There were signs President Joe Biden wasn’t calling the shots. After all, he campaigned on being a centrist, a pragmatic alternative to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — just “lunchbox Joe” from Scranton who had worked in the coal mine and driven an 18-wheeler. And yet, from the outset and throughout his term, his administration lurched further left than the Obama administration in nearly every way socially, economically, legally, and internationally. Initially, these moves were attributed to the pandemic or other one-off circumstances, but in time, those became untenable explanations.
It should be clear now to all, even the most rabidly supportive media and Democratic partisans, that Biden has been non compos mentis for essentially the entirety of his term. A Wall Street Journal exposé reveals the extraordinary steps taken to compensate for his decrepitude: isolating him, minimizing and carefully scripting and choreographing his meetings, and limiting his overall exposure to the outside world, exemplified by him reportedly spending 40% of his four-year term on “vacation.”
Despite his team’s best efforts over the last four years, he stumbled across the world stage literally and figuratively — tripping, falling, wandering, and forgetting or misspeaking, including the names of various leaders taking part in meetings with him. The FBI cited his mental frailty as the reason for not prosecuting him in his classified documents case. Finally, in the summer of 2024, all of this was on unexpurgated and frightening display in his debate performance.
There is now an outpouring of stories expressing anger about the deception and about how unconscionable it was for this hoax to have been perpetrated on the nation, especially by those inside people who participated in it or knew it was being perpetrated, including many in the media. It has raised all sorts of related questions pertaining to who knew what and when, the motivation for the hoax, who was and is making the decisions in place of the president, what decisions were simply not made at all, why the 25th Amendment was not invoked, and more.
While this is all warranted, our more immediate focus needs to be on assessing the damage that has been inflicted by this administration and taking the right steps to repair it to the degree that is possible. It is important to note that not everyone was taken in by the hoax. In May 2021, just four months after the inauguration, some 220 retired generals and admirals penned an open letter warning about the many dangers posed by the Biden administration. They sounded the alarm about the administration’s growing support for socialist and Marxist ideology, the dozens of sweeping, dictatorial, and constitutionally questionable executive orders, and a mentally diminished commander in chief. Their top concern with all of these dangers pertained to our national security. Unfortunately, nearly every fear they highlighted came to fruition in some fashion. Consider just these three.
Open borders: No Biden administration policy has posed more danger to our nation than its unconstitutional and reckless approach to our border. The administration not only worked to keep our borders open or nonexistent but devoted significant resources to attract and disperse across American communities millions of unvetted illegal immigrants. Untold numbers of terrorists, violent criminals, gang members, and sex and child traffickers create a national security threat, not to mention the devastating economic impact 10 million-20 million illegal aliens have on medical, educational, housing, and transportation systems. The ISIS-inspired terrorism in New Orleans on New Year’s Day is an unfortunate reminder that this once nearly defeated menace is still with us. Hundreds of ISIS-affiliated illegal immigrants have come into the country during the Biden administration, per the Department of Homeland Security.
DEI and CRT in the military: The Biden administration aggressively implemented racist and discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion and critical race theory policies within our military, which have lowered standards and performance, harmed morale, added to the greatest recruiting crisis since 1973, and diminished our war-fighting readiness. At its core, DEI is divisive as it focuses on identity groups vs. teamwork, eroding the trust and confidence warriors must have in each other. The military must eradicate DEI and get back to equal opportunity, meritocracy, and war-fighting readiness.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Afghanistan debacle: The May 2021 letter issued a warning about Biden’s physical and mental condition saying, “He must be able to quickly make accurate national security decisions involving life and limb anywhere, day or night.” The Afghanistan disaster showcased this concern. His decisions regarding withdrawal made no military sense; the withdrawal cost hundreds of lives, tens of billions of dollars, and resulted in our adversaries no longer fearing us and our allies no longer trusting us. Those consequential decisions set the stage for China and North Korea to become more aggressive, Russia to be emboldened and invade Ukraine, and Iran to expand its terrorist proxy wars and nuclear weapons pursuit.
Why was this disastrous hoax thrust on the nation? The obvious answer was to maintain power and control with no consideration of the consequences to our country or the world. Those who seek to keep power and control in this manner are the real threat to our republic. Fortunately that was recognized by the people in the historic Nov. 5 election results. Now it is time to unite and mend the widespread damage done over the past four years.
Maj. Gen. Joseph Arbuckle is on the board of directors and Greg Salsbury is on the board of advisers of STARRS.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
