Thank you for your reply. I still do not agree with you, but I appreciate you taking the time to thoughtfully articulate your views so that I may better understand them.
You and I have a different interpretation of the information regarding the allegations of his financial misdeeds. I have no doubt that Hunter Biden was mixed up in all sorts of shady dealings, and I certainly would not be voting for Hunter if he ever ran for office. However, I have not seen anything that has convinced me that Joe Biden is guilty of corruption. If there were evidence of it, I have no doubt in my mind that Jim Jordan and James Comer would have brought articles of impeachment by now.
I can understand why you are outraged that more has not been done to hold Biden accountable for these allegations. In the same way, many Democrats are outraged bevause they believe that Trump and his family have also engaged in all sorts of shady business dealings and they too have not been held accountable. I am not saying that one side is right and the other is wrong, rather that outrage is a logical response to perceived injustice.
Where you and I are probably most in agreement on this issue is over the media coverage, or lack thereof, regarding Hunter Biden’s involvement with Burisma. Without going into the details, I have had my own encounters with Burisma, and I am convinced that they are not only under the direct control of the Russian government, but also that their corruption extends into many other organizations. The most cursory research on the part of journalists could have uncovered much of this, and yet that story was intentionally suppressed.
I have a different read on this as well. My assumption is that Putin was emboldened by the inaction of the Obama administration in the wake of his invasion of Crimea, disunity amongst NATO countries, and the perception that the US was too politically polarized to do anything about it. Horrifying to think we nearly proved Putin right on that last point.
Putin has also managed to cultivate a reputation as being a ruthless yet cunning tactician. I think he is just a delusional megalomaniac. When dealing with a person like that, I am not sure there is anything anyone could have done to dissuade him from invading. For this same reason, I think trying to negotiate a peace deal is with Putin is futile.
I agree that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was an abject failure. I also admit that I am woefully uninformed about the situation on the ground immediately following our withdrawal. Nor do I have the military experience to properly evaluate what errors were made and who was responsible for making them.
Regardless, the buck stops with Secretary Austin and President Biden. Again, I am not knowledgeable enough on military matters to know if it should have warranted Secretary Austin’s dismissal, but I think that probably would have been the proper decision at the time.
I would not necessarily state it the same way as you, as I am inclined to give more weight to intentionality when casting such judgements.
With that said, I believe we ultimately agree that the policy toward Iran pursued by both the Obama and Biden administrations has failed time and again because it is founded on the fatally flawed premise that if Iran were just presented with the opportunity to join the the Western world, they would jump in with both feet.
As I have stated before, I see extreme risk aversion as the common thread between every policy failure of the Biden administration. They are so concerned with avoiding every possible adverse outcome that they fail to act when necessary. They let their strategy undermine their policy.
With regard to your statement on Catholic faith, I will take your word for it. I have no dog in that fight, and I will never hold a man’s sincerely held religious beliefs against him as long as they do not infringe on my rights or the rights or others.
With regard to Biden’s actions toward following October 7, I do not believe he supports Hamas, and in a lot of ways he has been a strong ally of Israel. With that said, I too am frustrated by what I see as slowly caving to the pressure from the progressive and far left wings of the Democratic Party. I have hope that Biden can still do the right thing, but make no mistake, he will lose my vote the instant he crosses one of those red lines.