Clive Bibby: We told you so

The about face admission from The NY Times and The Washington Post that Hunter Biden’s laptop revelations are real is small comfort for Donald Trump and those 70 million American voters who believe the 2020 US Presidential election was stolen.

It does however say quite a lot about the audacity of these same media outlets that their “Road to Damascus” conversion may well endanger their own credibility, if not their survival as a respected source of the truth.

It beggars belief that the media led contribution to Joe Biden’s victory may not lead to criminal indictments at the highest level.

Yet going on the experiences of the last 5 years, it is clear that these seemingly corrupt institutions have become emboldened to the extent that they believe they can get away with betrayals of this magnitude. Let’s hope they are all held to account.

It is a shameful reflection of how corrupt the leadership of this once reliable leader of the free world has become although the effects of this decline in moral fortitude has been evident in almost every action taken by the Biden administration since it came to office 14 months ago.

The failures in US leadership since before and during the Ukraine War has probably been the most significant factor ensuring that Putin would do what he may well not have done if Trump had still been President.

All the weaknesses demonstrated by Biden, apart from his own state of cognitive decline, that will ultimately determine the outcome of this war and perhaps other smouldering disputes in different parts of the globe ie Taiwan, are on display.

But there is a far more frightening portent included in this assessment of the state of world politics.

Unfortunately, these demonstrable deficiencies in American leadership do not instil confidence in other defence treaties that depend on the US as a defender of the Free World.

I have written many times that the only deterrent that keeps these maniacal dictators within their borders is a show of military and economic strength that more than matches their own arsenal. However, on its own, the presence of that military capability will not be enough to stop these tyrants from challenging the US government’s willingness to use that force.

It must be assumed that Biden’s “tough talk” has given a clear signal that this guy is not the same adversary as his predecessor who was able to demonstrate that he was prepared to act in defence of us all if called to do so.

How else must we interpret the international events of the last 12 months compared to the 4 yrs of peace during the Trump administration.

It will be interesting to see whether China and Co sees the prospect of a return of a Trump administration as a deterrent to its own expansionary programme in the Pacific and elsewhere or whether they may seize the opportunity to act now before being confronted with that possibility.

Here in the South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand must be hoping that the mid term US elections will send a clear indication that the cavalry is about to come over the hill. We must also hope that that prospect will be enough to, for the moment at least, force China, Iran and Nth Korea to put their immediate plans on hold.

The survival of the Free World depends on it.

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.