Is Biden's Legacy Really Going to Be the Dismantling of Democracies and the Free World?

In this mailing: - Richard Kemp: Is Biden's Legacy Really Going to Be the Dismantling of Democracies and the Free World? - Amir Taheri: The Mystery Man of Sanaa [] [Is Biden's Legacy Really Going to Be the Dismantling of Democracies and the Free World?]( by Richard Kemp • January 2, 2022 at 5:00 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [WhatsApp]( [Telegram]( [Send]( [Print]( - Biden inflicted untold damage on the free world by his catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, demonstrating to America's enemies and friends alike that, under his administration, the US was no longer willing to stand by its allies nor to protect its own vital national interests. - Now Biden is planning discussions in early 2022 between Russia and selected NATO members to "defuse" the situation [Russia threatening the Ukraine]. Can he really believe that any negotiations short of capitulation to Russian demands would satisfy Putin or achieve anything? So-called diplomacy down the barrel of 90,000 Russian guns looks a lot like even more appeasement. - Biden has failed to respond to Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia, Iranian aggression against Israel and even Iranian attacks on US forces in Syria and Iraq. Iran's contempt for Biden was further displayed last week in the launch of multiple ballistic missiles during manoeuvres that Iranian commanders explicitly said were intended to threaten Israel. - In the face of Iranian nuclear provocation, Biden's officials have refrained from any threat of military action — taking off the table the only truly effective deterrent against regimes that respect strength alone. - Biden's policies of appeasement towards Iran and Russia are bad enough. But the greatest threat to the free world today comes from China. Biden has a long record of appeasing Beijing. - Biden's administration has projected only confusion over China's ambitions against Taiwan. The president twice suggested the US might be willing to defend the country in the event of Chinese invasion, with his comments immediately walked back by officials... Similarly mixed messages coming from London led the Argentinian junta to believe Britain, despite its vast military superiority, would not fight to defend the Falkland Islands on the other side of the world, and actually encouraged the 1982 invasion. - "One of [Biden's] first acts on assuming the presidency was to shut down the investigations into the origins of Covid-19 — including the one I led at the State Department in 2020, which presented troubling scientific and circumstantial evidence on the secret activities of the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] that bolster the lab-leak theory". — Dr David Asher, who spearheaded the State Department task force investigating the origins of Covid-19 and the role of the Chinese government, Hudson Institute, November 17, 2021 - None of Biden's acts of appeasement are isolated to their targets alone; they are widely observed and cumulative in effect. They embolden America's enemies and unnerve its friends, potentially fracturing alliances that are vital to defending democracy. So much damage has already been done in just one year that even were Biden to change course, his legacy might well be the dismantling of democracies and the free world. US President Joe Biden is planning discussions in early 2022 between Russia and selected NATO members to "defuse" the situation [Russia threatening the Ukraine]. Can he really believe that any negotiations short of capitulation to Russian demands would satisfy Russian President Vladimir Putin or achieve anything? Pictured: Biden and Putin meet in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16, 2021. (Photo by Peter Klaunzer/Pool/Keystone via Getty Images) When US President Joe Biden took office, he removed a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office. He should have replaced it with one of Neville Chamberlain. After Chamberlain's infamous appeasement of Hitler at Munich in 1938, Churchill told him: "You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war." The first year of Biden's presidency has been marked by appeasement upon appeasement. Appeasement of Russia, appeasement of Iran, appeasement of jihadists. China also — and we may now be witnessing his most dangerous appeasement so far: helping Beijing cover up the origins of the most consequential harm unleashed on the globe since the Second World War. [Continue Reading Article]( [] [The Mystery Man of Sanaa]( by Amir Taheri • January 2, 2022 at 4:00 am [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [WhatsApp]( [Telegram]( [Send]( [Print]( - He [the late Ambassador Hassan Ayerloo] had reorganized Ansar Allah, the armed wing of the Houthi movement, raising the number of its fighters from 1,000 in 2005 to over 10,000 last year. Thanks to Ayerloo's leadership, the Houthis, initially a small tribal group in Saada, northern Yemen, was built into a major political movement seeking to rule the whole of Yemen. - Ayatollah Ali Yunesi includes Sanaa among the four Arab capitals he claims Iran now controls, the others being Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. Last week came news of the death of Iran's ambassador to Sanaa, Yemen under mysterious circumstances. Ayatollah Ali Yunesi includes Sanaa among the four Arab capitals he claims Iran now controls, the others being Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. Pictured: The Iranian embassy in Sanaa. (Photo by Mohammed Huwais/AFP via Getty Images) The news last week of the death in mysterious circumstances of the Iranian ambassador to Sanaa reminded me of a 19th century English limerick: Who and where and when and what Is the Akhund of Swat Is he lean or is he fat Is he cold or is he hot The Akhund of Swat? The Akhund of Swat was a cleric leading a tribal rebellion against the British Raj in the badlands of Pashstunistan. The questions posed in the limerick went unanswered as, one foggy day in the mountains, the Akhund disappeared. And since no one could claim to have actually seen the Akhund, an endless number of fables were woven around his name. [Continue Reading Article]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [RSS]( [Donate]( Copyright © Gatestone Institute, All rights reserved. You are subscribed to this list as {EMAIL} You can change how you receive these emails: [Update your subscription preferences]( or [Unsubscribe from this list]( [Gatestone Institute]( 14 East 60 St., Suite 705, New York, NY 10022