Even when the issues are terrorism and the threat of nuclear war (in the Middle East and Europe), elite media chatter and posturing by well-coiffed diplomats steer Biden administration policy -- in Biden-speak chatter and posturing translating into the sacred word "perception."
Slow Joe made that boggling admission himself, his global confession wrapped in a superpower pal's demand for posturing whether the threatened client's posturing was "true or not."
My evidence: On Aug. 31 Reuters published a partial transcript of a July 23 phone call between Biden and Afghan government then-President Ashraf Ghani.
BIDEN: "...I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren't going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. (SET ITAL) And there's a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture. (END ITAL)"
Let that Slow Joe statement sink in. He is America's president. A debacle is occurring, but instead of punishing the Taliban and aiding the Afghan government in order to secure the evacuation of U.S. citizens and deserving Afghan nationals, Slow Joe focuses on political optics.
A Very Beltway Response? Yes, but a tragic yes. The world is larger than the Beltway and for that matter, far more intricate and complex than posturing conversations in Ivy League faculty clubs.
Fact: Slow Joe was reprising a smarmy political schtick that in the recent past put him in the White House. We now know that Hunter Biden's laptop wasn't Russian disinformtziya. Hunter's Laptop From Hell contains evidence Joe "The Big Guy" Biden received Ukrainian and Chinese payoffs and possibly cash from Russia. This has a Real World Impact that isn't PERCEPTION: Biden administration contacts and agreements with Beijing and Moscow, and even Kyiv, occur under a cloud of possible corruption.
AWKWARD RESULT: Effective diplomacy is... what's a good word... impeded?
Failing to confront Biden's corruption pre-election puts his administration in political and criminal peril. Corruption of the presidency puts America in peril and puts freedom worldwide in peril.
In October 2020, however, Biden, the DNC and their mainstream media cronies succeeded in projecting a totally false picture. Arguably, that false picture interfered with the 2020 presidential election, far more than Russian ads on Facebook.
But in 2020 the perception schtick helped Slow Joe achieve an immediate goal: the presidency. In the case of Afghanistan, perception over reality lead to a U.S. foreign policy debacle that revealed fundamental Biden administration ineptitude and weakness.
That display spurred Vladimir Putin's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Dictators like Putin see weakness as opportunity ... in Vlad's case, to take action to revive the Russian empire.
Disaster rules Ukraine, not perception. Every day Russian artillery and missile strikes turn Ukrainian cities to rubble. Yet Slow Joe, however, can't give Poland the nod to transfer MiG-29s to Ukraine. It might escalate the conflict.
Hint: Slow Joe doesn't perceive Ukraine's rubble reality.
I admit in this column I have buried the lede: The Biden administration's attempt to revive the Obama administration's so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- the Obama-Biden faculty club administration's ridiculous name for appeasement of Iran's radical religious dictatorship.
WARNING: Vlad Putin's Russia is helping the U.S. negotiate the revival.
I wish I was kidding but I'm not. Slow Joe called Vlad a war criminal -- or he seemed to, though maybe he perceptively didn't...
WHY I BURIED THE LEDE: Reviving the JCPOA is more than a display of chronic Biden ineptitude and strategic weakness -- the kind of stupidity that threatens world energy supplies -- paying off Iran also spurs terrorism and brushfire wars in the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries. The ayatollah regime wages dozens of small wars, first and foremost against Israel and the Gulf Arab states. Iranian agents conduct or finance violent meddling operations in at least 30 different countries. Since 1984, Tehran has been tied to subversion operations in Western Europe and terror attacks in South America, North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa.
A DOMESTIC POLITICAL PERCEPTION?: Reviving the JCPOA would demonstrate the Democratic Party's hard-left, anti-Israel media wing dictates Slow Joe's foreign policy.
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