7-31-22 Modern-day axis of evil: Russia, Iran and China

Modern-day axis of evil: Russia, Iran and China - Jonathan Tobin - https://www.jns.org/opinion/modern-day-axis-of-evil-russia-iran-and-china-top-story/ President Joe Biden is primarily interested in “saving his own political skin by making deals with terrorist and dictatorial regimes because that might lower American gas prices,” said JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin. “What he’s doing now is creating an existential threat to Israel and other Iranian targets merely in order to try and keep the prices at the pump from going any higher while pretending that it will stop the bloodshed in Ukraine.” In the latest edition of “Top Story,” Tobin talks about whether or not the war against Ukraine should become the organizing principle of American foreign policy. And his answer is “no.” “The rush to help Ukraine has forced other issues to the side and allowed still other considerations that have nothing to do with Ukraine or the security of the West to be pushed to the fore by the Biden administration, ostensibly in the cause of helping Ukraine,” he argued. He said that Washington is selling out American allies in Israel and the Middle East, as well as elsewhere, to combat the record inflation that has grown on Biden’s watch, and which is likely to lead to an epic midterm congressional defeat for the Democrats. This policy, he said, will not help Ukraine. “Doing nothing but enacting even the most severe economic sanctions—and sending arms and humanitarian aid to the embattled Ukrainians—isn’t terribly satisfying,” said Tobin. At the same time, “Washington believes that bringing Iran back into the community of nations—and its considerable oil reserves back onto the market—will also help the effort to isolate Russia, whose main national asset other than its nuclear arsenal is its vast supply of oil and natural gas.” Doing business with Iran or, most recently, Venezuela “will do little or nothing to halt the slaughter in Ukraine,” according to Tobin. Rather, he said, a serious approach to stopping Russia would be rooted in the recognition that American efforts to cozy up to rogue regimes like Russia, China and Iran have to end. The second half of “Top Story” includes an interview with Newsweek’s opinion editor Josh Hammer, who argues that Ukraine has replaced COVID-19 as the “performative issue” of the day for Americans. Hammer said the idea of America becoming more actively involved in the war against Russia was a bad idea, both because it is a nuclear power and because it distracted us from far more dangerous threats from China and Iran. Hammer also discussed his visit to Hungary and said criticisms of its Prime Minister Viktor Orbán were unfair because it was rooted primarily in his opposition to “Islamic migration.” He said that American society is suffering from a “genuine crisis of meaning.” “There is a lack of spirituality; there’s ultimately kind of a lack of God and godliness, a lack of family—just a lack of meaning,” Hammer told Tobin. “And that’s why you see countries jumping from one crisis to the other … just kind of just show that we believe in something, we believe in something for the sake of believing in something because we’re missing the true anchor.” According to Hammer, America has “too much” liberty and not enough order, hierarchy and structure. He reminded that the founding fathers of the United States were religious men who believed in a society oriented towards the notion of the common good and honoring God. Today, he said, the United States is suffering from a spike in drug overdoses, a loneliness crisis, in addition to increasing levels of suicide and depression. “We need more meaning,” said Hammer. “We need more cohesion … and more of a sense of brotherhood and fraternity—what it really means to be an American.”