News Review 06/02/2021

Biden Foreign Policy Speech Actually Builds on Trump’s Achievements

As explained previously in this review, US President Joe Biden is expected to be a strong foreign policy president from the beginning, contrary to the belief of many that America’s domestic problems are too severe for Biden to give attention to foreign policy. The Capitalist system is just not capable of solving America’s domestic problems, no matter how much time a US President devotes to it; whatever prosperity exists there is only because of America’s exploitation of the rest of the world, which every incoming president must therefore commit to continuing. Furthermore, Biden himself is a rare choice, coming to the office after decades of foreign policy experience, somewhat like George Bush Senior in 1989; often the American establishment selects novices that can be more easily manipulated but occasionally they are able to agree on an experienced member from their own ranks, which can bring much greater benefits assuming he can continue to be controlled.

This week, US President Joe Biden gave his first major foreign policy speech at the US State Department, outlining policies and positions that his administration would adopt. Although commentators are portraying this as contrary to Trump, his policies actually generally build on the achievements of the Trump era, developing them further, or bringing a more mature and nuanced approach.

Trump was a crude, inexperienced, first-time political leader whose entire previous experience had been away from politics in the worlds of business and the media. He did not work smoothly with the establishment, and his execution of policy was rough and unsophisticated. Biden’s decision this week to exclude Trump from future intelligence briefings is another example of this friction. Nevertheless, as with all US presidents, Trump adhered fully to establishment policy on all major issues. Indeed, his insensitivity to political backlash and controversy was itself an asset, giving him the strength to propel American foreign policy forwards in major leaps, such as his forceful trade war with China in response to China’s dramatic rise. Despite Biden’s rhetoric, he is well aware of these accomplishments and has actually not sought to reverse any of them, except for Trump’s minor, superficial, populist measures such as his greater restriction on immigration from selected Muslim countries, or his troop redeployment away from Germany, matters that the US establishment never liked but nevertheless tolerated. On China, for example Biden noted in his speech, the “growing ambitions of China to rival the United States”.

The problems, complexities and deceit of American politics are not unique to it but a consequence of the disbelieving secular liberal Capitalist ideology that the United States and all other Western countries are founded upon. They have presented themselves to the world as the most progressive and advanced civilisation to have ever existed, whereas they are actually recent usurpers who have deployed propaganda to distort any proper understanding of history or present reality. Instead of trying to copy the West, or continue to implement Western systems of government in Muslim countries, it is incumbent upon the Muslim Ummah to return to its roots and re-establish the righteous Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) on the method of the Prophet (saw) that will unify Muslim lands, restore the Islamic way of life, liberate occupied territories and spread the light of Islam throughout the world by retaking its rightful place as the global superpower.

Saudi in Yemen, Myanmar, Pakistan and Kashmir

As an example of Biden’s further building on Trump’s work, he announced in his speech an end to US support for the Saudi war in Yemen, taking this step not to negate Trump, but in recognition that Saudi has done as much as it could in Yemen and a new initiative is needed. The New York Times notes that Trump was actually only continuing the Yemen policy of the Obama administration that Biden himself had contributed to formulating, along with his present Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. In saying, “This war has to end”, Biden is therefore moving not only beyond Trump but beyond his own position from four years back. Meanwhile, contrary to popular expectations, Biden remains fully committed to Saudi Arabia, saying in his speech, “We’re going to continue to support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity and its people”. Whereas previously Saudi Arabia had shifted between US and UK control because of the different foreign allegiances of the sons of ibn Saud, at present Saudi Arabia appears to have settled firmly in American control because of the capture of the ruling position by King Salman, the last of the Sudairi Seven, who appears to have succeeded in restricting subsequent succession to his own descendants, beginning with Mohammad bin Salman, known as MBS. America is now completely dependent on its agents to implement its policies in the Muslim world; America’s own direct interventions in the Muslim world have been quite ruinous. It is for Muslims to realise that they are the real power in the region, and not the foreign disbelieving American overlord. There is nothing to stop the Muslim Ummah retaking charge of their own affairs, overthrowing their agent rulers and permanently ejecting the influence of the foreign disbelieving powers.

Also, this week, the Myanmar military leadership carried out a coup against the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, ousting her from power and placing her once more under house arrest. Myanmar, or Burma as it was known from its time as a British colony, remains firmly under UK control. However, America was able to reach out to the civilian opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and support her ascendancy to power under the democratic reforms that the Myanmar military were forced to enact in exchange for American support against the encroaching Chinese intimidation, as Myanmar shares a border to the north with China. However, this week, the UK appears to have taken the opportunity of the change in US administrations to push out Suu Kyi along with US influence thus fully returning Myanmar rule to British control, though Biden has protested quite strongly to this in his State Department address. It is possible that China would have also given assurances to not intimidate Myanmar any further. It was the Myanmar military that was complicit in the brutal oppression of the Muslims there, leading to many fleeing to a hostile welcome by the Bangladeshi government. Myanmar was close to being brought under Muslim rule; in the time of Aurangzeb, the Mughal ruler of India, who despatched his uncle, Shaista Khan to counter the rogue Arakanese leadership allied with Portuguese imperialists, liberating their base of Chittagong, now the financial centre of Bangladesh, but the occupation of India by the British put an end to any further expansion into Myanmar. The re-established Khilafah State shall almost from its inception join the ranks of the great powers, due to its size, strength, resources, population, geopolitical location, and Islamic ideology; it will be impossible then for foreign powers to interfere even in countries like Myanmar that border Muslim lands.

This week Pakistan commemorated its annual Kashmir day, a day on which its government and agent political class give lip service to the suffering of Kashmiris, without actually taking any practical step towards genuinely solving their problems. It is quite normal in fact to call on the United Nations or the ‘international community’ to play a greater role in solving the issue, even though it is the Western powers that are responsible for the crisis in Kashmir, first Britain who created the problem and then America which continues it, doing this only to provide a pretext for their continued interference in the region. This year Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan actually went one step further by offering Kashmiris the choice to be ‘independent’, something beloved by Western nations who seek to break up Muslim lands into smaller and smaller pieces in order to be able to control them more effectively. Undoubtedly, Western powers find it much easier to control a small country such as Kuwait or Jordan, rather than a big country such as Syria or Sudan. Furthermore, Kashmir represents a highly strategic location, situation in the Himalayan mountain range, possessing the highest airstrip in the world, and directly overseeing both China and India. So-called ‘independence’ for Kashmir means nothing short of complete foreign control which would be sure to come with immediate foreign military presence to be able to take full advantage of its extraordinary location. The Pakistani army is fully capable of liberating Kashmir, just as the Arab armies of Egypt or Jordan or Syria are fully capable of liberating Palestine. It is not strength or resources that is lacking but the political will to use this. However, with Allah’s permission, the Khilafah State shall soon be re-established and its armies shall move to liberate all occupied territories, Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, East Turkestan, and others, freeing Muslims everywhere from the oppression of the foreign disbelievers.