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[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
Last week an event took place that illustrates the folly of negotiating with passionate ideologues and autocrats with whom there is no common ground for a meeting of the minds necessary for a true agreement. This practical wisdom, based on human experience going back 28 centuries to Homer, has been forgotten by most modern Western leaders and foreign policy hands, who believe that negotiations, non-lethal “engagement,” and persuasion can override an autocratic adversary’s passionate interests and ambitions that by nature conflict with our own.
The occasion was a three-day, humiliating meeting that our Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, attended in China. As Gatestone Institute’s Gordon Chang reported, “China, literally and figuratively, did not roll out the red carpet for [Blinken’s] arrival in Shanghai on Wednesday. Only a low-level official was on hand to greet Blinken as he stepped off the plane.”
Charles Burton of the Sinopsis think-tank told Gatestone, “Aside from a calculated insult to the dignity of the United States, the move indicates Xi Jinping is making clear that the accepted norms of diplomacy will not be respected by China anymore.”
So much for the “rules-based new world order” that the West thinks the Rest actually follow rather than engage tactically. But that assumption is a delusion, as Beijing has demonstrated even since George W. Bush welcomed China to the World Trade Organization in 2001, whose protocols and rules China has serially violated and gamed. And why shouldn’t it? What have been the material consequences for doing so? Or for ignoring contemptuously our diplomatic statements of “concern,” or other finger-wagging scoldings?
For example, one of Blinken’s tasks, Matt Pottinger writes in the Journal, during his visit was to repeat Joe Biden’s warning to China two years ago not to provide Russia with materiel and resources to support its war in Ukraine. Biden had also claimed that if Xi continued to do so, “he made sure the Chinese president understood he would ‘be putting himself in significant jeopardy’ and risking China’s economic ties with the U.S. and Europe if he materially supported Russia’s war.”
Of course, nothing significant followed Biden’s stern but empty warning. The Secretaries of Commerce and the Treasury did threaten to impose economic sanctions, which apparently concentrated Xi’s mind briefly. But according to the Journal, “In 2023, when the Biden administration applied only token sanctions on Iranian entities that provided thousands of kamikaze drones to the Russians—drones that have saturated Ukrainian air defenses and caused widespread carnage—the Chinese probably decided that Mr. Biden’s bluster was a bluff. In March 2023, Mr. Xi visited the Kremlin in a bold show of solidarity with Mr. Putin. It turned out to be a watershed in Moscow’s war, effectively turning the conflict into a Chinese proxy war with the West.”
Indeed, two years later as Blinken complained to the Chinese last week, their dismissal of Biden’s warnings has led to China becoming “overwhelmingly the No. 1 supplier” of Russia, and the Wall Street Journal pointed out, “fundamentally changed the course of the war.”
Then there’s North Korea, an earlier beneficiary of Western appeasement. The Norks established the modus operandi, now being used by Iran, for gulling the West by playing the “diplomatic engagement” game until they could present the world with a fait accompli of several nuclear weapons. The history compiled by the Arms Control Association documents how the canny Kims survived over three decades of sanctions and flabby threats; pocketed “incentives” and other numerous “quids” without delivering the “quos”; participated in numerous negotiations and summits, and signed a plethora of “agreements” that they have serially violated. Their aim all along had been obvious: possession of nuclear weapons that can be delivered on missiles capable of reaching the U.S.
And now North Korea is working with China and Russia to weaken the Western “rules-based international order” and ultimately replace it with a coalition of illiberal autocracies. The totalitarian triumvirate recently provided an example of their collaboration. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported, “the United Nations panel to monitor North Korean sanctions expired. It did so because in March Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution to extend its mandate. Russia was the only nation on the 15-member Security Council to oppose the extension—though China pointedly abstained.”
The “panel” was one of many “parchment barriers” the West relies on to create the illusion of action when it is politically too costly. Having appeased North Korea by letting it acquire nuclear weapons, useless “sanctions” were imposed, and the panel was created to “monitor” the Norks and write reports to be filed and forgotten. But replacing action with rhetoric is why the UN was created, and how it has, with few exceptions, functioned for 79 years. We should have by now recognized that such machinations by member states in pursuit of national interests would prevail, if only because its precursor, the League of Nations, had failed for the same reasons.
So while the West dithers and prevaricates by inadequately arming Ukraine, and blusters about Putin’s war, Iran provides home-grown drones partly financed with Biden’s billions in danegeld for the mullahs. North Korea is also helping out: the UN sanctions monitor said “a missile recovered from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was a North Korean Hwasong-11 ballistic missile. This is on top of 10,000 containers of military munitions the Kim Jong Un regime has delivered in support of Russia’s war effort.” No word on why the “sanctions” haven’t deterred North Korea or Iran, which has brazenly flouted sanctions for years, and now stands on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them.
Such are the consequences of not learning from history and tradition, the wisdom of those who have come before us.
