In a 1983 address to the nation President Ronald Reagan said that the “most basic duty [of] any President” is “to protect and strengthen the peace.”
President Biden and the radical Democrats have failed in that most fundamental duty, leading us on a regressive path to national weakness.
They have completely failed to secure our southern border. They have stifled America’s energy production and subverted our global energy dominance. They have failed to invest in our national defense. They presided over the tragic, humiliating debacle of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in 13 service members losing their lives and armed the Taliban with billions of dollars of American military gear. They tried to appease Iran and ended up precipitating the brutal Hamas attack against our ally Israel that killed at least 29 Americans.
Biden has emboldened our enemies and compromised our national security.
Reagan’s answer in 1983 was “peace through our strength.” With this strategy, he took America from the abyss of the Carter presidency to winning the Cold War, bringing down the Berlin Wall and dismantling the Soviet Union.
Our country’s economic and military strength is the key to deterring bad actors from attacking the United States, our allies and our vital interests. As Reagan said, “weakness only invites aggression.”
As China invests heavily in its military and terrorist threats expand across the globe, Biden has failed to invest in defense, leading to a decline in U.S. military power that threatens our national security. The Air Force is now the smallest, oldest and least ready it has ever been in its 75-year history. The Navy fleet is steadily shrinking as Biden’s Secretary of the Navy says climate change is the top priority. The Army and Marine Corps have been contracting year over year.
This deterioration of our military capability signals weakness to our enemies around the world, including Iran.
The Iranian regime aims to destroy Israel, dominate the Middle East and become a nuclear power. In the wake of the Hamas invasion of Israel, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proclaimed that “God willing, the cancer [of Israel] will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestine people.” To that end, Iran has trained, armed and funded terrorist groups like Hamas.
There is no rational negotiation possible with Iran and its terrorist partners like Hamas. They will never accept any peace that includes the existence of Israel.
Biden and his advisors should have known better than to attempt negotiations with Iran. Instead, for three years the Biden administration has senselessly sought to appease Iran in an effort to revive an Obama-era nuclear deal that fails to truly protect America and the world against Iran becoming a nuclear power.
Upon his election, Biden ended the Trump administration’s maximum pressure strategy against Iran, including relaxing the enforcement of sanctions on Iranian oil sales. This allowed Iran to increase its oil exports substantially, mostly to China, and the resulting influx of $30-40 billion in oil revenue enabled Iran to fund and arm Hamas. Additional funding for Iran came when Biden unfroze $6 billion of Iranian assets in exchange for the release of five Americans in September.
Iran conned Biden. Playing along with Biden’s desperate ambition for a nuclear deal so that Biden would ease sanctions, Iran reaped tens of billions of dollars while staying focused on its true mission of exporting terrorism and destroying Israel.
Like Reagan, after four years of decline under Carter, Republicans must lead the way to restore America. This will require rebuilding our military power, securing our southern border and unleashing America’s energy production to restore our energy dominance, not only replenishing our strategic petroleum reserve but significantly increasing that reserve.
And as for Iran, the world’s most active state sponsor and exporter of terrorism, there can be no peace in the Middle East unless the U.S. contains Iran. Biden must, at a minimum, immediately shut down Iran’s chief source of revenue by reinstituting and aggressively enforcing strict sanctions against Iran’s oil exports.
Biden’s legacy is one of national weakness that has emboldened our enemies. It is now time for Americans to unite to restore a strong America. Our future, freedom and national security depend on it.