How in the name of the FSM do you look at Biden's worldview and say it has any similarities, much less eerie ones, to Trump's? Unless you mean they both see FP as something shaped by individuals and therefore you gotta figure out how to deal with those individuals - and if that's the case, allow me to utter a ringing "Duh!"
It's like saying there are eerie similarities between Trump and Biden because they are both carbon-based lifeforms.
When terrible things happen, there is a natural desire to believe they could have been avoided. However, that doesn't mean that they could have. Dr. Dresner heaps blame on Biden, with not a word about the real culprits, beginning with the Bush administration, who stupidly refused to negotiate with the Taliban and instead embarked on a witless, half-hearted attempt to turn Afghanistan into a semblance of a bourgeois democracy and instead created an oppressive kleptomaniac state that systematically robbed the Afghan people, resting entirely on American military power than routinely murdered hundreds of Afghan civilians every year. When Obama came in, the Pentagon, refusing to admit failure, blackmailed him into continuing the war, despite Biden's correct advice to the contrary. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was foremost in refusing to accept responsibility for the ongoing disaster that our presence in Afghanistan had become, but he had a great deal of assistance, from the whole great military intellectual complex--the State Department, the defense contractors, the DC think tanks dependent on the Pentagon and the defense contractors, and even a few "independent" academics. The Pentagon even succeeded in bullying Trump, who naturally lacked the energy to do more than harange his generals when the mood struck him. I would point out that when the Soviets left Afghanistan, the puppet government they set up lasted several years. Biden was told our puppet regime would last, well, months. Instead, it lasted minutes. Criticizing Joe Biden for the final few days of what amounted to a twenty-year travesty, not a Potemkin village but a Potemkin country, is like blaming him for not having a crystal ball. Try harder, professor.
Curious about your comment that Biden seeing foreign policy as family dynamics is the same as Trump’s purely transactional view of the world?
Also, both those views are about how to implement a broader set of values. Behind Biden’s family view of managing foreign powers there exist actual substantive values about what the world order ought to be. Behind Trump’s transactional view about how to handle foreign policy are.... transactional goals about the world. It’s ALL about “What has the world done for me lately?” Not even for the US. For ME! I don’t see the Biden connection at all b
When the baton of President was passed to Biden... it was purposefully and willfully dropped (to state it mildly)...
* He was purposefully locked out of the White House
* The transition efforts across the executive branch were willfully stymied such that no transition efforts ever got off the ground before he assumed the office
and, with specific regard to Afghanistan,
* the outgoing President booby-trapped 'things' - such as the prior President signing a treaty that declared the US must remove all troops by such a date, long after the prior President evacuated the office but enough after Biden finally assumed the office for the blame to fall on Biden. A ticking time-bomb. Biden had no choice but to follow-through on that last-minute treaty - and pay the political price (as you note).
Seems to me (IF my memory is correct!) that Biden did as best as can be expected given the purposefully designed circumstances, 'Make certain Biden fails!'
You don't need to be corrected. That is an accurate assessment. And lets not forget that as part of the "treaty" Trump allowed the release of the same Taliban leadership and membership from Afghan prisons that then proceeded to take over the country post haste.
Theories, inevitably fail. Push said at first that he was not into nation building. He moved effectively into Afghanistan. He also moved effectively into Iraq. But then he got this theory that democratic countries don’t get aggressive and start wars. So he tried to do some nation building. it was the biggest mistake since Vietnam
The idea that Biden reduces foreign policy (to simplify things) to glad handing and suchlike is revelatory to me - it helps explain something. Back when I was working in the field many years ago, I arranged a meeting between a junior UK minister and the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, i.e. Biden. Biden gave my guy a handshake and a signed photo. The minister was furious with everyone involved (including me) because he felt he had been treated like a competition winner!
I'm not sure we can draw too many conclusions about Biden's theory of foreign policy from his passing comments in Foer's article. I would expect that most people immersed in the practice of foreign policy, as Biden has been for many years, will have adopted the realist perspective, always asking whether something is possible or not, and always aiming to balance ends with limited means. Biden's decision to withdraw certainly seems consistent with the realist way of thinking.
Biden has destroyed American foreign policy. He’s engaged our enemies with dirty oil. He’s compromised American sovereignty on energy and independence. He killed 13 US personnel, soldiers in Afghanistan.
American foreign policy is great! Japan and Korea are now buds, the US is out of Afghanistan, NATO has been expanded, Russia is tied up in an endless war that has crippled their global power, the West have coordinated offshoring from China. Much better than chaos of Trump years when he isolated US from allies, batshit insanity of Obama tying down US in Afghanistan for another decade for no reason, and Bush doing same in Iraq while also running a global network of torture chambers while lying about Iraq having WMD when they had none. Biden much better than them!
How in the name of the FSM do you look at Biden's worldview and say it has any similarities, much less eerie ones, to Trump's? Unless you mean they both see FP as something shaped by individuals and therefore you gotta figure out how to deal with those individuals - and if that's the case, allow me to utter a ringing "Duh!"
