OPINION:
America was warned. In 2014, former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Robert Gates was blunt in his opinion about Vice President Joe Biden. In his memoir, Mr. Gates doesn’t hold back on his estimate of Mr. Biden. “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” No truer words could have been written, and Mr. Gates stands by them. That characterization has proved resilient as Mr. Biden makes repeated foreign policy and national security errors.
It’s important to understand the nature of foreign policy and national security. First, decision-making in these critical areas is more frequently reactive rather than calculated. While the U.S. government may attempt to characterize clear national security goals in the national security strategy, national defense strategy and national military strategy documents mandated by law, our enemies always have a vote of their own.
Second, our leaders need to rely on their instincts to do what is wise when our foes do not comply with our expectations of them as expressed in our strategic thinking. In other words, our leaders must possess the “right stuff” so that when confronted with foreign policy and national defense challenges, they do what is necessary and prudent to guard our national interests in an unpredictable world.
That “right stuff” is essential for presidents. It requires a clear understanding of the world in front of us; an unflinching resolve to do what is in the best interest of the nation and our people; and a willingness to make tough choices, even when they might prove unpopular at the time of their making. Mr. Biden fails on all of these.
His first major test was Afghanistan. His decision to rebuff the warnings of the intelligence community and national defense advisors proved disastrous. Mr. Gates, as a well-regarded strategist, was almost clairvoyant in 2014 pointing to Mr. Biden’s consistent misdiagnoses in national security matters. As Shakespeare wrote, “What’s past is prologue.”
As soon as it was clear to Afghanistan’s leaders that the U.S. would abruptly and precipitously abandon them to their enemies, their government and military folded like a lawn chair in a hurricane. A wiser decision would have been for the U.S. to maintain a base in Afghanistan to keep terror in check while advancing the Afghan military’s ability to stabilize the provinces. That’s what his national security team advised Mr. Biden to do. But he fell back on his instincts to ignore the facts, preferring his persistently unique illogic and ill resolve. The rest is history. Afghanistan collapsed and with it America’s credibility to finish the job and stand by its friends. Mr. Biden blundered badly.
His second test was in Ukraine. There his instinct was to blithely believe that Russia’s Vladimir Putin was not serious about waging war with Ukraine. Indeed, he wrongly opined out loud that a Western response to a Russian invasion might be more muted if it was “minor” in nature. We now know that Mr. Putin had no “minor” objectives in mind, while Mr. Biden’s Pollyannaish response surely provoked peals of laughter in the Kremlin. Fortunately, both our NATO allies and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saw the threat for what it was and resolved to oppose it.
But Mr. Biden would drag his feet in summoning the courage to declare that the U.S. and its allies would unambiguously oppose Russia. He was also hesitant to provide the military hardware Ukraine would desperately need. NATO and the Ukrainian president did both, while Mr. Biden reluctantly came on board. His advisers undoubtedly cautioned him about repeating the mistakes of Afghanistan in Ukraine. Yet throughout the Ukrainian saga, Mr. Biden has demonstrated his preference to follow the lead of others. He deferred when he should have led.
The same is true of Mr. Biden’s on-again, off-again statements on foreign policy. Recall his comment that Mr. Putin was a war criminal or that the U.S. would come to the defense of Taiwan if China attacked the latter. In both instances, his staff walked back those comments. Beyond blunders and deferment, he vacillates. All combine as a doctrine of confusion and failure.
The midterm elections are upon us. It’s time to entrust the American republic to a Congress that will be resolute on foreign policy and national security issues. That means replacing the current majority with one that will check Mr. Biden’s worst instincts, including his uncalibrated strategic compass. If Republicans seize that majority, their first action should be to pass a Sense of Congress resolution expressing no confidence in Mr. Biden’s conduct of foreign policy and national security. Congress must renounce Mr. Biden’s failed doctrine of blunders, deferment and vacillation. Our enemies are watching and betting that he won’t change.
• L. Scott Lingamfelter is a retired U.S. Army colonel and author of “Desert Redleg: Artillery Warfare in the First Gulf War” (University Press of Kentucky). His new book, “Yanks in Blue Berets: American UN Peacekeepers in the Middle East,” will be released by UPK on July 4, 2023.
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