Instead, we cling to feckless idealism about human nature, and ignore the real, multifaceted diversity of peoples and cultures that belie our arrogant fantasies about the “global community” of nations that want to be just like us––secular, prosperous, tolerant, and peaceful.
No doubt many millions around the world do, but many other millions see our fashionable self-loathing, feckless spending on entitlements, neglect of our military, metastazing government debt, and failure of nerve in the face of our enemies’ challenges, and say “No thanks”–– or strive, like the “axis of evil” 2.0, to replace the West, especially the U.S., as the global hegemon and enforcer of global order.
So here we are, preaching that war is an anomaly, rather than, as Plato said, by nature the default condition of interstate relations, and peace “is only a name.” So we extoll “diplomatic engagement” and negotiated agreements over force, also forgetting the wisdom of Thomas Hobbes: virtues like “justice, equity, modesty, mercy, and, in sum, doing to others as we would be done to, of themselves, without the terror of some power to cause them to be observed, are contrary to our natural passions, that carry us to partiality, pride, revenge, and the like. And covenants, without the sword are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all.”
Finally, we must acknowledge and confront the reality of our enemies’ radically different foundational beliefs and purposes that preclude reasonable and honest negotiation absent a credible threat of force. As Achilles says to the doomed Hector, “argue me no agreements . . . as there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions, nor wolves and lambs have a spirit that can be brought to agreement.”
Until we restore realism to our foreign policy and stop being lambs negotiating with wolves, we will continue to weaken ourselves and strengthen our enemies.
RAM says
Why does anyone assume that our Administration officials are on our side in some way.? The policy of surrender can be viewed as very effective if those involved in its implementation belong to the enemy.
CharlieSeattle says
Israel must take out its true enemies arming and funding Hamas and the Houthis, Iran and the Biden administration!
Domenic Pepe says
Depraved psychopathic murderous berserk Islam has been the wolf and scourge of humanity for 1400 years.
They ain’t going to change now.
Islam is the enemy of America and US citizens and Israel,
just like the wolves are the predators of the lamb prey.
CharlieSeattle says
Get rid of the 44+ Jews, highly placed in the Biden administration, destroying America and Israel!
jewishvirtuallibrary. org/jews-in-the-biden-administration
Ron Klain Chief of Staff (2021-2023), replaced by Jeffrey Zients.
Janet Yellin Secretary of Treasury
Alejandro Mayorkas Secretary of Homeland Security
Tony Blinken Secretary of State
Merrick Garland Attorney General
…and many more traitors!
RAM says
The abandonment of Judaism for socialism has had really bad consequences. Atheist self-idolatry is the new idolatry.
Steve Chavez says
RINO = Republicans in Name Only
CINO = Christians in Name Only
JINO = Jews in Name Only
Domenic Pepe says
Dennis Prager has recently written about why many Jews betray other Jews and Israel.
Prager’s article is titled ” Sick Jews ” and appeared on the Townhall website, May 7, 2024.
Quoting from Prager …
I doubt that there is any national or religious group that produces the percentage of people who aid those who wish to hurt, let alone kill, that group as do Jews.
hen one observes Jews who defend those whose raison d’etre is the annihilation of the one Jewish country on Earth, you have to ask: Why are there no others like them? Were there blacks who defended slavery? Were there Armenians who defended the Turkish mass murder of fellow Armenians during World War I?
It is true that every nation has produced people who work against their nation — particularly during time of war. Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian leader who collaborated with the Nazi occupiers of Norway, is perhaps the best known: The very name “Quisling” is widely used as a synonym for traitor. But even Quisling identified more with fellow Norwegians than Israel-hating Jews identify with fellow Jews.
It turns out that the Jews who side with those who wish to eradicate the one Jewish state and slaughter as many Jews as possible are truly unique.
It is this uniqueness that makes these Jews difficult to explain. Nevertheless, it is important to at least attempt to do so.
Here are two explanations.
1. Psychological Explanations
and
2. Ideological Explanations
john blackman says
i like it , ” a low level official greets a low life blinken ” how apt . we can only hope , and hope is fading fast that this current band of criminals miscreants and empty suits are shown the door come the next election . but im not going to hold my breathe . considering feckless dementia joe still has people clapping when he shows up and sprouts nonsense . the chances of any change from the current imbeciles that have steered the titanic into an iceberg is remote . the last election was fixed and it looks like the next will go the same way .
Steve Chavez says
CHINA, IN ONLY TWO DECADES, is Light-years ahead of us in infrastructure. Bullet trains, modern building, bridges are works of art and built in very little time, dams, twenty-story apartment buildings BUILT IN ONE DAY! (Stacked like Legos with men inside connecting each floor with huge bolts, all electrical, and water/sewer lines.)
(My son has been there three times. Second time, November 2019. Very sick after two days of being home. Doctor: “You have the flu.” COVID! Videos show all.)
