By Ray McGovern, June 21, 2021
The Critical Hour interviewed me today for any further impressions I had — especially with respect to Biden’s benighted comments on China at his solo press conference (no Putin; no Russian journalists allowed), and later at the airport before he departed Geneva.
The Chinese Squeeze
To remind, here is the bizarre way in which Biden described, at the post-summit presser, his approach to Putin on China:
“Without quoting him [Putin] — which I don’t think is appropriate — let me ask a rhetorical question: You got a multi-thousand-mile border with China. China is seeking to be the most powerful economy in the world and the largest and the most powerful military in the world.”
(Sotto voce: You better think about that, “killer” Putin. A billion and a half are a lot of people to kill. … And such a long border. Just saying.)
Joe, PLEASE!, get on the plane, his co-travelers pleaded, but they could not stop the blather. Before boarding, Biden shared with the media still more wisdom — this time on China’s strategic “squeezing” of Russia:
“… let me choose my words. Russia is in a very, very difficult spot right now. They are being squeezed by China.”
There is no escaping the conclusion that the President is out to lunch on this key issue, even (or maybe especially!) when he chooses his words carefully.
When are his rising-junior advisers going to let him in on the fact that Russia and China have never been closer — that, indeed, they have what amounts to a virtual military alliance? This would seem to be an important thing to make sure Biden learns — and remembers.
But alas! The president has already put his foot in his mouth. Will his courtiers avoid correcting him out of fear that he might kill the messenger? (Figuratively speaking, of course. Banishing them back to a one or another Democratic “think tank” would be more likely.)
Or, worse still, do those wet-behind-the-ears advisers share the view that China is “squeezing” Putin? Did they perhaps acquire that “intelligence” from a paid FBI informant who talked to a seemingly well-informed driver in the Chinese motor pool in Anchorage?
The Handwriting on the Wall
I was reminded recently of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Bearer of Evil Tidings”, about a messenger headed to Belshazzar’s court to deliver bad news to King Belshazzar. The messenger suddenly remembers that bad news is a very “dangerous thing to bear,” so he runs away rather than risk the monarch’s wrath.
Will the Blinken-Sullivan dynamic duo also run away? Whether they run or stay I fear Biden and his team are in for a rude awakening. They soon enough will know the evil tidings.
Here are Frost’s final lines from “The Bearer of Evil Tidings”:
As for his evil tidings,
Belshazzar’s overthrow,
Why hurry to tell Belshazzar
What soon enough he would know?