President Joe Biden waiting on the tarmac for three Americans to arrive from Russia as part of the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War, flanked by his completely incoherent Vice President, now newly crowned Democrat Presidential Candidate, serves as a timely metaphor, but the truth is far worse and likely to be far more damaging.
Over the past two weeks, a string of national and international developments crystallized the need for a Commander-in-Chief and Chief Executive not currently suffering from a steep mental decline, or the current Pretender-in-Chief Vice President who leverages the trappings of office for political gain without any of the substance or responsibility. On August 2, the image of President Joe Biden waiting on the tarmac around midnight for three Americans recently released from Russia to arrive as part of the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War, flanked by his completely incoherent Vice President, now newly crowned Democrat Presidential Candidate, delivering what amounted to a babbling lecture on understanding the power of diplomacy, serves as a timely metaphor for our currently perilous state, but the truth is far worse and likely to be far more damaging over the next several months. The President himself quite clearly had no idea where he was or what he was doing on that tarmac. He appeared to wander off toward the plane that had just brought the prisoners home, boarding it as though the vessel was Air Force One. Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, was there purely for show, to demonstrate her importance and her importance alone as she has done everywhere since “earning” the nomination. Sadly, the same criticisms, incoherence and the need to show someone, somewhere is doing something, can be applied to the deal itself. Fair minded Americans should be pleased that three of their fellow citizens, detained under highly suspicious and irregular circumstances for up to five years in horrible conditions, have finally come home, but beyond that, the sudden exchange prompts far more questions than answers considering the current global environment. Russian President Vladimir Putin is, according to our President himself, a war-criminal, a tyrant, a threat to world peace, and democracy itself. We have been engaged in a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine for over two years, one the Biden Administration insists is an existential battle, the most important conflict of our time. The relationship between the United States and Russia had deteriorated so badly that President Biden has personally waved away the idea of even speaking to his counterpart, saying shortly before he withdrew from the race that he had no “good reason” to do so, and repeating that after the exchange, “I don’t need to speak with Putin,” he said. He and his team have also outright rejected any possibility of coming to a settlement over the disputed regions of Ukraine, believing that somehow Russia is even going to hand Crimea, seized in 2013, back, but for reasons left completely unexplained, they also believe it’s appropriate to negotiate with them over these prisoners, granting President Putin both international prestige for securing his side of the deal and worldwide legitimacy as a leader representing the interests of his country.
As ABC News described it, “analysts say that while the deal — the largest since the Cold War — is indeed the result of skilled statesmanship, it’s also reflective of the diametrically opposed mindsets of Russia and the West, and it could have repercussions across the world stage for years to come.” “What this swap demonstrates on the Kremlin’s strategic front is a twisted and self-serving pragmatism that is unlikely to translate into a de-escalation of Russia’s violence in Ukraine, nor into a new appreciation for international norms,” explained Mercedes Sapuppo, a program assistant with the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council. “Putin is still a war criminal, and he is still bolstering his autocratic alliances abroad,” she added. He can now do so with what the Russian people and his fellow autocrats are likely to perceive as a major strategic victory after securing the release of assassins and Russian intelligence agents in return for innocent people who never should have been imprisoned in the first place. “The Russians were freeing Russian intelligence officers — people that had done actions on behalf of the Russian state against the West,” explained John Hardie, deputy director of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies’ Russia Program. “The Russian interest in doing this is to demonstrate to their people working on behalf of Russia that if they’re captured, that Russia will be there for them.” This Mr. Hardie believes, with good reason, will further embolden the Kremlin’s bad actors and incentivize holding more American prisoners. “If he has people he wants to get back, and Americans he can hold hostage, he’s going to do that,” Mr. Hardie noted. “He has proven that at this point.” Putting this another way, we exchanged prisoners that were held for legitimate reasons for ordinary citizens and journalists held for no reason except that Russia saw fit to seize them. Given Russia has no respect for basic Fourth Amendment or other protections for false imprisonment and a fair trial, they now have our tacit permission to detain whoever they like and exchange them at their convenience for whoever they like.
The prisoner exchange was accompanied by the bizarre announcement that the Administration had reached a plea deal for three of the planners of the 9-11 terror attacks held in Guantanamo including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one which would not see them face the death penalty for the killing of almost 3,000 Americans. CNN reported on Thursday August 1, “The pretrial agreement – reached after 27 months of negotiations – takes the death penalty off the table for Mohammed, Walid Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa al Hawsawi, prosecutors said in a letter, obtained by CNN, sent to the families of 9/11 victims and survivors shortly before the Department of Defense announced the news in a press release Wednesday evening.” “We recognize that the status of the case in general, and this news in particular, will understandably and appropriately elicit intense emotion, and we also realize that the decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement will be met with mixed reactions amongst the thousands of family members who lost loved ones,” prosecutors wrote. “The decision to enter into a pre-trial agreement after 12 years of pre-trial litigation was not reached lightly; however, it is our collective, reasoned, and good-faith judgment that this resolution is the best path to finality and justice in this case.” At first, many in the media were quick to defend the deal. “This is the least bad deal in the real world that would ever happen,” justified Peter Bergen, a terrorism expert and CNN national security analyst. “They were still in pre-trial hearings,” he told the network. “Getting some kind of deal is better.” That the deal was made while the victim’s families were still seeking justice from Saudi Arabia for its potential role in the attack, however, completely undercut any positive spin. “No family member knew this was coming,” explained Terry Strada, national chair of 9-11 Families United as she stood on the very steps of a Manhattan federal courthouse, fresh from a hearing on the case. “I’m very suspicious of the timing of it. This is the biggest day in our entire case. Biggest day in 23 years of trying to obtain justice for the murder of our loved ones. And they offer those guys a plea deal.”
