Biden in the coming weeks has a choice to make. In the end, what defines a presidency is not the platform the successful candidate campaigned on, but how quickly and effectively a president reacts to critical, unanticipated circumstances. In the last 12 months, the world has become unquestionably less hospitable. Biden had hoped to focus on COVID-19, jobs and the climate.īut the world has intervened. Bush was transformed overnight into a wartime president by the Sept. presidents are often confronted with unexpected situations which force them to alter their agendas.įormer President Jimmy Carter was forced to react to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Tehran discarded any semblance of complying with international restrictions on uranium enrichment and plowed ahead with plans to build a nuclear weapon. Biden with a list of demands to be met in order for him to de-escalate. Putin massed 100,000 troops across from Ukraine and presented Mr. Meanwhile, China, Russia and Iran were otherwise occupied.Ĭhina began a broad nuclear breakout, to possibly quadruple the numbers and types of its nuclear weapons. Throughout 2021, the Biden defense team prioritized initiatives like tracking down extremism in the ranks, ensuring the electrification of military vehicle fleets or providing transgender surgery for military members. This was a “Climate Adaptation Plan” describing how the Pentagon will “take bold steps to accelerate adaptation to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change.” Biden’s first budget request grew the budget of every federal department by an average of 16%-except for Defense and Homeland Security their proposed budgets did not even keep pace with 2% inflation, much less today’s runaway prices. While the 24-page document mentioned climate change 14 times, it was oddly silent about “quaint” national security topics such as the Navy or Army. His March interim national security guidance was long on slogans like “America is back” and “Diplomacy is back” but lacked specifics. Unfortunately, the signals so far suggest Mr. However, if he takes the “red pill,” these reports will acknowledge that America needs a stronger military to reinforce our diplomacy and keep in check the likes of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in check. > Revitalizing the National Defense Stockpile for an Era of Great-Power Competition
Biden opts for the blue pill, these documents will reassert his previous claims the greatest security threat facing America is climate change and that international diplomacy, allied action and economic sanctions can reliably dissuade China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from doing their worst. Both allies and adversaries will scrutinize these reports to discern what they can expect from this president and to gauge his resolve to defend U.S. Those documents must describe America’s vital national security goals, what’s needed to deter aggression, and our current capability of carrying out the necessary tasks. The law requires that he produce a national security and a national defense strategy within the first year of his presidency. President Biden will soon face a similar choice. Neo takes the red pill, and everything that follows flows from that decision. The red pill would cause Neo to confront a brutish reality. The blue pill offered the chance to remain in his comfortable fantasy world, believing whatever he wants to believe. In the 1999 film “The Matrix,” Morpheus gives Neo the choice of a blue pill or red pill.
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