The Biden Presidency 2021

Quote: Tanko

Then you voted Biden. Nice.

“I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what? They’re not competition for us,” - Biden 2019

'Not bad folks'? He made those comments while they were holding 1 million Uyghurs in re-education camps.

Trump has been warning us about China for the past five years. He is the only President to warn about it in the past fifty years. 75 million people voted him out of office.

Too late now.

The US hasn't won a war in 75 years. Beside that, China has surpassed the US in ships, missiles and air defense.

Trump is the only President who has warned about China in the past fiftey years? Did you miss the Cold War Presidents?

And, more recently, President Obama started the "Return to Asia" strategy because of China (more military deployed and stationed in Asia and Pacific regions to keep China in check). Obama probably had the strongest military action against China for any post Cold War President.....

Biden is not perfect with his statements. And, I don’t love everything he has said on China, but I have faith that he will eventually emulate President Obama's strategy. On balance, I believe, he will be better than President Trump.

As for America not winning a war in the last 75 years? Completely wrong.

Quote: Gandler

Obama probably had the strongest military action against China for any post Cold War President.....

Your opinion.

Obama’s former advisor, and current Biden adviser Ely Ratner says Obama was weak on China.

“The lack of U.S. resistance has led Beijing to conclude that the United States will not compromise its relationship with China over the South China Sea. As a result, the biggest threat to the United States today in Asia is Chinese hegemony, not great-power war. U.S. regional leadership is much more likely to go out with a whimper than with a bang.”

Did Obama ever once complain or attempt to do anything about the increasing trade deficit with China? Or the number of US factories and millions of jobs lost to China?

When he went to China he was treated so poorly, SNL did a sketch about it.

Quote: Gandler

As for America not winning a war in the last 75 years? Completely wrong.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Quote: Gandler

Trump is the only President who has warned about China in the past fiftey years? Did you miss the Cold War Presidents?

The ones who one after another cozied up to China?

At least some people know regulated commerce is essential to fair business even if they only apply it to foreign countries.

Quote: Tanko

Your opinion.

Obama’s former advisor, and current Biden adviser Ely Ratner says Obama was weak on China.

“The lack of U.S. resistance has led Beijing to conclude that the United States will not compromise its relationship with China over the South China Sea. As a result, the biggest threat to the United States today in Asia is Chinese hegemony, not great-power war. U.S. regional leadership is much more likely to go out with a whimper than with a bang.”

Did Obama ever once complain or attempt to do anything about the increasing trade deficit with China? Or the number of US factories and millions of jobs lost to China?

When he went to China he was treated so poorly, SNL did a sketch about it.

Well if he is currently Biden's advisor and thinks President Obama was too soft then we should be even in better hands.
I think President Obama acted fine. He was the first to shift focus to China post Cold War.

Quote: Tanko

Oh, yeah. I forgot about Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Ok this is an interesting list, but let's take them sequentially.

Korea= Securing South Korea, fortifying the DMZ, technically the "war" never ended (peace treaty still has not been fully negotiated). But, we achieved our objective. We kept Korea divided (as opposed to the North conquering the South) which was our objective and we succeeded. And, we still have 30-40k military personnel plus civilians there at all times to keep the North in check. Massive success.

Vietnam= Mixed. America won every battle that it engaged in. However, it did perform a tactical withdrawal due to political pressure. South Vietnam fell soon after the withdrawal. So in this case the objective of keeping the North contained failed. America could have won if it was willing to engage in a long term plan, but the political will was not there.

Iraq= let us break into two segments.
1. Gulf War- Resounding success. Victory quicker than anyone thought possible. The one slur you can say is that we did not remove Saddam Hussein, but there was political motivation for a quick and "cheap" (relatively) war. We freed Kuwait, gained a permanent base in Kuwait and got Kuwait its annexed territory back.

Objectives achieved in a quicker time than predicted and critical base in the region gained = overwhelming success.

