Biden Administration Is Doing Well, But the President Has Made Two Huge Mistakes
By: Pedro Paulo Batista Brandstetter
Tags: Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Israel, Palestine

Before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, most would say that former president Mr. Donald Trump would have a fierce 2020 election against his Democratic opponent. With a rapid economic growth in the USA, Mr. Trump gained support from most low-income and low middle class white working force. Albeit his innumerous attempts to create a democratic backslide in the country, Mr. Trump always had his foundation on his gun passionate rednecks and anti-migration crowd. His approval oscillated from 35% to 49% in three years, according to Gallup, but never reached 50%. But still, by January and March 2020, he had almost half of the American population by his side, surfing on the economic growth and low unemployment rhetoric amidst abuses of presidential pardons, the controversial dismissal of FBI Director James Comey and the intense conflicts with the media. However, as the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic broke out, the Trump administration failed in every aspect to deal with the carnage. On his last day in office by 20th January, 2021, 4.380 people died of the coronavirus disease, summing up more than 500.000 victims on the death toll. His approval fell to 34% by the end of his term, the lowest of his presidency.

The economic growth rhetoric was replaced by government inability to deal with the pandemic, an ascending economic crisis, high unemployment, increasing political polirization and massive demonstrations across the country against police brutality, injustice and racism. These factors facilitated the election of Mr. Trump’s opponent, the Democrat Mr. Joe Biden. Despite his lack of charisma and advanced age, Mr. Biden raised support especially among youngsters and minorities (such as immigrants, African-Americans, Asian-Americans and LGBTQs).

Mr. Biden promised to reverse most of Mr. Trump’s policies. And he did it as soon as he took office, putting the United States back in the Paris Agreement, revoking the permit for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and halting funding for the expansion of the Mexican border wall. On the following days, he issued a series of executive orders to deal with pandemic, invoking even the Defense Production Act of 1950, a law which designates priorities of production and allocations in times of war, besides buying more than 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines and achieving 100 million vaccinations before completing 100 days in office.

As for the economy, Mr. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, a US$1,9 trillion stimulus bill, which includes direct aid for American workers, direct housing and nutrition assistance and extension of unemployment insurance. The administration is also pursuing a heavy infrastructure plan to create 18.6 million jobs, with the Build Back Better Plan and the American Jobs Plan, recreating an audacious new version of the 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.

Mr. Biden also reversed a memorandum issued by Donald Trump, lifting a ban on transgender military service members, focusing his first days in office also on social issues. The president signed Executive Order 13988, an order to support LGBTQ rights and to fight discrimination. He also passed Executive Order 13958 to revoke the controversial 1776 Commission created by his predecessor to support “patriotic education” and counter critical race theory.

However, whether the president has accomplished America’s goals or not, certainly is that on the foreign relations field Mr. Biden has shown deep failures on his ongoing politics. Despite for the condemnation of the military coup in Myanmar and the recent recognition of the Armenian Genocide (which has lifted sparks from America’s Turkish allies), the president is facing criticism even inside his own Democratic instance.

First of all, Biden administration approved a US$735 million weapons sale to Israel, in a move that even some House Democrats have raised red flags on it, according to the Washington Post. The sale came a week before Hamas started firing rockets against Israel, in retaliation for the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision on the eviction of four Palestinian families from East Jerusalem and the storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli police during the Ramadan.

It’s not new that US-Israel relations have been throughout history a wattled commitment with Israel spending billions of dollars in weaponry from the USA to protect themselves against the hostile relations with their neighbors. It goes back first to the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 and the USA commitment with foreign aid to the Israelis. Israel is also an US’ strategic partner in the Middle East whilst some countries in the region are American enemies. Secure a powerful and military-oriented democratic state amidst theocracies and autocracies is a way to keep interests and money flowing on, besides refraining terrorism.

Only in 2020, the US spent US$3,8 billion in foreign aid commitments with Israel. This support came as part of an agreement signed by former president Barack Obama in 2016 for an overall package of US$38 billion in military aid over the decade 2019–2028, according to BBC. But as the hostilities between Palestinians (especially the terrorist group Hamas) and Israelis have increased over the last years, aid commitments spendings grew 6% compared to the previous decade.

Democrats and Republicans have always been connected to Israel state leaders, but since Benjamin Netanyahu took office both Republican and Democratic ties have been criticized by some left-wing members of the Democratic Party. The departure of Donald Trump could represent a more feasible way to peace agreements between Israelis and Palestinians, what Mr. Biden proved in a wrong way he is not intended to persue, even blocking a United Nations call for a cease-fire. It is far more uncertain that the US president will negotiate the terms for a peace talk with the new center-ultranationalist government coalition formed to overtake the long term of Netanyahu, after numerous elections, and the announcement of the president of the country for a new government formation.

One of the most emphatic opponents to this move towards Israel military aid is the Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who blasted Biden’s administration for the recent weaponry sale, saying “if the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?”, and calling Israel an “apartheid state”, referring to discriminatory policies against Palestinians.

On 20th May, Independent senator Bernie Sanders presented a resolution to block the US$735 million arms sale to Israel, stating: “at a moment when US-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate”. But as virtually all GOP’s senators support the sale and most Democratic senators do it also, Mr. Sanders has little chance of success with his resolution.

The second major mistake made by president Biden at office is regarded to the 2021 withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. In a call for peace and stabilization of the South Asia country, Joe Biden intends to put an end to a 20 years old war that devastated Afghanis homes and lives. The intention was initially to withdraw the troops by November 2021, but the president made a symbolic gesture anticipating it to 11th September, when the tragic terrorist attack to the World Trade Center in New York completes 20 years.

But the troops withdrawal are nothing more than a continuation of the agreement established by Donald Trump with the Taliban in February 2020, and that agreement left the Afghan government behind. In a country with massive corruption, lack of security and little governance through countryside regions, the vulnerable population of Afghanistan was overlooked by the US government.

When Donald Trump signed that agreement with the Taliban, the expectations were that the terrorist group could follow all the impositions made by the former US government and could start to plead elections and form a coalition peacefully. However, as if it were not enough, the ridicule photo of Mike Pompeo meeting with the Taliban delegation in Doha, Qatar, while the Afghan government watched passively, wasn’t the worst thing at all. But the commitment the US made with terrorists who devastated and persecuted innocent Afghanis was by far one of the most idiotic things it has made. Not only because, well, you are negotiating with terrorists, but also because the chance they’ll pull away from the agreement is very high.

Now Mr. Biden and his cabinet have presented Taliban with a fragile government with little prepare to deal with a possible insurgency and a weakened military. And Taliban has already shown its face on the last month: in a 24-hour day period on 3rd May, they carried out 141 attacks accross the country, in accordance with the Defence Ministry.

The United States have always shown its role as the “police force” of the world, which is not necessarily a bad matter. But if Mr. Biden wants to make things clearly changed he needs to step up his compromise to preserve peace whenever by diplomatic relations, in cases to stop hostile actions and annexations, such in the case of Hamas-Israel conflict, or by force, simply by making terrorist put the weapons down before running elections. While the president seems to take really good care of his own country through the COVID-19 pandemic, at least outside the USA the world is way more complicated.