{"id":75986,"date":"2021-03-13T05:34:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T05:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=173462"},"modified":"2021-03-13T05:34:16","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T05:34:16","slug":"ten-problems-with-bidens-foreign-policy-and-one-solution-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/03\/13\/ten-problems-with-bidens-foreign-policy-and-one-solution-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Problems With Biden\u2019s Foreign Policy and One Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies \/ March 12th, 2021<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n The Biden presidency is still in its early days, but it\u2019s not too early to point to areas in the foreign policy realm where we, as progressives, have been disappointed \u2014 or even infuriated.<\/p>\n There are one or two positive developments, such as the renewal of Obama\u2019s New START Treaty with Russia and Secretary of State Blinken\u2019s initiative<\/a> for a UN-led peace process in Afghanistan, where the United States is finally turning to peace as a last resort, after 20 years lost in the graveyard of empires<\/a>.<\/p>\n By and large, though, Biden\u2019s foreign policy already seems stuck in the militarist quagmire of the past twenty years, a far cry from his campaign promise to reinvigorate diplomacy as the primary tool of U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n In this respect, Biden is following in the footsteps of Obama<\/a> and Trump<\/a>, who both promised fresh approaches to foreign policy but for the most part delivered more endless war.<\/p>\n By the end of his second term, Obama did have two significant diplomatic achievements with the signing of the Iran nuclear deal and normalization of relations with Cuba. So progressive Americans who voted for Biden had some grounds to hope that his experience as Obama\u2019s vice-president would lead him to quickly restore and build on Obama\u2019s achievements with Iran and Cuba as a foundation for the broader diplomacy he promised.<\/p>\n Instead, the Biden administration seems firmly entrenched behind the walls of hostility Trump built between America and our neighbors, from his renewed Cold War against China and Russia to his brutal sanctions against Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Syria and dozens of countries around the world, and there is still no word on cuts to a military budget<\/a> that has grown by 15% since FY2015 (inflation-adjusted).<\/p>\n Despite endless Democratic condemnations of Trump, Biden\u2019s foreign policy so far shows no substantive change from the policies of the past four years. Here are ten of the lowlights:<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s withdrawal from the JCPOA and imposition of brutal \u201cmaximum pressure\u201d sanctions on Iran were broadly condemned by Democrats and U.S. allies alike. But now Biden is making new demands on Iran to appease hawks who opposed the agreement all along, risking an outcome in which he will fail to reinstate the JCPOA and Trump\u2019s policy will effectively become his policy. The Biden administration should re-enter the deal immediately, without preconditions.<\/p>\n The U.S. attack in Syria has been condemned as illegal by members of Biden\u2019s own party, reinvigorating efforts to repeal the 2001 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force that presidents have misused for 20 years. Other airstrikes<\/a> the Biden administration is conducting in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are shrouded in secrecy, since it has not resumed publishing the monthly Airpower Summaries<\/a> that every other administration has published since 2004<\/a>, but which Trump discontinued a year ago.<\/p>\n At the very least, the administration should have imposed the same sanctions on MBS, including asset freezes and travel bans, that the U.S. imposed<\/a> on lower-level figures involved in the murder. Instead, like Trump, Biden is wedded to the Saudi dictatorship and its diabolical Crown Prince.<\/p>\n The administration also said it was in \u201cno rush\u201d to lift the Trump sanctions despite a recent study<\/a> from the Government Accountability Office detailing their negative impact on the economy, and a scathing preliminary report<\/a> by a UN Special Rapporteur, who noted their \u201cdevastating effect on the whole population of Venezuela.\u201d The lack of dialogue with all political actors in Venezuela risks entrenching a policy of regime change and economic warfare for years to come, similar to the failed U.S. policy towards Cuba that has lasted for 60 years.<\/p>\n We expected Biden to immediately start unraveling Trump\u2019s confrontational policies, but catering to Cuban exiles in Florida for domestic political gain apparently takes precedence over a humane and rational policy towards Cuba, for Biden as for Trump.<\/p>\n Biden should instead start working with the Cuban government to allow the return of diplomats to their respective embassies, lift all restrictions on remittances, make travel easier, and work with the Cuban health system in the fight against COVID-19, among other measures.