In Case You've Missed it, the USA is Seen as a Weak Horse
面子
You reap what you sow.
Do not be deceived: respect is not granted. A nation reaps what it sows. What a nation sows to please the internationalist left, from the international left will reap destruction; whoever sows to demonstrate strength and resolve, from strength and resolve will reap respect.
Apologies to the Apostle Paul.
One of the most dangerous things for a once great power is to show weakness, decay, corruption, and degeneracy in action, policy, and stewardship of its primary position on the world stage. Respect—and if so needed, fear—is something that is earned at great cost and must be maintained. It is a strong edifice, but it stands on a brittle base.
Constant maintenance is essential, or cracks and settling will begin to accelerate. The edifice will stand and survive great challenges if every generation thinks long-term and invests wisely in its maintenance.
Before the edifice begins its final and unstoppable collapse, there will be plenty of warnings. It never collapses suddenly unless it is done on purpose by its owner. Once you discover those warnings, the cracks and sloughing off in chuncks, as long as you take action, you’ll be OK. Maybe.
How is the USA doing?
All you have to do is look at the mismanagement of this century—from Iraq to Afghanistan to China’s rise—to see that this generation of national leadership has failed the nation. They were given the gift of victory in the Cold War and squandered it.
In the last week we have two events that are not-too-subtle warnings that whatever reserve of respect we may have remaining on the international stage, it is thinning to depleted.
You can dismiss these two events if you wish, but if you open your mind and think it through, you can only come to the opinion that our nation is not in a very good place.
Even 10 years ago, these events would not have happened.
President Biden missed a group photo of world leaders at the G20 summit on Monday — as a perplexed pool reporter could be heard telling colleagues that the commander in chief was “behind the palm tree!”
Biden, 81, didn’t make the family picture after buzz ahead of time that he might want to avoid being seen smiling alongside Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov due to the ongoing Ukraine war.
The White House blamed “logistical issues” afterward and said it was simply a matter of bad timing that Biden missed the photo.
The conference photo is one of the most important things of any principals’ meeting. Who stands where, etc. Especially when you have A LOT of “principals”, you also have to manage the other principals personal staff who are making sure their boss is properly taken care of … etc. All the staffs know the approximate pecking order, so in addition to making sure your principal is properly taken care of, you are making sure the other ones “up the chain” are taken care of as well. Disrespect rolls downhill, etc.
I simply don’t know how this happened here…but I do know why it happened.
I’m sorry, but the United States isn’t feared or respected. This has nothing to do personally with President Biden. He represents the United States of America. That is who was disrespected.
China’s Defence Minister declined a meeting with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin during a meeting of defence leaders in Laos, a move the Pentagon chief said on Nov 20 was unfortunate.
Multilateral gatherings of national security officials in Asia have been used in the past for meetings between US and Chinese defence leaders, but China declined a meeting request by Mr Austin during this week’s Asean-Plus defence ministers meeting.
“It’s unfortunate. It affects the region because the region really wants to see us, you know, two significant players in the region, two significant powers, talk to each other,” Mr Austin told reporters.
Um, no, SECDEF. What is happening here is that the People’s Republic of China wants to make sure the region—a ‘face culture’—knows that the United States’ Secretary of Defense is not worth the time of the People’s Republic of China’s Defense Minister.
That is what it means. And yes, take it personally if you wish, but it is really directed at the United States as a nation.
From an objective point of view, I have to tip the hat to the PRC’s team. From a timing, venue, and audience context, it was a perfect opportunity to make this move for their nation’s interest.
This is the harvest we are reaping on the international stage. We radiate weakness. Weakness attracts the predatory.
How do we as a nation get our respect back on the world stage against friend and foe? That is the hard question.
Word is, that when he visited the Amazon during his G20 trip, Biden kept asking to meet Jeff Bezos.
CDR Sal, shot, splash, on target, continuous fire. Lee Smith wrote a book, "The Strong Horse" that was aimed at how cultures rise and fall in the Middle East, (get strong, conquer others, get rich, prosperous and lazy, get conquered by new upcomers, wash, rinse, repeat). People gather around the "strong horse", and abandon that horse when perceived as now being "weak". Human behavior 101, and a pattern of human behavior and civilizational empire arc constantly repeated throughout recorded history. For all of the reasons you have accurately pointed out in this forum, the US Navy is in decline, and with the current industrial trends in ship building, munitions production, personnel development, research and development, etc., that decline curve is accelerating. Which means the U.S. is seen as a "weak horse" in Asia, Europe, the Middle East. Far from being "no better friend, no worse enemy", it can be argued we are seen as "not a reliable ally / friend, not a bad enemy to have since the U.S. is NATO (No Action Talk Only)." Continue fire until receiving check fire. Over.