John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, is credited with the aphorism, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” this scenario played out last month as China totally humiliated President Biden’s national security team in Anchorage Alaska.

The Chinese national security delegation totally dressed down the Biden administration’s national security team lead by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, as Beijing rhetorically regurgitated progressive ideology that racist America has no business challenging China on its human rights record.

Even though Biden wasn’t present, his administration’s national security team was, and this was eerily similar to the disastrous summit in Vienna between President John Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1961.

Having just come out of the disastrous Bay of Pigs fiasco, Kennedy met Khrushchev just six weeks later with the Russian leader amazed that the American president would place himself in that position. At the summit, Khrushchev dominated the American president concluding that Kennedy is weak and can be easily pushed around.

Khrushchev stated “This man is very inexperienced, even immature,” Khrushchev speaking to his interpreter. “Compared to him, Eisenhower is a man of intelligence and vision.”

This assessment by Khrushchev of Kennedy would ultimately led the Russian leader to conclude that he could place nuclear weapons into Cuba and America would acquiesce, unfortunately he was proved wrong which precipitated the “Cuban Missile Crisis.”

History again repeated itself with President Obama’s first meeting with then Russian former President Vladimir Putin who lectured the American president for over an hour, without any interruptions given.

Like Biden Obama talk tough but caved every time when confronting the Russian leader, as Putin annexed the Crimea, sent Russian forces into eastern Ukraine and sent its military into Syria to back embattled Syrian President Basher Assad.

Many of Obama’s national security leadership are now running American national security under the Biden administration.

No matter who is president, every American president will be tested by our adversaries on whether we will live up to our commitments to defend Europe and protect our allies in Asia such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

Since assuming the presidency China has routinely flown military air craft into Taiwanese air space testing the nation’s military defense, Russia has placed troops on the border of Ukraine.  America initially was going to send two naval warships into the Black Sea but pulled back over Russian objection.

How do you think Putin views this move?

Other U.S. adversaries are testing the new U.S. president as in late March; North Korea began test firing missiles into the Sea of Japan.

Every one of these moves is a calculation of testing U.S. resolve, and Biden may say he is not Trump, but our adversaries see a weak American president.

Whatever one has to say about former President Donald Trump, our adversaries viewed him as dangerously unpredictable and better not provoke him. They saw how Trump took out Iran’s, Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General Qasem Soleimani who was responsible for the deaths of Americans over the decades to include U.S. troops in Iraq.

Putin witnessed the Trump administration killing of hundreds of Russian mercenaries in Syria, increased defense spending, and increased sanctions on Russia.

While facing criticism at home and dealing with a false Russian collusion narrative the Trump administration made the United States energy independent and sold excess on the world market to Russia’s chagrin. It left treaties especially asymmetrical ones with Russia from which they were violated with impunity without any pushback during the Obama-Biden administration.

The Trump administration sold Ukraine offensive and defensive weapons systems that the Obama-Biden administration had vetoed.

Since Biden assumed the presidency he has announced $125 million aid package to Ukraine, but as the Pentagon mentioned the remaining $150 million in military aid approved by Congress for the 2021 budget year will not be provided until the departments of State and Defense are in position to certify to Congress that Ukraine has made “sufficient progress on key defense reforms this year.” This is happening at the same time Russian troops are massing along the Ukrainian border.

There are reports that Biden plans to reduce the defense budget, but progressive Democrats are advocating a reduction of $700 billion over a ten year period.

The defense department is now more concerned with woke polices regarding transgender polices, and extremist in the ranks instead of focusing on warfighting.

Even during the presidential campaign Biden promised that as president he would demand full transparency from Beijing about the origins of the coronavirus which originated in Wuhan. Soon American deaths from COVID-19 will approach 600,000, but so far Biden hasn’t demanded anything from China!

This is reminiscent of then candidate Bill Clinton chastising President George H.W. Bush during the 1992 presidential campaign as his polices were to accommodating toward China. Then once assuming the presidency, Clinton followed the exact same polices; to the Chinese leadership it showed weakness.

Far too often Biden talks aggressively and provocatively but our adversaries see him carrying a twig.  So far American adversaries especially Russia, Iran and especially China view Biden as predictably confused, frail, and not fully in charge or control of U.S. national security.

The Biden administration and America would be well to heed the comments by President George Washington when speaking to both the Houses of Congress, “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”