President Biden gave a speech to the nation from the Oval Office last night trying to lay out the case for why American support of Ukraine and Israel matters to us. His speech likely infuriated the far-left and those invested in the Obama foreign policy aims, because Biden stated a very traditional, peace through strength, foreign policy position, when he stated:
“I know the conflicts can seem far away and it’s natural to ask: Why does this matter to America?” Biden said. “So let me share with you why making sure Israel and Ukraine succeed is vital for America’s national security. You know, history has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/president-biden-says-us-holds-the-world-together-amid-israel-and-ukraine-wars/ar-AA1iwJmX
His speech meandered around, trying to curry favor with the left, by lecturing on one of their favored “oppressed” issues – fighting Islamophobia, while also giving a shout-out against anti-Semitism. He seemed to focus more on trying to make the case for aiding Ukraine than Israel, but overall he made clear he’s committed America to aiding Ukraine and Israel.
There were a few minor presentation issues, like he was reading his speech too fast and seemed like he was in a hurry to get through it. The speech itself didn’t seem to have a coherent structure to pull together the points into a compelling vision, but it was way more solid than his other rambling speeches and he avoided the usual drifting off topic gaffes or mentioning his son, Beau.
I support America standing firm on aiding Ukraine in their battle against Russian aggression and I definitely am on board with supporting one of our closest allies, Israel, after the brutal Hamas massacre of innocent civilians.
There assuredly are all sorts of opinions on how we ended up where we’re at. Perceived American weakness likely emboldened Russia. Putin is a Realpolitik operator and definitely an opportunistic political pragmatist, so watching the endless political chaos in America, likely made him calculate we are a basket case.
The Biden administration is unlikely ever to concede that their foreign policy failures, like the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, the 180 degree shift from Trump’s tough stance on Iran to Biden’s kissing Iran’s behind, to even the week-long Chinese balloon flight across America (over our most sensitive military sites) earlier this year, to the shift within the US military from focus on warfighting to General Milley’s gung-ho hunt for white nationalists and Secretary Austin’s going full-woke signaled American weakness. Overarching all of these incidents our American politics have become an endless clown show of chaos, divisiveness and dysfunction.
All of America’s adversaries likely feel emboldened.
Most Americans, myself included, don’t keep up with the internal politics in a lot of foreign countries and I was unaware that Israel has been going through some very contentious internal political upheavals, when Netanyahu tried to change the judiciary, weaken its powers, amidst major opposition and protesting. I had been trying to cut back on how much news I read and look at online and had stopped watching almost all TV news. I decided with all the events unfolding now, I want to pay more attention to news and reading more old news stories to fill in gaps in my understanding.
With this massacre in Israel carried out by Hamas, I was reading more news, trying to understand what’s going on, I was wondering, “Why now?” Israel had been undergoing some serious internal political turmoil in recent months, where even some Army reserve officers protested:
“TEL AVIV, July 18 (Reuters) – Protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul intensified on Tuesday with demonstrations nationwide, and a retired Israeli air force general said 161 of the corps’ reserve officers had vowed to no longer report for duty.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-hit-by-day-disruption-disputed-judicial-bill-nears-key-vote-2023-07-18/
I also suspect that every part of the Biden administration has been thoroughly compromised by political appointees, who have cred within the progressive left, but have even closer ties to governments hostile to the United States. So, on the one hand I’m glad Biden stood up for standing firm against Russia and Hamas, but it remains to be seen if the Team Obama Iranian fanboys will stand firm against Iranian aggression. Iran has ramped up attacks, via proxies, against US troops in Iraq and Syria. However, there’s a bit of disjointed stances on the Trump right too and laments about “proxy wars” in Ukraine and Israel. Well, the thing is Russia, China and Iran are operating through proxies too, arming and training various rogue regimes and terrorist groups.
Yesterday, this news story, Russia Seeks Regular Security Talks With North Korea, China, ran in Bloomberg and ABC News ran this story, Russian foreign minister thanks North Korea for ‘unwavering’ support in Ukraine war:
“LONDON — Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has hailed deepening relations between Russia and North Korea during his two-day diplomatic trip to Pyongyang in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations.”
Many Americans, myself included too often, see everything through a red vs. blue lens, but America’s adversaries are on the move to expand and deepen their alliances and to flex their muscles on the world stage and they would likely love if America takes an isolationist position and they’ll be avidly fanning the flames to divide and sow confusion with the escalating propaganda war. We really don’t have the luxury to sit on the sidelines, if we want to maintain America’s standing in the world.
Update: I forgot to add this news link, Biden: Hamas attacked Israel in part to stop a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia, which adds another part of what likely played into why Hamas attacked Israel now. Israel and Saudi Arabia were ready to normalize relations and that’s definitely something Iran and Hamas didn’t want to happen.
Well, I better add a bit here, since I was reading a right-wing site that rips this Biden claim to shreds, saying the reports are Hamas was planning this attack for a long time and that Biden had nothing to do with the Israel-Saudi deals – that was a Trump foreign policy effort, which is true.
libertybelle diaries 
Well said. I concur. Israel has now taken