It's like saying there are eerie similarities between Trump and Biden because they are both carbon-based lifeforms.
When terrible things happen, there is a natural desire to believe they could have been avoided. However, that doesn't mean that they could have. Dr. Dresner heaps blame on Biden, with not a word about the real culprits, beginning with the Bush administration, who stupidly refused to negotiate with the Taliban and instead embarked on a witless, half-hearted attempt to turn Afghanistan into a semblance of a bourgeois democracy and instead created an oppressive kleptomaniac state that systematically robbed the Afghan people, resting entirely on American military power than routinely murdered hundreds of Afghan civilians every year. When Obama came in, the Pentagon, refusing to admit failure, blackmailed him into continuing the war, despite Biden's correct advice to the contrary. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was foremost in refusing to accept responsibility for the ongoing disaster that our presence in Afghanistan had become, but he had a great deal of assistance, from the whole great military intellectual complex--the State Department, the defense contractors, the DC think tanks dependent on the Pentagon and the defense contractors, and even a few "independent" academics. The Pentagon even succeeded in bullying Trump, who naturally lacked the energy to do more than harange his generals when the mood struck him. I would point out that when the Soviets left Afghanistan, the puppet government they set up lasted several years. Biden was told our puppet regime would last, well, months. Instead, it lasted minutes. Criticizing Joe Biden for the final few days of what amounted to a twenty-year travesty, not a Potemkin village but a Potemkin country, is like blaming him for not having a crystal ball. Try harder, professor.
Curious about your comment that Biden seeing foreign policy as family dynamics is the same as Trump’s purely transactional view of the world?
Also, both those views are about how to implement a broader set of values. Behind Biden’s family view of managing foreign powers there exist actual substantive values about what the world order ought to be. Behind Trump’s transactional view about how to handle foreign policy are.... transactional goals about the world. It’s ALL about “What has the world done for me lately?” Not even for the US. For ME! I don’t see the Biden connection at all b
When the baton of President was passed to Biden... it was purposefully and willfully dropped (to state it mildly)...
* He was purposefully locked out of the White House
* The transition efforts across the executive branch were willfully stymied such that no transition efforts ever got off the ground before he assumed the office
and, with specific regard to Afghanistan,
* the outgoing President booby-trapped 'things' - such as the prior President signing a treaty that declared the US must remove all troops by such a date, long after the prior President evacuated the office but enough after Biden finally assumed the office for the blame to fall on Biden. A ticking time-bomb. Biden had no choice but to follow-through on that last-minute treaty - and pay the political price (as you note).
Seems to me (IF my memory is correct!) that Biden did as best as can be expected given the purposefully designed circumstances, 'Make certain Biden fails!'
I am happy to be corrected.
You don't need to be corrected. That is an accurate assessment. And lets not forget that as part of the "treaty" Trump allowed the release of the same Taliban leadership and membership from Afghan prisons that then proceeded to take over the country post haste.
Theories, inevitably fail. Push said at first that he was not into nation building. He moved effectively into Afghanistan. He also moved effectively into Iraq. But then he got this theory that democratic countries don’t get aggressive and start wars. So he tried to do some nation building. it was the biggest mistake since Vietnam
The idea that Biden reduces foreign policy (to simplify things) to glad handing and suchlike is revelatory to me - it helps explain something. Back when I was working in the field many years ago, I arranged a meeting between a junior UK minister and the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, i.e. Biden. Biden gave my guy a handshake and a signed photo. The minister was furious with everyone involved (including me) because he felt he had been treated like a competition winner!
p.s. willing to bet said minister, now a backbench MP, has that photo prominently displayed in his office these days!
Really enjoyed this read--hope you don't mind I mentioned it in my latest article! https://diplomacydebrief.substack.com/p/the-ai-arms-race-pentagon-bets-big?sd=pf
I'm not sure we can draw too many conclusions about Biden's theory of foreign policy from his passing comments in Foer's article. I would expect that most people immersed in the practice of foreign policy, as Biden has been for many years, will have adopted the realist perspective, always asking whether something is possible or not, and always aiming to balance ends with limited means. Biden's decision to withdraw certainly seems consistent with the realist way of thinking.
Hi Daniel,
Great article! What are your thoughts on how the withdrawal from Afghanistan could have been a success, with the benefit of hindsight?
I think you give a better account of Biden's foreign policy than he does. Maybe he should tap you for national security adviser!
This was really good, I appreciated it.
Biden has destroyed American foreign policy. He’s engaged our enemies with dirty oil. He’s compromised American sovereignty on energy and independence. He killed 13 US personnel, soldiers in Afghanistan.
American foreign policy is great! Japan and Korea are now buds, the US is out of Afghanistan, NATO has been expanded, Russia is tied up in an endless war that has crippled their global power, the West have coordinated offshoring from China. Much better than chaos of Trump years when he isolated US from allies, batshit insanity of Obama tying down US in Afghanistan for another decade for no reason, and Bush doing same in Iraq while also running a global network of torture chambers while lying about Iraq having WMD when they had none. Biden much better than them!