Contrary to President Biden’s assertion, he is not “handing over” to President-elect Donald Trump a country that is “stronger at home and in the world.” Rather, Biden is handing over a world that is running perilously amok under a permissive environment that began with his disastrous withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.
The world is a far more dangerous place today than it was four years ago. In fact, it has arguably devolved already into a third world war.
That did not stop outgoing National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan from trying to say otherwise during a weekend interview on PBS News Hour.
“We are handing off a very strong hand to the next team,” Sullivan argued. He justified that conclusion by asking himself a series of questions. “Are our alliances stronger than we found them four years ago? Yes. Are our enemies and competitors weaker than when we found them four years ago? Yes. Have we kept the United States out of war? Yes. Are the basic foundations of American power more robust and resilient today than four years ago? Yes.”
Later, on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he told Jake Tapper that “the American people are safer, and the country is better off than we were four years ago.”
Sullivan could not be more wrong. Remember, this self-serving administration legacy assessment is coming from the man who described the Middle East region as “quieter than it had been in two decades” just eight days before the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar pitch to the American public. In a video posted on X, he claimed, “Our alliances, our partnerships, have been at the heart of our success. Now four years later, America is acting from a position of strength.”
Do the people of Afghanistan, Ukraine, Israel or Sudan feel the same? Absolutely not. As the outgoing administration attempts to put a hollow positive spin on its performance, the reality is that the world could not be in a more dangerous place than it is right now.
Scan the globe. There are wars in Ukraine and Israel. Russian mercenaries and Islamic extremists have fomented discord in the Levant, the Sahel and Sudan.
Iran is on the cusp of achieving a full nuclear breakout. Military and commercial shipping are under Houthi attack while traversing the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. China overtly threatens Taiwan and the Philippines.
North Korean and Chechen soldiers are fighting alongside Russian soldiers in the Kursk Oblast. Iranian-backed proxies continue to attack U.S. bases throughout the Middle East — now over 170 times. Russian and Chinese vessels are deliberately cutting undersea cables in the Baltic Sea and committing other acts of sabotage.
These are all second and third order effects of a permissive environment created by the Biden administration. They have emboldened our nation’s adversaries over the past four years.
The Biden administration has learned the hard way that nothing good comes of rewarding such actions with sanctions relief, payments for hostages, appeasement policies and threats of withholding support to allies in their greatest time of need. Instead, these Biden policy actions have only dangerously escalated the situation and built distrust towards the American government.
So no, the American people are not safer than they were four years ago. Our alliances, partnerships and commitments are very much in doubt, and our nation is not stronger or more secure here or abroad.
When you’re explaining, you’re losing, and this weekend’s attempt to put ‘lipstick on a pig’ only validates — indeed cements — the Biden administration’s national security failures over the last four years.
As retired Army Gen. Jack Keane so aptly put it, “the president has a failed presidency.” It is what it is.
As former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Gordon Sullivan once told us, “Hope is not a method.” Hoping Russia, Iran, North Korea and China will change their course is not a method either. Despite setbacks, they continue to march toward their preferred geostrategic and regional outcomes and end states.
Biden’s “weaken Russia” strategy has led the Kremlin to formalize security agreements with its “arsenals of evil” — Iran and North Korea. It also allows Putin to continue his destruction — genocide — of Ukraine, its people and its culture.
Meanwhile, Iran is looking for new proxies and leverages remaining proxies to attack U.S. forces in the region and destroy Israel. Both China and North Korea are presenting growing threats in the Asia-Pacific region and the Korean Peninsula — and Beijing is developing a footprint to threaten the Western Hemisphere.
The incoming Trump administration must acknowledge all of this and take the country down a different path, even at the risk of direct confrontation.
America needs to get back into the business of leading and winning — not criticizing and second guessing from the sidelines or dictating to countries what they can and cannot do with the weapons and munitions we provide.
That begins with a plan. The U.S. government needs a new National Security Strategy to define the current threat, followed by the development of a strategy to mitigate it. Unfortunately, as the adage goes, we must “build the aircraft while in flight.”
Our adversaries understand strength. Iran and Syria felt the wrath of Trump during his first term. Hamas got the message.
Shortly after his election victory, Trump “promised to lift all restrictions and delays on the supply of military equipment and ammunition to Israel immediately after his inauguration.” Then, in a Reaganesque moment reminiscent of the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis, Trump told Hamas to release the hostages held in Gaza prior to Jan. 20 or “all hell will break out.” On Tuesday a draft deal for a ceasefire in Gaza and hostage release was announced.
That same forceful messaging needs to be delivered to Putin, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Houthis in Yemen — the most direct threats to the U.S., Europe and Middle East security.
On Sunday, incoming National Security Advisor Michael Waltz said Trump was “ready to lift restrictions on the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.” Allowing the armed forces of Ukraine to interdict Russian, North Korean and Chechen forces, along with their equipment and ammunition stores before they enter Ukraine, and destroy missile and drone launch sites deep within the Russian interior sends a strong message to the Kremlin.
That would be a good start. Trump then needs to apply “maximum pressure” everywhere and put a decisive end to Biden’s permissive environment. Enabling our allies to win on the battlefield restores confidence in America and sends a strong message to Khamenei, China’s Xi Jinping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, as well.
Col. (Ret.) Jonathan Sweet served 30 years as an Army intelligence officer. Mark Toth writes on national security and foreign policy.
