Caroline Glick is one of the most astute observers of events in Israel as well as in the U.S. I was privileged to meet her when we were both speakers at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend a year and a half ago. Scott made this column by Caroline a “pick” a day or two ago, but I think it deserves more attention.
Glick addresses the seeming weirdness of the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations taking an anti-American line:
Taken at face value, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield’s condemnation of the United States in a speech last week before Al Sharpton’s National Action Network was one of the most bizarre statements made by a diplomat—from the U.S. or, indeed, from anywhere—in recent years.
In her remarks, Thomas-Greenfield castigated the U.S. as inherently, irredeemably evil. “I have seen for myself how the original sin of slavery weaved white supremacy into our founding documents and principles,” America’s woman at the United Nations said.
While bizarre to the uninformed, it turns out Thomas-Greenfield’s remarks were simply her stump speech. She gave the same one—nearly verbatim—at the UN last month.
What can possibly be going on here?
The most basic job of a diplomat—for any country—is to put a good face on his or her country before the nations of the world. At the UN, an institution dominated by tyrannies, the U.S faces isolation as a matter of course. For the most part, the only U.S. initiatives at the UN that have succeeded have been those that directly support rogue actors—like then-President Barack Obama‘s decision to rejoin the dictator-controlled, anti-American and anti-Semitic Human Rights Council, as well as his decision to legitimize Iran’s nuclear program.
By repeatedly attacking and condemning her own country, Thomas-Greenfield was telling her fellow UN ambassadors two things. First, they have no reason to take seriously anything the U.S. says about human rights in their own countries. By accusing her own nation of using private prisons to “warehouse young black and brown men,” Thomas-Greenfield signaled to the regimes of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, Cuba and fellow tyrannies to go ahead and abuse their own citizens “just like America.”
It gets even worse:
Second, Thomas-Greenfield signaled that the U.S. is surrendering its leadership of the free world and is instead reverting to the Obama administration’s policy of “leading from behind” at the UN by adopting positions that are advantageous to U.S. foes.
But why would Joe Biden appoint a U.N. Ambassador who tries to damage America and help its enemies? By any normal standard, this is irrational. I think Caroline’s explanation is the correct one. Joe Biden and those who actually run his administration don’t care about foreign policy. This quote follows examples of the Biden administration’s supporting America’s enemies:
Trying to place the Biden administration’s policy of national humiliation into a recognizable doctrine of foreign policy is impossible. All U.S. foreign policy doctrines, from the isolationist school to the liberal internationalist school, begin with their agreement that U.S. foreign policy should aim to advance U.S. interests, and that those interests reflect the fact that the U.S. is a moral and exceptional country. Instead, the Biden administration’s policy begins with the assertion that the U.S is an immoral and unexceptional nation, without the right to expect or receive the respect of others, or to advance its own national interest.
America’s allies are stunned by the administration’s behavior. And America’s enemies are quick to capitalize on it: China’s $400 billion strategic partnership with Iran is a direct corollary of Biden’s masochistic behavior in Vienna.
The only way to understand Biden foreign policy doctrine is by recognizing that it isn’t a foreign policy doctrine at all. It is an extension of Biden’s domestic genuflection to the radicals who control his own party. This genuflection takes the Biden administration’s embrace of critical race theory in domestic law enforcement, public health, immigration and economic policies and projects it out onto the world stage. The purpose is not to advance America’s interests in the world. Rather, the purpose is to signal to the fanatical progressives who run the modern Democratic Party that Biden is their man in the White House.
I think that is correct. And the Biden administration is unapologetic:
When asked whether Biden would fire Thomas-Greenfield in light of her use of Chinese Foreign Ministry talking points to attack America, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki scoffed. “Most people recognize the history of systemic racism in our country,” she said dismissively.
So, that’s that. Politics no longer stops at the water’s end—or in Tehran, or Beijing. Politics defines America, both at home and abroad.
The far Left has seized the reins of power and is doing everything it can to destroy–or, if you prefer, “fundamentally transform”–our country. Normal Americans must fight back with every legal and honorable tool at our disposal.
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