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U.S. President Joe Biden. /Xinhua
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"Compared to four years ago, America is strong. Our alliances are stronger. Our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen," U.S. President Joe Biden sought to burnish his foreign policy record in a speech during his final week in the Oval Office.
Interestingly, as the outgoing president boasted about his foreign policy "accomplishments" in the Middle East, Ukraine and Afghanistan at the State Department, protesters were gathering outside the building shouting "Genocide Joe" and throwing red liquid intended to look like blood in a gesture of protest against Biden's failure in stopping the killing of civilians.
Middle East: Rhetoric vs. reality
Despite its de-escalating rhetoric, the Biden administration has been widely criticized for pushing the Middle East toward a full-blown regional war. While the international community aims to free hostages and allow a surge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Biden's team has been consistently providing military support to Israel since the outbreak of conflict on October 7, 2023, blocking repeated efforts by the UN Security Council to pass ceasefire resolutions.
"Since October 7, we've seen a sharp increase in the transfer of arms to Israel both through the speeding up of previously authorized transfers and through the ramming through Congress of so-called emergency sales of thousands of rounds of tanks, ammunition and alternative shells," Josh Paul, a former senior State Department official, wrote in a declaration condemning Biden's support for the Gaza conflict.
So far, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Reuters. But Washington has repeatedly vetoed the UN Security Council's resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire, drawing accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
But this did not stop Biden from boasting about his foreign policy legacies. Unsurprisingly, Biden hailed Washington's support for Israel in defeating Iran-backed adversaries in his Monday speech. "All told, Iran is weaker than it's been in decades," Biden said. For the Biden administration, using Israel to consolidate its hegemony in the Middle East is much more important than the suffering of the innocent people in Gaza.
People gather at a building destroyed in an Israeli bombing in the center of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, January 2, 2025. /Xinhua
"If you give Biden credit for having helped prevent the region from falling off the cliff… you must also give him credit for helping bring the region to the edge of the cliff in the first place by refusing to restrain Israel and blocking a ceasefire," Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the U.S.-based think tank Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Ukraine: A costly gamble
Geopolitical calculations, rather than regional stability, have also turned out to be the prime concern in Biden's handling of the Ukraine crisis. As the international community urges peace in Ukraine, the Biden administration has been prioritizing NATO's expansion and the need to suppress Russia over others. In his Monday speech, Biden, instead of self-reflecting on the heavy costs of his Ukraine policy, boasted about his "accomplishment" of thwarting Russia from "wiping" Ukraine off the map. "Truth is, since that war began, I'm the only one that stood in the center of Kyiv," Biden touted his 2023 visit to Ukraine as the first by a sitting president to a war zone outside the control of U.S. forces.
Biden's rhetoric, as Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova put on Telegram, amounted to an acknowledgement that "U.S. support for Kyiv created the risk of triggering a nuclear confrontation with Russia" and "an admission of a deliberately executed provocation." "The Biden administration knew it was pushing the world toward the brink and still chose to escalate the conflict," Zakharova added.
Such provocation, apparently, is not for the well-being of local people but for the need to expand U.S. influence against Russia – at the cost of regional peace and stability.
Afghanistan: A withdrawal fraught with failures
Biden in his Monday speech, also emphasized that he has been the president to end Washington's involvement in its longest war in Afghanistan. The fact is – the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has been labeled as the most glaring foreign policy failure: the Taliban expanded its control across the country and allies supporting American troops were left behind.
"Images of Afghans clinging onto military planes in hopes of escape and U.S. military weapons left behind and paraded about by the Taliban became emblematic of the missteps leading up to the evacuation," CBS News said in its article.
China and the costs of U.S. protectionism
Biden's remarks on China were even more astonishing, "According to the latest predictions, on China's current course they will never surpass the U.S. – period." While China, aiming for multi-win results, has no intention to challenge the United States, Washington's zero-sum mentality will eventually backfire in the era of global integration. As China has been opening its door wider to the outside world, Biden's tariffs and a slew of other protectionist measures have been crippling the global competitiveness of American industries.
Biden's stay in the Oval Office has dragged the U.S. into an awkward situation. "The United States is immersed in a massive war on the European continent with serious escalation risks; it's back to bombing the Middle East with no end in sight; and it has entered into a full-spectrum strategic rivalry with China," CBS quoted Stephen Wertheim, historian and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying. This is perhaps the best conclusion of Biden's foreign policy "accomplishments" in the past four years.
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