20 years ago, Biden got it right

During the September 28, 2023, hearing on “The Basis for an Impeachment Inquiry of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.,” House Committee on Oversight and Accountability chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) detailed how overwhelming evidence shows President Joe Biden lied to the American people about his knowledge of and participation in his family’s corrupt international and domestic business schemes. 

The list is long, but it includes only his criminal dealings since 2008, after he became Obama’s V.P.  There were other misdeeds committed by Biden during his many senatorial terms, but all of the above pale in comparison with the current situation, when more and more people in the know warn that he is pushing us to a nuclear WW3.

However, the purpose of this article is to give him credit when he was right, and if decision-makers in Washington would listen to his advice the world would be much safer, and definitely not on the edge of the abyss.

In a letter to President George W. Bush of November 7, 2001 signed by over 100 Members of Congress Biden’s signature goes first, and here is the full text.  

President George W. Bush
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Bush:

As you prepare for the upcoming summit with President Putin, we commend the positive approach you have established with Russia. Too often, the focus of our bilateral relations has been on defense and security — precisely the issues on which our interests often collide. It would be more useful, as we move forward with a Russian policy for the 21st century to take a more holistic approach — one that takes into account Russia’s myriad concerns as well as our own.

Therefore, in consultation with many of the leading experts on Russia, we propose a series of bipartisan initiatives to engage Russia on issues such as the environment, energy, economic development, health care — as well as defense and security. We call this proposal “A New Time, A New Beginning.” Some of these are new ideas, but many are not. Many of these initiatives are already underway and need additional support to make even greater progress.

Such engagement is in the U.S. interest as well as Russia’s. If the United States and Russia cooperate on issues across the board, Russia will be more likely to work closely with America on the national security issues that matter most to us – missile defense, the war against terrorism, and proliferation.

We encourage you to review the enclosed proposal and hope that some of these initiatives will prove useful to you in the ongoing discussions between Russia and
America. We look forward to working with you to forge a new relationship that will benefit both our countries.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Attached to this letter was a 40-page document titled “A New Time, A New Beginning,” prepared by Congressman Curt Weldon, who hand-delivered the document to Bush’s NSC adviser, Condoleezza Rice, in advance of the Bush-Putin November 13–15 summit in Washington and Crawford, Texas.  This document included detailed proposals that could provide the basis for a new and mutually beneficial  relationship with Russia. 

It was also presented to Putin at the Russian Embassy in Washington at a November 13 reception, where, in the presence of over 400 foreign diplomats and notable public figures, the Russian president said, “We are ready to move Russia towards rapprochement with America as far as she is ready.” 

Two days later, Bush responded at a local high school, declaring Putin “a new style of leader, a reformer … a man who’s going to make a huge difference in making the world more peaceful, by working closely with the United States.”

What happened next is well known: war in Iraq, abrogation of the crucial security ABM treaty, a push to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, destruction of Libya and Syria, the February 2014 coup in Ukraine, rejection of Russia’s mutual security proposals in December 2021, and sabotage of the Minsk accords and the Russia-Ukraine peace deal reached in March 2022.     

All of this was done with Biden’s vote as a senator or by his direct order as vice president or president.

The purpose of this post is to remind him and the rest of us of his signature on the document that could lay the foundation for a long-lasting peace, and strategic U.S.-Russia partnership to face the enormous challenges of the 21st century.

Biden not only betrayed all these hopes and ideas, but keeps fueling the fire by throwing more taxpayer billions and weapons into the fray, thus pushing the world toward a nuclear catastrophe.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.