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN??? THE EXPORT OF OUR DOLLAR TO CHINA! What’s our trade deficit now? What’s the WORLD deficit with China? They’re buying up The World!
SOLUTION: Bring our factories home…. AND TO OUR HEMISPHERE! To hell with Asia and the Middle East since they ALWAYS STAB US IN THE BACK! No more imports and no more OIL with the Mullahs and Sheiks BLACKMAILING THE WORLD so they can fund our destruction and those of our allies!
TO OUR HEMISPHERE? Yes, help our side of the world, Haiti, and even Cuba which will eventually fall, and already would have if not for the Democratic Party that continuously props them up! Communists aiding Communists! The Communist Dictators will vanish. IF THEY HAVE JOBS THERE, THEY WON’T COME HERE! Guatemalans and Haitians can make Nikes and Apple products too… and it won’t be slave and child labor!
Domenic Pepe says
Stabbing American and US citizens in the back began in earnest with the Clintons in 1993, and has
continued and accelerated and became a national crisis with Obama and Biden.
Craig Hill says
The criminal political class began long before Clinton. It began at least with FDR and quite possibly sooner (Wilson?).
I’ve contended for years that the first significant step toward Marxism was the passage of the 17th amendment in 1913, creating a plebiscite for the election of U.S. Senators. DeMOCKracy you know.
Luz Maria Rodriguez says
China selects their brightest and most industrious for higher education. Of those, their selection process for the ruling class in Beijing is also meant to assure they get the cream of the crop. Thus, the average IQ of their Beijing gov elect surpasses that of Europe and the US. Then topping it off, who would respect someone who whores around the globe like Mr. 10%? China knows more about the inner workings of the corrupt Biden and his corrupt crime family than our own Congress.
Harry Tuttle says
I am not too sure about China “being ahead” infrastructure wise. If you mean building buildings, sure, since a communist country does not have pesky environmental laws, private property, etc. However the quality of their infrastructure is a lot in wanting because they are below subpar quality. Just go to YouTube or Google and search for “tofu-dreg infrastructure” and you will see countless examples of building falling down, major airports’ roofs leaking, and just recently a tragedy where 44 people died and were swept away when a flood weaken a road underneath and half of the road gave way. This happened in the Chinese province of Guangzhou and the unlucky people got swept away after falling to their doom several feet below.
From the videos shown of the collapsed road, it look like not enough material was laid for a solid foundation and basically a thin layer of asphalt was what this road was composed of. Rumor has it that the usual culprits took their share of the road construction budget where there was barely anything for material after the communist officials and construction company took their cut.
Kit_Jefferson says
It;s not wolves this nation is dealing with. Rather it’s a nest of vipers more than ready and quitewilling to strike at any sign of wieakness and Old Joe’s Bunch has shown plent of that.
Luz Maria Rodriguez says
We would be naive to think our worst enemies are not in our Congress. Witness what the Dems did last night in the House with the assistance of the GOP.
It’s done; it’s over.
Intrepid says
So, self-hating Jew Blinken goes to China and gets bitch slapped around by Xi. Perfect.
Netanyahu has to be aware of it so when Blinken went to Israel to push Netanyahu around he probably got told to buzz off and go back to the Demented One. So Joe says to Blinken, “I’ll show him. I’ll withhold weapons just before the Rafah attack.’ Biden is a true friend of Israel….NOT.
But it won’t matter. Israel will do what it needs to do. And they will win militarily which is really all that matters. Who cares about Euro world opinion. They hate Israel already. And the world will be safer without the pre-Human Hamasimians. Screw the little elite college darlings and their smelly keffiyas.
Perhaps Israel should stop shipping their IMI brand ammo to Midway USA for the time being and build up their stock of small arms ammo. I have enough already anyway.
Chris Shugart says
Traditional Diplomacy: The art of saying “nice doggie” while you go look for a big rock.
Biden diplomacy: Saying “nice doggie” while you go look for some ice cream.
James Glynn says
You are right. Lambs negotiating with wolves to not be devoured all at once.
Roark says
Everyone must watch this important message on the malevolent Biden regime and their abhorrent treatment of Israel, our greatest ally. Caroline Glick breaks it all down:
Please pass this on to all people who love freedom. We must stand with Israel 🇮🇱
Onzeur Trante says
Everything about the Biden-Blinken “diplomacy” is despicable. Need one say more?
SPURWING PLOVER says
Biden is a Globalists and he surrounds himself with llike minded types that same from the underside of a Rock in the middle of nowhere
Craig Hill says
Biden is a demented idiot. He wouldn’t know what a globalist is. His administration is run by Obama using Susan Rice as the conduit.
Funny says
What right does the United States have to tell China who they can or cannot sell weapons to when we sell weapons to Israel for their war and the Arab world sells or gives weapons to the Hamas? Don’t forget all the other nations selling or giving weapons to other nations. Why are we providing weapons to Taiwan? We have been doing this for many many years. Don’t forget World War I and II as well.