Few people were able to listen to the Joe Biden remarks at NATO over the weekend, not to mention the major gaffe towards the end, calling for a change in the regime in Russia. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was so bold as to say it was “all talk,” lamenting the disconnect between the language that was spoken and the actions implemented.
There was a group of people who could not contain their joy: the American international policy “experts.” The fact that Biden failed to make an important policy shift that could lead to world warfare was actually a positive thing. The fact that Biden and the White House rushed to reverse the decision just led to a cycle of double-down.
The claim is that there isn't any morality in randomly soliciting a change in the regime of the world's second-highest capable nuclear power (and in terms of sheer numbers, the most powerful), but not having a plan for carrying the call out or taking on the consequences of such a decision. It's not ideal to have a president who puts millions of lives at risk to bolster his own self-esteem, while claiming to be some sort of global hero.
However, Biden’s social media emoting is precisely the reason why the foreign policy of America has been a complete disaster for so long. For Beltway dwellers like him, it's just a game and everything is a feed into the neoconservative frame of what's “right” and what is “wrong.” This is how you arrive at Libya as a modern-day slave state with over half a million people killed in Syria, to pursue regime change without those who advocated for this even weighing the negative consequences that could be unintentionally wrought.
Despite their claims of excellence and brilliance, the “experts” are actually simple-minded average people who are playing checkers while the adversaries play the game of chess. A look at the way they promoted wars that raged in Iraq or Afghanistan will confirm this. There's a reason that they were so enraged by Donald Trump. Trump took to the national stage and was an opposition to the unelected power structures that they believed they were entitled to preserve.
The power structure was, obviously, not deserved in light of the establishment's foreign policy history of complete failure and even death. It's true that Kamala Harris has failed out in a variety of ways throughout her life, however, she's not the only person to have failed in Washington. The foreign policy establishment is filled with careerists who can't effectively place an order with Taco Bell, much less achieve victory in a major war.
The bottom line is that, in spite of “experts” laying claim to the moral high ground which is definitely part of Biden’s ranting, morality is not influenced by how impressive a pre-written speech may be. Morality is dependent on what happens. For instance, to repeat the above example, there was nothing moral about participating in the civil war in Syria that destroyed a whole nation and claimed the lives of nearly one million people, while receiving nothing in return. Basheer al-Assad's status as a dictator is not a reason to justify that, regardless of the crimes he has committed.
However unpopular it might be, the majority of the world's inhabitants operate within the gray area. People who don't recognize that, in the end, get hundreds of innocent victims murdered for no reason other aside from feeding their self-esteem. Then, they go to their new homes without even a second thought about what they've done.
For the “experts,” everything is abstract. This is why they were so thrilled by Biden's blunder. It was a harbinger of their uninformed beliefs, but it didn't cost them anything. That's all it boils down to: people who have no interest in the game putting their burdens on others across the world, while displaying no sign of the ability to think strategically. It's not moral. It's imbecility.
