In a stunning display of unity, China’s President Xi Jinping sojourned to Moscow to meet with his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin. While there, Xi and Putin expressed their undying love for one another and intimated that the two autocracies viewed each other as being in a deep, special strategic relationship with one another. As I have cautioned repeatedly, our enemies are playing Go while our leaders are playing checkers—and our leaders are not even doing that particularly well.
The Xi-Putin summit is not a one-off; it’s not for show. This is the equivalent of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meeting in Placentia Bay and crafting the Atlantic Charter in 1941. It represents a seismic geopolitical shift; the birth of new, Chinese-led multipolar order which places the declining United States on the outside as a terminally ill superpower about to collapse, with China ready to absorb the world America leaves behind.
Given the incredible strategic implications of the Sino-Russian entente cordiale, one would have thought that American President Joe Biden, the man we were told would restore honor, dignity, and stability to the White House after four chaotic years of Donald Trump, would be nestled in the White House Situation Room in deep discussions with his national security team about how to counteract this new Chinese threat to America.
Well, if that’s what you thought the Biden team—the so-called “adults in the room”—were doing in response, you’d be very wrong!
Inmates Running the Asylum
Instead, President Biden was cavorting with the cast of the terribly overrated television program, Ted Lasso. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stood at her podium with the cast of Ted Lasso assembled behind her as she proudly announced the arrival of the awe-inspiring television celebrities. One reporter was not dutifully inspired enough to serve as a mindless stenographer for whatever garbage Karine was shoveling out that day to the unthinking White House Press Corps.
Simon Ateba of Today News Africa demanded to know why he had been punished by the White House and had not been called on by Pierre for months. Rather than demand to know why the African reporter had been ignored by a clearly biased press secretary, Ateba’s colleagues in the room shouted him down. The White House press secretary then offered Ateba a “choice”, he could either pipe down or suffer the consequences—this, as the rest of the White House press corps refused to back their colleague up. Undaunted, Ateba reminded his colleagues and his interlocutor, Pierre, that “This is not China, this is not Russia, this is the United States, this is the White House.”
Shortly thereafter, Ateba was silenced so the cast of Ted Lasso, as led by Jason Sudekis, could deliver a flowery speech about how it’s important to “check in with your neighbor” and see if their mental health is well. Sudekis is right about one thing: it’s important to know the mental health of your neighbors. Clearly, the White House has become an insane asylum run by the inmates. Because none of this makes sense. Then again, it’s not meant to.
Ted Lasso Tops Xi-Putin
Finally, the main event.
As Xi and Putin were carving up which parts of the world they would next conquer; with Putin insisting that future natural gas and oil trades with China be conducted with China’s currency, the yuan—and insinuating that much of the Developing World will follow Russia’s lead soon—President Biden joined with the cast of Ted Lasso for a thrilling photo op in the Oval Office.
This was where Biden’s real leadership was on display.
Admittedly, it was somewhat ironic watching the septuagenarian president who has been accused repeatedly of being cognitively impaired talk about the need for better mental health policies—as the world was rapidly shifting beneath his oblivious feet.
One wonders if Biden even watches Ted Lasso. No matter. It’s all a shameless distraction from the fact that America is declining rapidly before our eyes and China and Russia are moving rapidly to fill the void left by that declining America. What’s more, the contrast between the inanities and insanities at the White House and the cold geopolitical calculations at the Kremlin couldn’t have been starker.
Biden’s America: Decadence, Decline, and Fall
America under Biden has displayed a shocking degree of decadence whereas the upstart autocracies in China and Russia are showing a dangerous degree of discipline.
The kind of discipline one needs to conquer the world.
The Americans are displaying the same level of ambivalence and decadence that Romans living in the end stages of the Western Roman Empire would have recognized. We’ve been so totally self-absorbed as a society that our leaders no longer care about threats amassing at the gates; they’d rather navel-gaze and unironically lecture us about mental health; casting the world through a poorly written television program, while the world is burning.
The window of strategic opportunity for the United States to maintain its dominant position in the world has just about closed.
Here’s another disturbing historical example: it just might be that the world encounters a modern-day Peloponnesian War, with the feisty, democracy-loving, imperialistic Athenians (in this case, the Americans) being outmatched by the stern autocratic militarists of Sparta (in this case, China) and their autocratic allies. The world is about to become a much nastier, less friendly place because we keep electing the wrong leaders. The Ted Lasso summit proves it.
What About Iraq?
Oh, and as a postscript to this, these dueling summits occurred on the same day that the Iraq War began 20 years prior. Not one word was uttered by President Biden or his team about the historical significance of the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. Not one moment of silence. Not one remembrance for the 4,431 Americans who were killed fighting in Iraq over the course of that war.
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Biden didn’t even take the time to make a swipe at former President George W. Bush who arrogated the United States into that conflict 20 years ago (George W. Bush was the “totally like Hitler” Republican president before Donald Trump became the nightmare fuel for Democrats today). No speech warning of the dangers of implementing bad strategy was given by Biden, the man who previously sat atop the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades.
It’s as if it never happened. That’s because it’s all Hollywood, all the time with this crew. A dazzling display of ignorance and ambivalence as the world’s villains plot our demise.
This behavior by our elites is going to get us killed.
Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who serves as a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive.com. Weichert is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower(Republic Book Publishers), The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (March 28), and Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