The Administration, for its part, insisted it wasn’t even aware of the deal in the first place. At least according to John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council, no one knew anything until late Friday afternoon August 2 when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stepped in – and abruptly scrapped the entire thing. CNN reported it this way, “In a surprise memo quietly released Friday night, Austin said the responsibility for such a significant decision ‘should rest with me.’” The resulting confusion has been so unprecedented that even Democrats are demanding an explanation, including Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal. “I think there are interests here that may not have been represented as fairly and aggressively as they should have been,” he said, adding, “When we fight terrorists, and we have them in custody, we need to hold them accountable with the kinds of penalties that really do justice to the victims.” His Republican colleague, Lindsey Graham was a bit harsher, “The world is on fire, terrorism is rampant, and we give a plea deal to the mastermind of 9/11? That just encourages more attacks,” he said. To the Senator’s point, these events are occurring across a backdrop of increasing violence in the Middle East after rocket attacks by Hezbollah killed 12 Israeli children, and Israel struck back killing to Hamas masterminds, one in Lebanon and one in Iran itself. This has prompted Iran to consider yet another direct attack on Israel, the second in a few months when none had ever happened before in either country’s history. “The supreme leader’s orders regarding the harsh punishment of Israel and revenge for the blood of martyr Ismail Haniyeh are clear and explicit … and they will be implemented in the best possible way,” Ali Fadavi, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp Deputy Commander told Iranian media on Friday. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will make Israel’s violations costly for this transgressive regime in a legitimate and resolute manner,” explained Ali Bagheri Kani in a statement, also to Iranian media. So far, President Biden has managed to issue only one of his infamous “don’ts,” this time while entering his vehicle when asked by a reporter, “What’s your message to Iran?” Vice President Harris has said nothing on the matter to my knowledge, nor has she taken any questions on this or anything else. Likewise, neither of them has so much as commented on a recent Iranian backed drone attack on a US military base in Syria, or the alarming revelation last month that Iran has been actively plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump. As CNN described it at the time, “US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Donald Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN.”
Closer to home, the US stock market has been in turmoil over the past week when a poor July jobs report, also issued August 2, prompted renewed fears of a recession. “The churn will probably continue through September or October, until the November elections,” veteran investment strategist Ed Yardeni Yahoo Finance’s Morning Brief. “The positioning part of [the selloff] seems to have calmed down a little bit, but the data part is going to be ongoing,” explained Stuart Kaiser, Citi’s head of US equity trading strategy. “It’s going to take a little time for things to calm down and get people reengaged.” Wells Fargo investment president Darrell Cronk described the rally on lower than expected jobless claims at the end of the last week as “unusual,” and evidence the market is “balancing on a hairpin.” “While we hope for further gains over the next three weeks, history says to keep our expectations modest,” DataTrek co-founder Nicholas Colas wrote to his clients. “Current market conditions are not comfortable, to say the least. But … They are neither flashing a robust recession warning nor condemning the current bull market to a premature end. After a rough week, we take comfort in that message.” Under normal circumstances we might also take comfort in a President and Vice President now candidate for President herself with a clear, actionable economic strategy, but neither has provided any such thing. The President remains silent as he has since announcing his withdrawal from the race, completely disengaged, and to date, Vice President Harris’ sole economic policy prescription is to copy her opponent’s “no taxes on tips” plan. We might also take some comfort in watchdog journalists aggressively pursuing these stories and more, demanding answers from our leaders beginning with who is actually in charge and how an obviously diminished President can remain in office, but instead, the mainstream media has preferred to extoll the “joyous” nature of the Harris campaign, even going so far as to crow that she is “capitalizing on the trappings of office — and the power of strong imagery — to sustain the momentum surrounding her candidacy in hopes of building a cultural movement for the Democratic ticket in ways that long eluded President Joe Biden.” As they saw it, “She didn’t just walk onto the stage for one of her biggest rallies of the year last week outside Detroit. Instead, her team allowed anticipation to grow as Air Force Two slowly taxied into view of a crowded airport hanger, with strains of Beyoncé’s ‘Run the World’ pulsing through the air.” Alas, someone should ask who is running the country. The plane, as impressive as it is, is merely a symbol when we desperately need the real thing.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 