As if the U.S. doesn't have enough problems at home, there is what's going on "abroad"

 

In this country, life is pretty much taken for granted, and the outside world only rarely intrudes, such as on 9-11. Of course that is not exactly true; between the Civil War and World War II, the U.S. military’s principle function was to serve imperialist aims, mostly in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Philippines and various Pacific islands. After World War II, the U.S. became a “superpower” and abandoned completely its prior commitment to international isolationism (WWI merely a brief road trip). International communism was the “enemy” to be defeated; why in a world where reactionary right-wing dictators still ruled would “communist” dictators seem so much more dangerous is baffling, save for the fact that they were backed by the other “superpower”—the Soviet Union—and thus a direct threat to unfettered U.S. world hegemony.

The Soviet Union may be “dead,” and communism’s last bastion is China, but Russia has decided that it still wants to be seen as a “superpower,” and Vladimir Putin has taken control of all the levers of power to return the country to what its people know and love best—a totalitarian regime that makes all the decisions for them, routinely imprisons or murders opposition leaders with little public comment, and a leader who every so often “tinkers” with the so-called “constitution” so that it is insured that he is “president’ for life, or at least until 2036.  Putin of course has his place in the history books to consider as well; he wants to be just as “renowned” in Russia as Ivan the Terrible and Stalin, and to do so he must appear “strong,” with or without a shirt on.

Given his diminutive stature—particularly embarrassing when he is has to stand next to world leaders a foot taller than he is—Putin must “compensate” by playing the “tough guy” on the world stage. Although Russians are technically European in “ethnicity” and “culture,” they have always seen themselves apart, and it isn’t a particularly inviting tourist destination anyways, so there is hardly any interaction with foreigners; frankly, that is true in the U.S. as well, where most Russian immigrants live in their own enclaves (I once came upon a Yellow Pages written entirely in Russian). What’s a Russian to do when they feel “left out”? Well, instead of being “friends” with the neighbors, they take out their frustrations like bullies.

Thus we have seen Russian agents poisoning expatriates, interfering in democratic elections, hacking into “secure” government and corporate computer systems, and spending massive amounts of its GNP on new weapons systems. This includes a so-called nuclear “super weapon”—the Poseidon 2M39, which stands six stories tall but is actually a “stealth” torpedo. Putin seems very excited about his new “toy,” the purpose of which is to penetrate U.S. shore defenses and cause biological havoc on U.S. coastal communities by delivering a payload of nuclear waste. Russia has notably been building up its military along its Arctic coastline; no one is “threatening” Russia militarily, but it appears that Russia wants to deploy its military as a threat to maintain its claim on Arctic resources, even in areas where it has no legal claim.

Why Russia doesn’t want to be “friends” with the West is clear enough. Putin has been imposing himself on former Soviet “republics” and probably would have re-absorbed these new states already if the West wasn’t always butting in on his business and applying sanctions on oligarchs.  Putin is just your typical tin-pot dictator with delusions of grandeur, and who else can he be friends with if not another repressive dictator, China’s Xi Jinping—who has also done away with rules meant to reign-in abuses by one-man rule. Neither Putin nor Xi take criticism of their oppressive moves at home and abroad very well (you know, like Trump), so they are a match made in Hell, bosom buddies for the time being. China has been providing Russia with technology being denied them by the West, and the two countries have already deployed joint military exercises. Putin claims that Russia doesn’t “need” a full-blown military alliance with China, although it is not “off the table.”

So we have seen that trying to be “friends” with Putin as Trump attempted to do was just another of the latter’s many failures on the foreign policy stage. China is of course another problem, asserting itself in the South China Sea both to claim islands for military bases, and to use that military to assert its complete control over oil resources in the region. But that may not be the most likely scenario where the use of the military comes into play. In recent years, China has been loading its shores opposite of Taiwan with ballistic missiles. China’s principle concern is that Taiwan not declare its independence, which would threaten the legitimacy of the Chinese regime, since Taiwan is considered by the Chinese government as the “property” of China; on the other hand, if China invades Taiwan, then the U.S. is obligated by treaty to supply Taiwan with arms, but not to intervene directly militarily. The Taiwan Strait importance as a sea lane would also likely draw Japan into the conflict if China attacks Taiwan.

But even if the U.S. intervenes militarily, it may be costly; China has developed an anti-ship missile system specifically designed to create havoc on the U.S. Navy. It is a dangerous situation; even though the U.S. has no treaty obligation to use its military to defend Taiwan, its international credibility will be in the balance if it does nothing. There have been calls for the U.S. to reinstate its commitment to defend Taiwan, but others simply wish for Taiwan’s political leadership to “behave” and not antagonize the Chinese.

Another problem area is Iran, although Israel is not being particularly “helpful” in that area. Israel always opposed the Iran nuclear deal, rejoiced when the Trump administration vacated the deal, and is now threatening the Biden administration if it reopens talks with Iran, claiming its right to engage in unilateral attacks where it sees fit. Iran certainly isn’t a country that excites much trust; it first denied any culpability in its own anti-aircraft missiles downing a Ukrainian passenger airliner only minutes after it left the Tehran airport in January 2020, before finally admitting that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had “mistook” it for an American cruise missile. This incident occurred after the U.S. assassinated an Iranian general in Iraq; Trump’s response to the downing of the airliner was typical Trump: the plane must have been flying in a “rough neighborhood,” and someone “made a mistake.” Naturally, no effort at recognizing “context.”

One wonders in this day and age why the U.S.’ strategic interests in the Middle East must play second fiddle to that of Israel; Israel asserts that allowing Iran any kind of nuclear capability—even for what Iran claims is for “peaceful” purposes—is off the table for them, although this seems to be completely unlikely without a full-scale economic embargo, which the international community has little interest in doing. Whether or not simply trying to minimize the damage that Iran can cause that the 2015 agreement sought to do is enough, it is clearly a mistake for the Biden administration to be led by the nose by Israel on this issue.

The bottom line is that the Trump administration left behind a mess on the international front, with his “friends” taking advantage of his naiveté to make things even less solvable. And whether to do—or not to do—only creates their own set of problems.