Pelosi's visit to Taiwan and Biden's catastrophic foreign policy failures
Plus Weekly Insights and Analysis: "How do we know what is real news and what is speculation or even fake news?"
Part One — Main Article
Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and Biden’s catastrophic foreign policy failures
From The Trenchant Observer, August 5, 2022
We have warned repeatedly about President Joe Biden’s disastrous foreign policy judgment and the incompetence of his foreign policy team.1
Both have led to catastrophic faulures of U.S. foreign policy. These include:
1) The decision to withdraw all American (and by implication NATO) forces and contractors from Afghanistan.
The withdrawal of all contractors guaranteed the fall of the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani, because without them the Afghan air force could not fly.
2) The decision to take tbe use of force off the table in terms of a NATO response to a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Biden repeatedly broadcast this decision to Putin after November 2021. The decision itself was a continuation of Barack Obama’s policy, first announced in 2014.
3) The decision to not pressure Nancy Pelosi to postpone her recent trip to Taiwan.
The main reason this was catastrophic was that the trip was likely to roil U.S.-Chinese relations precisely at the moment when the U.S. is trying to dissuade China from supplying Russia with military assistance, as Russia continues its war of aggression against Ukraine.
A second reason was that Pelosi’s visit came on the eve of the Chinese Communist Party Congress, where not only is Xi Jinping likely to be elected to a third five-year term, but also key officials at all levels of the party are to be named.
Biden’s and Pelosi’s failures will probably make it less likely that any officials who could potentially moderate the Party’s policies in the future will be named.
In the short term, the risk is that Pelosi’s visit could lead China to provide military aid to Russia.
As long as Biden is left free to decide U.S. foreign policy with his current foreign policy team, future calamitous decisions can be expected.
Think about Biden’s decision to withdraw all American contractors from Afghanistan, thereby ensuring that the Afghan air force could not fly and consequently the collapse of the Afghan military’s ability to continue fighting.
Reflect on this decision, until you understand the incompetence that is at the heart of Biden’s foreign policy thinking and decisions.
Congressional Democrats should forcefully intervene, now, to get Biden to strengthen his foreign policy team.
Part Two—Weekly Section
Insights and Analysis
How do we know what is real news and what is speculation or even fake news?
In a comment to the article, “Where is the music?” published on July 30, a reader has posed a very important question. My answer and advice are reproduced below
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You ask, “How do we know what is real news and what is speculation or even fake news?”
This is a very important question.
My own answer and advice are as follows:
1. Draw on your education and your entire life experience in choosing the sources from which you get your news.
2. Curate yourself your own selection of news stories to read. Don’t rely on a news feed, which is in effect curated by someone else.
3. Choose one or more newspapers you trust, and get your news from reading them.
4. Think about what you read. Does it make sense? Is it consistent with news stories from other sources which you trust?
Informing ourselves about the nature of reality that surrounds and affects us is one of the most important things that we do. Our lives and our futures depend on having an accurate understanding of this reality.
Don’t be passive, and expect someone else to bring the news to you. Go looking for it yourself. What you find, actively pursuing accurate news and the truth, will serve you well, and repay you many times over for the small investment of time and effort that you make.
It should also be deeply satisfying, when you use your natural curiosity to investigate what is going on in the world.
Take note and remember the sources of any news that seems important. Consider making written notes.
Written sources are usually the best, as they can be checked and rechecked. Write down the names of good documentaries on TV or radio and when and where you saw them. Always seek confirmation of what you see and hear on radio and TV in written sources.
This is how I try to find real news and distinguish it from speculation or even “fake news”.
If you choose to read newspapers you trust, you won’t see much real “fake
***
Readers: Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the Comments.
See,
1) James Rowles, “Biden is lost in a fog on Ukraine; Only strong fresh winds from younger leaders can clear the air,” Trenchant Observations, June 21, 2022;
2) “Ukraine War, April 21, 2022 (II) Biden’s new “incursion,” The Trenchant Observer, April 21, 2022;
3) “Ukraine War, March 30, 2022: Biden is the problem. What can be done?,” The Trenchant Observer, March 30, 2022;
4) The Editorial Board, “The President We Have; Biden needs new advisers and help from Congress to deter Russia and other escalating threats,” Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2022 (6:31 pm ET);
5) Nile Gardiner, “Will Europe finally wake up to the truth about Joe Biden now? ,”In 20 years in Washington, I have not seen a White House more disorganised, incompetent or mismanaged,” The Telegraph, March 28, 2022 )12:43 p.m.);
6) “Ukraine War, March 10, 2022 (I): The darkest hour of the American soul; Mariupol and appeasement; U.S. is stuck with a timorous, defeatist Commander-in-Chief; Congress must secure new foreign policy team, insist on bipartisan war cabinet; NATO countries must insist on active role in war-related decision making, send war council to Washington,” The Trenchant Observer, March 10, 2022;
7) “Ukraine War, March 28, 2022: Strengthening ‘the president we have,'” The Trenchant Observer, March 28, 2022.