2. The Iraq War (Operation Iraqi Freedom) - We achieved our objective. This time Saddam was removed and a new government was installed.
It has been a little messy, but we achieved our concrete objectives so = success.

Afghanistan= Ongoing. We have killed many Taliban members. And, the goal continues to remove Taliban controlled regions. We have liberated many areas and made social progress in many regions (look at the rates of female literacy pre and post invasion). Until the Taliban is fully removed, this will be ongoing. It has not formally ended yet, so we cannot declare success or failure. I predict many more years will be needed to make the country fully liberated. Trump has been cutting personnel and funding in Afghanistan, so it got worse under his presidency (in terms of regions controlled by the Taliban). The only way this war can end is a massive presence across the country, for which both parties are pushing back against, so it is likely that his war will continue to go on for years as there is no will for a quick massive campaign.


So of those examples, three (counting Iraq as separate wars) are empirical successes. One is ongoing (and its success will depend on political will sadly), and one is a failure (again due to lack of political will for a massive commitment).
The failure of Vietnam is not the fault of the American Military (again every defined battle was won), it was the fault of politicians (who wanted to pull out, and who initially backed unpopular people in South Vietnam, and many other issues that made it an uphill battle from the start). I personally think that we should have stayed in Vietnam longer, just like I support staying in Afghanistan longer (and oppose cutbacks to presence).

Quote: Gandler

So of those examples, three (counting Iraq as separate wars) are empirical successes. One is ongoing (and its success will depend on political will sadly), and one is a failure (again due to lack of political will for a massive commitment).

The US has a history of going to war against weak countries that never attacked us.

We drop an average 30,000 bombs somewhere in the world every year. The Chinese drop none.

Korea: Success? We lost 36,000 soldiers, and the communists took half the country.

Vietnam: Mixed? 58,000 dead US soldiers before we retreated and let the communists overtake the entire country.

Iraq: Achieved our objective? We murdered Saddam and his sons, and our Iranian enemies installed a Shi'ite government that is now their ally.

Afghanistan: Twenty years and $2 trillion later, and we still can’t beat a bunch of sixth century desert nomads.

We could have re-built our infrastructure three times over for the $6 trillion we wasted in the middle east.

Quote: Tanko

The US has a history of going to war against weak countries that never attacked us.

We drop an average 30,000 bombs somewhere in the world every year. The Chinese drop none.

Korea: Success? We lost 36,000 soldiers, and the communists took half the country.

Vietnam: Mixed? 58,000 dead US soldiers before we retreated and let the communists overtake the entire country.

Iraq: Achieved our objective? We murdered Saddam and his sons, and our Iranian enemies installed a Shi'ite government that is now their ally.

Afghanistan: Twenty years and $2 trillion later, and we still can’t beat a bunch of sixth century desert nomads.

We could have re-built our infrastructure three times over for the $6 trillion we wasted in the middle east.

Wow talk about national masochism and historical revisionism....

Korea was divided in North and South. North invaded South and we helped defend (along with other countries). They did not "take" the North they have the same land they have had. We successfully contained them.....

Vietnam similar scenario, except we did not contain them (partly because South Vietnam was unpopular so there were many sympathizing with the North causing the Vietcong). Anyway, the North succeeded in taking all of Vietnam after we pulled out....

As for Iraq, murdered Saddam? He was captured and had a fair trial....

We have a history of going to war when our allies are attacked and ask for our help yes....

Quote: Tanko

Iraq: Achieved our objective? We murdered Saddam and his sons, and our Iranian enemies installed a Shi'ite government that is now their ally.

I thought the Iraqi government killed Saddam. Didn't they find him guilty and hang him?

Quote: DRich

I thought the Iraqi government killed Saddam. Didn't they find him guilty and hang him?

Yes.

Quote: DRich

I thought the Iraqi government killed Saddam. Didn't they find him guilty and hang him?

Do you think they would have done that without US help?

It took 4,400 dead US soldiers to to that.

American soldiers tracked him down and pulled him out of the hole where he was hiding, and turned him over to the Iraqi's for execution.