<\/p>\n The greatest danger of this moment in history, short of all-out nuclear war, is that this aggressive U.S. military posture not only justifies unlimited U.S. military budgets, but will gradually force China to convert its economic success into military power and follow the United States down the tragic path of military imperialism.<\/p>\n Unilateral sanctions that affect entire populations are an illegal form of coercion, like military intervention, coups and covert operations, that have no place in a legitimate foreign policy based on diplomacy, the rule of law and the peaceful resolution of disputes. They are especially cruel and deadly during a pandemic and the Biden administration should take immediate action by lifting broad sectoral sanctions to ensure every country can adequately respond to the pandemic.<\/p>\n We think he should stop ALL weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, enforcing the Leahy Law<\/a> that prohibits military assistance to forces that commit gross human rights violations, and the Arms Export Control Act<\/a>, under which imported U.S. weapons may be used only for legitimate self defense. There should be no exceptions to these U.S. laws for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Israel, Egypt or other U.S. allies around the world.<\/p>\n The U.S. should also accept its share of responsibility for what many have called the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, and provide Yemen with funding to feed its people, restore its health care system and rebuild its devastated country. A recent donor conference<\/a> netted just $1.7 billion in pledges, less than half the $3.85 billion needed. Biden should restore and expand USAID funding and U.S. financial support to the UN, WHO and World Food Program relief operations in Yemen. He should also press the Saudis to reopen the air and seaports, and throw U.S. diplomatic weight behind the efforts of U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths to negotiate a ceasefire.<\/p>\n The Biden administration should revive the diplomatic process with confidence-building measures such as opening liaison offices, easing sanctions, facilitating reunions between Korean-American and North Korean families, permitting U.S. humanitarian organizations to resume their work when COVID conditions permit, and halting U.S.-South Korea military exercises and B-2 nuclear bomb flights.<\/p>\n Negotiations must involve concrete commitments to non-aggression from the U.S. side and a commitment to negotiating a peace agreement to formally end the Korean War. This would pave the way for a denuclearized Korean Peninsula and the reconciliation that so many Koreans desire \u2014 and deserve.<\/p>\n Now the military-industrial complex is counting on Biden to escalate a renewed Cold War with Russia and China as the only plausible pretext for further record military budgets that are setting the stage for World War III.<\/p>\n Biden must dial back U.S. conflicts with China and Russia, and instead begin the critical task of moving money from the Pentagon to urgent domestic needs. He should start with at least the 10 percent cut that 93 Representatives and 23 Senators already voted for. In the longer term, Biden should look for deeper cuts in Pentagon spending, as in Rep. Barbara Lee\u2019s bill to cut $350 billion<\/a> per year from the U.S. military budget, to free up resources we sorely need to invest in health care, education, clean energy and modern infrastructure.<\/p>\n A Progressive Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n These policies, common to Democratic and Republican administrations, not only inflict pain and suffering on millions of our neighbors in other countries, but also deliberately cause instability that can at any time escalate into war, plunge a formerly functioning state into chaos or spawn a secondary crisis whose human consequences will be even worse than the original one.<\/p>\n All these policies involve deliberate efforts to unilaterally impose the political will of U.S. leaders on other people and countries, by methods that consistently only cause more pain and suffering to the people they claim \u2013 or pretend \u2013 they want to help.<\/p>\n Biden should jettison the worst of Obama\u2019s and Trump\u2019s policies, and instead pick the best of them. Trump, recognizing the unpopular nature of U.S. military interventions, began the process of bringing U.S troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, which Biden should follow through on.<\/p>\n Obama\u2019s diplomatic successes with Cuba, Iran and Russia demonstrated that negotiating with U.S. enemies to make peace, improve relations and make the world a safer place is a perfectly viable alternative to trying to force them to do what the United States wants by bombing, starving and besieging their people. This is, in fact, the core principle of the United Nations Charter<\/a>, and it should be the core principle of Biden\u2019s foreign policy<\/p>\n\n
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