The Dangerous Vacuum

While Washington is abuzz over the presidential campaign, what about America’s place in the world between now and noon on January 20? The political drama, starring George Clooney and a cast of thousands, may be about the 25th Amendment, or otherwise easing President Biden out of office. The global story, though, is about the fact that international relations abhors a vacuum. America’s enemies are grinning like Cheshire Cats. You can bet your last fiat dollar that Chairman Xi, President Putin, Supreme Leader Khamenei, and the North Korean scion aren’t sitting idly by until our democracy sorts itself out. From the Sahel in Africa, through Lebanon and the Red Sea, to the South China Sea, to the Rio Grande, they will be taking aggressive actions and plotting ways to advance their goals. Mr. Biden has given them the opening. They’re calculating what might be possible. As Mr. Biden attempts to prove his vitality by hosting the leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Mr. Putin gives a bear hug to America’s hoped-for Asian ally, Prime Minister Modi. While the Indian rightist was on his way to Moscow, Mr. Putin’s missiles targeted a Kyiv hospital for cancer-stricken children. Prior to the summit, a NATO member, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, visited Moscow, then stopped at Beijing for tea with Mr. Xi.* While NATO was crafting a blithe statement, Mr. Putin was wondering if his time to move beyond Ukraine is now. Say, did you catch the story that Belarus is hosting joint maneuvers with the Red Chinese — on the Polish border? Mr. Xi is seizing Philippine territory. On Wednesday Communist China magnanimously “allowed” the evacuation of a sick Filipino man from the Second Thomas Shoal, in Manila’s exclusive economic zone.Apparently the Biden administration is too busy to notice. Or care. “The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability,” Mr. Xi said in a year-end speech last December, according to a Reuters translation. Beijing watchers speculate that an invasion of Free China will occur on the People Liberation Army’s 100th anniversary in 2027. With America’s meandering state, though, Mr. Xi could order an invasion during the next six months.Beijing also uses the moment to dominate our hemisphere. Lefty Latin leaders prefer business with the Eastern Communists to their neighbor in el Norte. Before visiting Mr. Xi last month, Peru’s President Boluarte paved the way to the completion of a Beijing-controlled $1.3 billion megaport. The Panama Canal-size project would shorten the routes from resource-rich South America to China, bypassing America. Time to page President Monroe?Now could also be an opportune time for the mullahs at Tehran. Several Iran watchers say that Iran’s previous goal was to be on the nuclear threshold. Now Mr. Khamenei desires an actual nuclear-armed Islamic Republic. Why not? Mr. Biden has waffled on Israel while Iran proxies attack. He also lacks any serious plan to slow Tehran’s dash to a bomb. American weakness and inability to tell foes from friends provide an opening. When Mr. Biden acceded, Iran’s oil export was at a nadir owing to a tightly-enforced American embargo. This year Iran sold an average of 1.6 million barrels a day, mostly to Communist China. That’s up from a low of less than 400,000 a day in 2020. The lucre helped oil the mullahs’ regional war machine and pay for the advances toward an A-bomb. It also freed up funds to finance anti-Israel protests on American and European streets, the White House says.Yet Vice President Harris, as our Novi Zhukovsky marks, says, “I understand the emotion” animating the protests. Huh? She is next in line to lead the free world. Not to worry. Aides whisper that all is fine on the foreign policy front. Sure hands, we are told, are running things like clockwork. Even after 8 p.m. Yet these are the same whisperers who for months vouched for Mr. Biden’s vitality. No wonder the Cheshire Cats are grinning.________* The Hungarian prime minister was due to lunch today with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

The Dangerous Vacuum

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