Republicans’ harrumphing at the temporary disappearance of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are missing the point amidst the Biden administration’s clown show this week. That, coupled with the U.S. and U.K. strikes on the Houthis, Biden’s green-lighting a Chinese attack on Taiwan, and the Feds’ declaration of war against Texas’s defending its border with Mexico adds up to more than the usual Biden disasters.
What we and the U.K. should have done is also to have sunk the Iranian intelligence ship.
We’ve become accustomed to brilliant, strong men leading the Defense Department. Yes, there have been some fools in the job (former Sen. Chuck Hagel comes immediately to mind) but for the most part the Pentagon chiefs have been of the caliber of Dick Cheney, Bill Perry, Frank Carlucci, and Donald Rumsfeld. (READ MORE from Jed Babbin: Israel’s Implacable Court)
If any of those guys went missing for more than a half hour, everyone from the president on down would have been asking where he was. Not so Lloyd Austin.
As Central Command boss, Lloyd was barely adequate. As SECDEF, he’s a non-entity, a bystander to the decisions made by others. Which is proven by the fact that he was in the hospital for several days before anyone noticed he was missing.
None of our so-called leaders — Biden, Sullivan, Blinken — want his advice on anything including military matters. Austin is less valuable to Biden than a house cat or a door stop.
Biden said Austin showed a lack of judgment in not telling the White House he was hospitalized. If Austin were even a small part of the Biden team they would have noticed his absence, not needing to be told.
Austin claims to have directed the U.S. and U.K. air strikes on the Houthis of Yemen from his hospital bed. That may be true but it’s nothing for him or Biden to brag about.
The Houthis are a tribe that make up less than ten percent of Yemen’s 30 million population. They are Shiite Muslims, which makes them Iran’s co-religionists. Iran is financing and supplying them with the weapons they are using.
The Houthis have been launching drones and missiles to attack Israel as well as U.S. navy ships and commercial shipping in the Red Sea. The Red Sea, of course, is the best route from Asia to the Mediterranean Sea, Europe, and the U.S. through the Suez Canal. The other route — for Middle Eastern oil and commercial container shipments — goes all the way around the southern tip of Africa.
The Houthis have made over one hundred attacks against U.S. Navy ships and commercial shipping since October 17, blaming Israel for their attacks. Biden threatened the Houthis with reprisals, to no effect.
On Thursday and Friday, U.S. and U.K. ships in the area launched cruise missiles and airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen, reportedly killing about five people. (READ MORE: Foreseeable Consequences)
For weeks, an Iranian intelligence ship has operated in the Red Sea, feeding targeting information and, probably, actually guiding Houthi drones and missiles to their targets. Last week, an Iranian frigate came into the Red Sea possibly to protect their intelligence ship.
Biden, as always, got it wrong. Why only punish the monkey for the organ grinder’s actions? By attacking the Houthis, Biden has raised their credibility and given them a sort of legitimacy they don’t deserve. We have made them the enemy and allowed Iran to hide behind its proxy force.
What we and the U.K. should have done is also to have sunk the Iranian intelligence ship. That could have been accomplished easily using fewer of our forces than what we used to blow up a few Houthi radars and trucks. That would have punished Iran as well as the Houthis.
We can’t expect Biden to stand up against Iran because that would require courage and competence. Basic competence would suffice in dealing with the border crisis, but that’s also too much to ask.
Texas Gov. Gregg Abbot has been, unsuccessfully, trying to stem the tide of illegal immigrants coming into his state. He has bused and flown illegals to other states and cities by the thousands. In his latest move, the Texas National Guard has seized control of a state park on the border and refused the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol access to the park.
The Biden administration’s reaction is to petition the U.S. Supreme Court to declare Texas’s seizure of the park illegal as an attempt to regulate immigration.
The Supreme Court has, several times, ruled that federal law preempts state law and that any state attempt to control immigration is unconstitutional. In its 2012 decision in Arizona v. United States, the court ruled against states’ “inherent power” to do so.
But that was 2012. Since Biden became president, about eight million illegal immigrants have come into the U.S. over our open southern border. That number doesn’t include the “gotaways” — who probably number an additional 1.5 million — who evaded the Border Patrol when entering the U.S. (READ MORE: Biden Wants Hamas To Win)
At present, about ten thousand illegals a day come across the border.
Abbot and Texas are dealing with a tidal wave of illegals. They may be trying to regulate immigration as an ancillary matter but what they are doing is defending Texas against an invasion that burdens its schools, hospitals, and welfare rolls so greatly that it’s a matter of the state’s survival. As this column has often stated, the open border is an enormous national security problem.
That may not be enough to get the Supremes to rule in Texas’s favor, but it should.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans — if they can still claim that status — appear ready to sign off on a “border security” deal with Biden that will allow five thousand illegals in each day and give them work permits. It would be a total cave-in to Biden who, of course, said on Saturday that he’s prepared to make “significant alterations” to his border policy.
Republicans shouldn’t believe that for one nanosecond. It’s another Biden ploy to keep the border open.
I keep wondering what else Biden will screw up and how Republicans can keep going along with him. And there’s always China to consider.
The Taiwanese have just elected Lai Ching-te their new president. China considers him a troublemaker because he’s spoken in favor of keeping Taiwan an independent democracy. Biden, of course, said he doesn’t favor Taiwanese independence. That statement green-lights the coming Chinese attack on Taiwan, which I have forecast, will take place before Biden leaves office in 2025 or — if things go as they appear to be going — in 2029.
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