“We’re walking down a dark path”

There have been so many newsworthy events lately—President Trump threatening to decertify the Iran agreement, a Russian official saying that North Korea plans to test a missile this Monday that it thinks can just reach the US West Coast, another hurricane warning for the Gulf Coast—that there is too much to choose from when it comes to a choice of reading materials.

But this story from The Guardian about how former Vice President Joseph Biden warned of America “going down a dark path” in his acceptance speech for an award from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, probably strikes closest to home: A former US vice-president, urging the foreign policy establishment to make a stand.

The article says that “…Biden, 74, speaking to an invited audience at a think tank, decided to let rip.”

The piece goes on to report that the auditorium was packed, with many people standing, and hushed as he offered a damning verdict on the Trump presidency. Biden said: “Among the many problems plaguing this administration’s foreign policy: ideological incoherence, inconsistent and confusing messaging, erratic decision-making, unwillingness or inability to solve problems caused by understaffing… The president’s vision, in contrast, is grounded in a disturbing admiration for autocrats and an apparent faith that the world will mistake bluster and bullying for strength.”

Elsewhere in that same speech, Biden said: “To stand in the well of the [UN] general assembly, and wave the flag of narrow nationalism, while warning of a future vulnerable to ‘decay, dominion and defeat’ marks a dangerous revision of political small-mindedness that led the world to consume itself in two world wars in the last century, and it abandons America’s hard-won position as the indispensable nation, as a leader that inspires more than fear.”

Biden continued: “I really feel incredibly strongly that the women and men sitting before me, who have been the intellectual backbone of the foreign policy establishment in this country for decades, have to start to speak out.” He said: “President Obama and I have been very quiet and respectful, giving the administration time, but some of these roots are being sunk too deeply. I believe it’s time to challenge some of the dangerous assumptions that are attempting to replace that liberal world order.”