FOREIGN AFFAIRSTHE LONG TWILIGHTSTRUGGLE/ KEVIN ANDREWS6 Australian Polity
Sixty years ago, a new Democratic President of theUnited States stood on the steps of the Congressand proclaimed boldly: “Let every nation know,whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay anyprice, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support anyfriend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and thesuccess of liberty.”South Vietnamese government in 1975, ensuring victoryby the north and the mass exodus of refugees. In hismemoir, Robert Gates who was Secretary of Defenseunder both George W Bush and Barack Obama, wrotethat Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreignpolicy and national security issue over the past fourdecades.”John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who was to be tested with theCuban crisis three years later, returned to the themeelsewhere in his Inaugural Address: “Now the trumpetsummons us again - not as a call to bear arms, thougharms we need - not as a call to battle, though embattledwe are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilightstruggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patientin tribulation’ - a struggle against the common enemiesof man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.”The idea that the United States would engage in a “longtwilight struggle” and “pay any price, bear any burden,meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foeto assure the survival and the success of liberty,” hasbeen rightly questioned in the light of the Afghanistanwithdrawal.Just as Obama and Biden withdrew from Iraq in 2011,leading to civil war and ISIS, Biden’s decision aboutAfghanistan will have significant consequences for theregion.A narrative - common to both critics of Biden andChinese propaganda - that the US Administration wouldnot stand up to aggressors such as China towards itsneighbours was displaced by news of the revitalisationof the Quad and the new AUKUS agreement. Althoughthe latter announcement focussed on submarines, theaccompanying news that Australia would acquire a rangeof new potent missiles for the navy and airforce is ofmore immediate benefit to our defences. Interestingly,Chinese propaganda pivoted from the US being weakand untrustworthy to it being an aggressor intent on war!Much of the commentary focussed on the botchedwithdrawal which resulted in the death of 13 US defencepersonnel. Interestingly, a news report claims that intheir forthcoming book, Peril, Bob Woodward and RobertCosta, write that both Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin,and Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, objected toBiden’s rapid withdrawal, but were overruled by thePresident.Several charges have been made against Mr Biden. Oneis that he lacks the ‘strategic patience’ required of theUnited States. It would have been best to maintain agarrison of a few thousand soldiers indefinitely, just asthe US has done elsewhere. His military commandershave since testified that this was their recommendationto the President. The US has more than 700 militaryestablishments around the world, the largest presencebeing in Japan, Germany and South Korea.Others point to a more worrying concern, namely, thatBiden has a track record of foreign policy blunders goingall the way back to his opposition to giving aid to theThe significance of the AUKUS decision is that Australiahas stepped up to our responsibility for regional security.The submarine decision is welcome. We can only hopeit is neither too late nor subverted by vested interests.If Australia’s sovereignty and security is seriouslythreatened in the future, a great deal of the blame canbe directed at parochial provincial politics that distortedAustralia’s national interest for more than a decade.The government should seriously consider leasing LosAngeles or Virginia class submarines from the US, thesecondment of Australian submariners and techniciansto the US fleet for immediate training and a hybrid buildto reduce the time frame and costs to deliver the newvessels as soon as possible.President Biden will never have the eloquence of JFK butit is what his Administration does that ultimately counts.In his speech to the UN General Assembly, the Presidentsaid the US would focus on ‘relentless diplomacy. “Allthe major powers of the world have a duty, in my view,to carefully manage their relationships so they do notAustralian Polity 7
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