President Joe Biden was blasted by MSNBC opinion columnist Zeeshan Aleem for his latest “bumbling” foreign policy statement on Taiwan. Some people called it a gaffe, others did not. However, this is so bad that even leftist networks are shunning Biden over his remarks.
WATCH what Joe Biden said on video as he gets shredded:
The president’s claim that the U.S. would “militarily intervene” if China invades Taiwan that the administration had to walk back was bashed by Aleem, who said that it’s part of a “troubling pattern” that could “unwittingly” signal to U.S. adversaries that the country “is more inclined toward war than it is.” Aleem also slammed Biden’s words for revealing “a lack of clarity born of incompetence or indiscipline rather than a deliberate decision” on his part.
“The confrontational statement marked a sharp departure from the U.S. policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan that has prevailed for decades.”
“But shortly after his remarks, Biden’s administration downplayed the statement, saying that the president had in fact not meant to signal a policy change, and that the usual U.S. posture on Taiwan remained intact,” Aleem wrote.
These remarks from Biden and the subsequent White House walk backs are “becoming a familiar pattern: Biden makes a bold statement expressing a new degree of readiness for war with a rival or adversary like China or Russia, and then his own staff walks it back,” commented the author, per a report.
Aleem said this puts the nation in a precarious situation: “It’s also becoming a troubling pattern — while domestic audiences can laugh off Biden’s gaffes and missteps, there is no guarantee foreign powers will give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“Biden is marring the credibility of his own speech, and potentially unwittingly causing the U.S.’s opponents to come to the conclusion that the U.S. is more inclined toward war than it is,” he commented.
During the Taiwan gaffe, Biden specifically told a reporter that militarily defending Taiwan from China was “the commitment we made,” the columnist noted, and then Aleem denounced the claim, writing, “That is in fact not the commitment the U.S. has made. The traditional posture of the U.S. is to deliberately not specify what the U.S. would do in response to a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.”
“It’s a delicate, paradox-laden policy space that requires careful maneuvering and nuance — and one Biden should know well,” Aleem added.