I Have a Knack for Divination
I’m not going to feign a modesty that, like all writers, I lack. I’m pleased to quote myself: “Beyond bombing, the White House’s only foreign contribution these days is sending Antony Blinken around the world’s conflicts, often to be laughed at to his face by America’s enemies, paler and more haggard than ever.” I wrote this in The American Spectator two years ago, on Jan. 24, 2024. In that same article: “The Democrats’ favorite way to manage foreign diplomacy is to bomb random places every few years.” Sometimes it’s worth looking back to see what we had and compare it with what we have now. The world was adrift in the hands of imbeciles and of China and Russia, who are bad but not idiots. Not today. Today, Papa Trump is at the helm. And that is saving us from disappearance. (RELATED: A Nation Adrift Must Become Great Again)
Joe Biden had enough on his plate just slowly navigating the White House without bumping into the walls. His favorite pastime was walking into the Oval Office, standing there, and asking, “What the hell was I looking for here?” Then he’d spin a globe, randomly point at a country, and drop bombs. No sooner had he taken office than he bombed Syria after an attack on American troops in Iraq. He also bombed Libya, which Biden most likely couldn’t distinguish from Syria, because they sound similar. And he also bombed Yemen and Somalia, where bombs are already exploding anyway, whether from his side or the other.
This bellicose foreign policy, through which Biden reaped failure after failure, greatly amused the Democrats and prompted jubilant editorials in The New York Times. Trump’s bombs, on the other hand, are fascist and are said to risk provoking World War III. One phenomenon yet to be studied is the scientific miracle whereby missiles deliver only cotton-candy caresses when launched by the left, and leave death, blood, and destruction when launched by the right. Be that as it may, Trump has better aim. With a small fireworks display, he grabbed Maduro by the mustache and threw him in prison. (RELATED: A Merry Ballad for a Weeping Mustache)
From a pragmatic point of view, the difference between Biden’s and Trump’s military actions is that Trump’s actually serve a purpose. On one hand, they infuriate the left, which is always amusing. On the other hand, with a single blow, he toppled Maduro, so now when he warns Iran to watch where it puts its hands, the turbaned idiots take him seriously. The same logic applies to economic warfare. With Cuba’s funding channels through Venezuelan oil cut off, Trump expects the Havana regime to collapse on its own. The president said the United States could go in and destroy everything — but he said it like a boxer who refuses to hit an opponent who is sick, skinny, and already knocked out.
When you are not feared, international diplomacy is merely an excuse for evil to spread endlessly, cloaked in fine words.
Diplomacy is an intelligent and very useful tool when your opponents respect you. When you are not feared, international diplomacy is merely an excuse for evil to spread endlessly, cloaked in fine words. In that respect, Biden’s foreign policy is very similar to the approach the European Union has been taking for years. The French and Germans tend to tighten their ties, practice John Wayne expressions in front of the mirror, yet barely manage to look anything other than Rowan Atkinson from Mr. Bean. Nobody respects the EU, starting with its own citizens.
Putin felt some compassion for Biden, but he respects Trump. The same can be said of Xi Jinping, of von der Leyen — who is terrified of him — and of Colombian president Gustavo Petro. And let’s not forget that respect for a head of government is not personal, but national. Respecting Trump actually means respecting the interests of the United States and its citizens.
Perhaps it is impolite of me to admit that, in that article, at least for once, I was right about everything. I concluded: “If Donald Trump wants to return to the White House, he will not only have to defeat Haley first and then Biden. In fact, he will have to defeat an entire global media war. If anyone is capable of pulling something like that off, it’s him. If they let him.” And that is exactly what is happening. The United States is embroiled in a global war: a war for its sovereignty, an economic war, a defensive war, a geostrategic war, and a cultural war.
Peace is all well and good. But even for a Christian who sees the foundations of his civilization threatened, a good war is always preferable to a bad peace. It is a good moment, then, to recall a phrase attributed to Churchill, which I am convinced he would have loved to say, though he never did: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” We, the conservatives of 2026, on the contrary, stand with Reagan of 1983: “American strength is a sheltering arm for peace and freedom in an often dangerous world. And strength is the most persuasive argument we have to convince our adversaries to give up their hostile intentions, to negotiate seriously, and to stop bullying other nations. In the real world, peace through strength must be our motto.”
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