As blunders go, forcing Russia and China into each other’s arms was epic, colossal, enormous, you name it. Unfortunately, sometimes there really is no cure for stupid. From James Rickards at dailyreckoning.com:
From a geopolitical perspective, the U.S. today has never been weaker than since the post-Vietnam era.
Remember the images of U.S. helicopters taking off from its South Vietnamese embassy in 1975, loaded with refugees trying to escape the country?
It was a national humiliation.
So was the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2022. Desperate Afghans, eager to escape Taliban rule, clung to American transports leaving Kabul.
It might represent an even greater national humiliation.
In both cases, U.S. weakness was on full display for the world to see. Its defeat in Vietnam led to Soviet geopolitical gains throughout the world.
U.S. credibility around the world was restored during the 1980s as Reagan rebuilt the U.S. military into a powerful force.
U.S. geopolitical power peaked after its dramatic victory in the First Gulf War in 1991. But the U.S. proceeded to squander that power in the wake of 9/11, with strategic failures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, for the past 20 years, the U.S. focused on fighting terrorists that have limited combat capability, not serious rivals like Russia with significant conventional forces.
