Most of the commentary after the first presidential debate on June 27 focused on President Joe Biden’s frailty and incoherence and not on another significant area: a defense of his national security policies. During the few exchanges about Ukraine and Afghanistan, Biden offered up mostly ramblings.
When challenged by Donald Trump on the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden garbled something about getting "100,000 Americans and others out during that airlift." During an answer to a question on the economy and inflation, Biden replied, "The truth is, I'm the only president this century that doesn't have any – this – this decade – doesn't have any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did [referring to Trump]." In fact, 13 young American service members were killed by a suicide bomber at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul while trying to preserve security as a horde of frenzied Afghans rushed the Abbey Gate.
Biden Didn’t Mention US Soldiers Killed in Jordan
And, while on Biden's watch, as Liberty Nation News reported, "On January 28, three US service members were killed and at least 34 more were injured in a drone attack on the Tower 22 outpost in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border, US Central Command confirmed." Whether because of poor memory or purposeful, this failure to portray the accurate national security events during his term in office was concerning.
Former President Trump did raise one of the most pressing national security issues, the Biden open-border policies that have let into America millions of illegal aliens. Biden countered that his recent executive order was effective, maintaining there has been a drop in US Border Patrol encounters. But criminals and potential terrorists are among the estimated 1.8 million "gotaways" on his watch, those illegal aliens who slipped through the border unnoticed. Biden did not address the gotaways and the national security implications of illegals who were missed at the border.
However, President Trump could have strengthened his case by citing the eight illegals from Tajikistan with possible ISIS affiliations picked up by the FBI, as fears heighten that would-be terrorists might stage an attack in the United States, "most likely in the form of small, radicalized groups acting on their own initiative or lone-wolf terrorists," The New York Times said.
Trump raised the issues by addressing other major geopolitical and national security threats:
"These are wars that will never end with him. He will drive us into World War Three and we're closer to World War Three than anybody can imagine. We are very, very close to World War Three, and he's driving us there. And Kim Jong-Un, and President Xi of China – Kim Jong-Un of North Korea, all of these – Putin – they don't respect him. They don't fear him.”
National Security Topics Far Too Few
In his final statement, Trump raised the topics of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Ukraine, saying, "Iran was broke. Anybody that did business with Iran, including China, they couldn't do business with the United States. They all passed. Iran was broke. They had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah, for terror, no money whatsoever. Again, Ukraine should have never happened."
The CNN moderators failed to ask penetrating questions on national security threats. There was no mention of the constant Chinese harassment of Taiwan, the intrusion of the Chinese Communist Party into the daily life of Americans, North Korea's significantly increased ballistic missile testing, or Iran's support of deadly proxies in the Middle East. A detailed discussion of these issues would have helped undecided voters to make a more informed choice between Trump and Biden.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.
