocide has occurred for hundreds of years. The current one in Communist China won't be the last, because there are still too many people - including "journalistic media" - who are willing to turn a blind eye to it and ignore/suppress the evidence.
I don't believe everything I read or hear, and I'm not absolutely sure about anything other than the fact that I do whatever I need to do and want to do and say whatever I want to say and so have to ask HOW AM I DEPRIVED OR RESTRICTED? As well, I happen to know a lot more about China and the Chinese people than braggarts of their ultra-freedom who have never stepped a foot in China but believe all the hearsay they do. After all, Americans are free to have the greatest number of virus deaths in the world and free to ignore what is necessary to defeat it and spread it around as much as possible. As for the numbers, all the "FREE MEDIA" have ever indicated is that the numbers are somewhere between one and two million and when I say nobody knows for sure - THEY DO KNOW THE NUMBERS ARE BETWEEN ONE AND TWO MILLION BUT DON'T KNOW THE EXACT NUMBER. I'm sure those who despise or are afraid of China or that it will one day surpass the USA will come up with the most horrible things that they can say about it - just as you have done - you have the freedom to say it, but not the ability to prove it.
have any trouble accessing things on the internet like YouTube Buzz?
I don’t. I could go on but the censorship and tyranny at play in China is clearly evident to the rest of the world.
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Many times I've posted that I've been unhappy about not being able to access YouTube but at least I have alternatives like bilibili and Youku. I am upset that I can no longer open IMDb because it was a great help for preparing and scoring movie quizzes, but there is still Rotten Tomatoes, and I've found a couple other helpful movie sites. Yes, they are inconveniences, but as I said, there are alternatives. Those limitations are not exaclty life threatening.
Not one minute…
If America and the American president are perceived as weak, that is exactly what Putin wants. Do not understand why 'some Americans' would promote that image.
maybe because some Americans want a President that is strong and won't be pushed around by Putin
Like Trump!
Like whom? DeSantis? Jordan? Or maybe Gaetz?
Have an idea? Or not?
Unfortunaly I don't see any good ones yet
Well, there it is. There you have it. Done and done. Got to be a GOPER though, right?
It's not an image that is being promoted. It's a fact. Biden has shown weakness and indecisiveness on many occasions (i.e. his decision and plan to "withdrawal" from Afghanistan, soaring inflation, etc.).