Thirteen months ago, Joe Biden took the reigns as President of the United States. One of the first things he did, was to kill our program of energy independence. He also opened borders, ended the “stay in Mexico” program, and virtually every other program that President Trump put in place. At that same time, he identified Climate Change as the “existential threat”, even though over 50% of the world population could care less! In essence, he did everything he could to make our country weaker! Biden’s first day in office.
Fast forward to today. We are now, instead of being a net exporter of oil and gas as we were with Trump’s energy policy, instead are importing 500,000 barrels a day of oil from Russia. Europe imports 40% of their natural gas needs from Russia. Russia is on the path to re-create the Soviet Empire. There is an excellent chance that not only will we not be getting additional oil supplies from Russia, but that Europe will be held hostage by Russia, turning off their natural gas supplies. This is coming for certain since economic sanctions are right now being imposed on Russia. They will not ship if they cannot get paid.
To counter the dearth of hydrocarbon supplies in the free world, we need to open up our reserves for drilling and fracking. We have the energy supplies to do so and can in time replace the lost imports that Europe was buying from Russia, but that effort needs to start in haste! It will take time to bring new oil and gas fields into the marketplace, and every day we wait means it will take that much longer! In the meantime, we need to lobby other national suppliers to increase their exports, and that needs to be pressed with great urgency! The Biden administration is not even mentioning the thought that we can make a difference with our reserves, and as of now is just making lip service to lobbying other countries like the Saudis for additional supplies. The need is urgent in order to keep a unified effort against Russia’s imperialist threat to world order, but without the energy to keep their economies in order, NATO will have a hard time keeping a unified front. United States holds the most recoverable gas and oil than anywhere in the world.
Ukraine is now effectively gone. Russia has invaded, and next on their list will be the Baltic states and Poland. We have repositioned some troops to those areas, but to be a deterrent, we need a massive build up of force to ensure that Putin will not consider invasion. Further, NATO countries need to live up to what they are supposed to invest in their own defense. 2% of their GDP is what they all have agreed to as the bottom line for military investment, and so far, very few of those countries have lived up to that agreement. NATO has been freeloading on our military for a long time, and now is when it is critical that they start investing in their own protection. Biden has not reached out to those countries to live up to their commitment as Trump had done, but now is the time to do so. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/world/europe/trump-nato.html
With all this happening, the main thrust for the Biden administration is economic sanctions against Russia. That may inflict some pain, but it will also cement the relationship Putin has with Xi, who is in control of the second largest economy in the world. China has the power to blunt much of the pain inflicted by our sanctions. Xi also has imperialist notions, and most likely will be moving against Taiwan in the next weeks. We should be sending an additional Carrier battle group to the South China sea to supplant the 2 battle groups we already have there as a message to Xi that we are watching closely, along with 3 more LPD’s with surge capacities of 800 marines each to supplant the one their already. Nothing is coming from the White House that indicates any additional action is being considered.
The world order is falling apart because of weak leadership. It is not only President Biden that is the cause, but it is the weakness of NATO, and the weakness of the Westernized Countries in general. This overall weakness inspires tyrants to do what was previously unthinkable. If good men do nothing, tyrants will endeavor to do their worst. Right now, all of us in Western Civilization need to consider thoughtfully what our next steps should be.
What to do?
- Open up our gas and oil reserves, and cut unneeded regulations in order to ensure ample supply for the USA and our allies, especially NATO members.
- Increase Liquified Natural Gas ports in the USA and with our allies. This should be done in a state of emergency.
- Have an emergency NATO meeting, getting all on board with understanding they have to live up to their defense commitments.
- Reinforce Baltic states and Poland with 100,000 additional troops and equipment from USA bases to send a message to Vladimir Putin that we are serious about our commitment to NATO.
- Send additional Naval Forces to the South China sea to send a definitive message to China and Xi.
- Shoring up our allies in Asia to ensure that we can leverage strength against Chinese intrusions.
Will Biden do any of this? Probably not! It would go against the Progressive Socialist wing of his party, and he does not want to alienate them! Weakness personified!