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ROSS CLARK
Joe Biden’s legacy was unmatched like Kamala Harris said but not for the reason she thinks
Sleepy Joe was supposed to reconnect America with the international community after the exile of the Trump years
KAMALA Harris was very kind to outgoing President Joe Biden after he stepped down and anointed her as his successor, describing his legacy as “unmatched in modern history”.
She is not wrong there. But perhaps not for the reasons she would like us all to think.
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If Joe Biden’s tenure has been unmatched in anything, it is for its catastrophic consequences.
Sleepy Joe was supposed to reconnect America with the international community after the exile of the Trump years.
The US would be back at the table tackling terrorism, climate change and everything else.
So why did it go so wrong?
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Biden had only been in office six months when he declared, as US troops continued to withdraw from Afghanistan, “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely”.
A few weeks later, that’s what happened, with US forces suffering the humiliation of an evacuation at Kabul airport.
It is true that it was Donald Trump who began the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, but it was Biden who made America look weak.
Vladimir Putin couldn’t fail to have noticed.
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Sensing a weak president, he seized his opportunity and invaded Ukraine.
Biden egged him on by shutting down Volodymyr Zelensky’s suggestion that Ukraine was heading for Nato membership.
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When Putin’s tanks massed on the border in January 2022, Biden further emboldened Putin by suggesting the US might be minded to tolerate a “minor incursion” into Ukraine.
In the event Putin launched a full-scale invasion.
For Zelensky to be mistakenly called “President Putin” by Biden the other week was the final insult.
Biden backed Israel’s right to defend itself like any US president would have done.
But you would have expected him to wield his influence and make sure that road crossings to Gaza remained open to allow Palestinians to get hold of vital supplies.
'Trade war against own allies'
The US was reduced to dropping aid by aeroplane.
The US then tried to take aid in by ship, with an emergency jetty that collapsed.
Donald Trump seemed to know how to handle dictators like Kim Jong-un.
But Biden invites the world’s strong men to treat him with contempt, acting feebly towards the threat they pose.
As for climate change, the US rejoined the Paris agreement, from which Trump withdrew.
But what happened? Trump passed a law offering bungs to consumers who bought American-made electric cars, heat pumps and other eco-bling.
He was accused of starting a trade war against China.
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Biden, by contrast, has declared a trade war against his own allies — and used the climate as an excuse to do so.
We will have few reasons to miss him and his unmatched achievements.
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