America’s abdication of its security responsibilities is a boon for the world’s bad actors
OPINION | EDITORIAL
If it wasn’t terrible enough that Americans and their Afghan allies are being abandoned in Kabul and beyond by the Biden administration, the lasting effects of the U.S.’s botched withdrawal will bring further difficulty in the Middle East and other bad actors world stage.
Consider China’s recent take on the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan. The Wall Street Journal reported on an editorial from the Global Times, a Chinese state propaganda outfit, asking, “Is this some kind of omen of Taiwan’s future fate?” The editorial continued: “Once a cross-Straits war breaks out while the mainland seizes the island with forces, the U.S. would have to have a much greater determination than it had for Afghanistan, Syria, and Vietnam if it wants to interfere.”
The Afghan desertion is only the latest reason China feels emboldened in the face of U.S. competition. Beijing has long had its sights set on stripping Taiwan of any semblance of autonomy. Add to their plans the fact that they have been asserting an aggressive naval posture in the pacific combined with their strife-free taking of Hong Kong last year, and it appears that there is an unopposed superpower growing in the East.
There are other China problems, too. President Xi Jinping can see Biden’s rush to cut military budgets and spend heavily domestically. He knows Biden’s foreign policy is a mess and that America’s allies have reason to be skeptical in U.S. support. Last year, while America was distracted by domestic conflict and the coronavirus, China not only took Hong Kong but also began skirmishes at the Indian border.
Chinese aggression has long been a problem for our Indian allies. But the U.S. was too distracted to do much more than some naval demonstrations in the Pacific, and you can be sure China took notice. Earlier this week, a new problem for India was foreshadowed on the heels of the Afghanistan pullout. The Journal reported earlier this week that, upon hearing of the Taliban’s taking of Kabul, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan celebrated by saying that Afghans “have broken the shackles of slavery.” As the Journal notes, this is supposed to be an American security partner. If you are India, you have a good reason to sweat right now.
China also has the potential to benefit from the Taliban’s recent victory in Afghanistan directly. Xi has long sought a new source for rare earth metals that are present in the newly captured Taliban territory. Even if NATO refuses to recognize the new regime’s legitimacy, the Taliban will be free to deal with China. And thanks to the leftover U.S. munitions that the Taliban has seized control of, they can be secure in any mining operation they set up.
There is a lot of fallacious criticism about the U.S. not being the “world’s police” or be stuck in “endless wars,” but foreign policy does not exist in a vacuum. When America abandons its allies and decreases its credibility, our allies and our people will be the ones to pay when bad actors step in to fill the void.
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