I’ll explain Biden’s mistakes with Putin. Mike Pompeo speaks
Not just Biden and Russia. What Mike Pompeo said to the newspaper La Verità interviewed by Stefano Graziosi
Mike Pompeo was Donald Trump's right-hand man at the State Department from 2018 to 2021. In this capacity, he was the protagonist of that presidency's foreign policy: he stabilized the Middle East with the Abrahamic accords, he held a firm line with China on religious freedom and pandemic has cornered Iran.
All this, in fidelity to the Reaganian principle according to which, if you want to keep the peace, you must show yourself strong, because if you appear weak and irresolute your opponents will take advantage of it and make you pay for it.
Today, while rumors about his possible presidential candidacy in 2024 are chasing, La Verità has decided to interview him, to understand how he interprets the constant crises of a world in constant change.
Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine in 2014 under Barack Obama and now with Joe Biden. Why do you think he did nothing while Donald Trump was in the White House?
I think it is very clear that Vladimir Putin wanted to take back, reunify, recapture (choose the word that the Russian leader could use) Ukraine. He wanted to bring Ukraine back into Russian orbit for his entire life and on this point he never changed. The only thing that has changed is his perception of risk and his perception of American leadership. Vladimir Putin has not changed, it is the American leadership that has changed. I think Putin saw leeway to invade. He thought he would make it and the costs would be low, while we have lost the ability to deterrence. We, Western Europe and the United States, have lost the ability to convince Vladimir Putin that the cost of the attack would be too high: this is the central pivot of deterrence. We have lost this ability and he has proceeded with the invasion. And now we see thousands of dead Ukrainians and millions of refugees.
On the one hand, Biden has imposed sanctions on Putin. On the other hand, however, it negotiates with the Russian president to relaunch the nefarious Iranian nuclear deal (and Tehran is a close ally of Moscow). Honestly, I don't understand the point of this strategy. What do you think of it?
I don't think there is a strategy here. I think it's a very elusive thing. I believe the Biden administration is leaning on the Iranians in the same way that President Obama did. Obama thought that a stronger Iran had to be built to counter Saudi Arabia. I think the Biden administration is doing this. I also think it has fundamentally failed to create stability in the Middle East. Today, Iranians can be seen building and launching missiles against Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. Today you can see Hamas and Hezbollah more powerful, stronger and more capable than when I left my post as secretary of state sixteen months ago. Knowing that the Russians and Iranians will make deals that will give the Russians the money to pay for the war in Ukraine is a farce that is harmful to the United States, harmful to Italy and harmful to all of Europe.
The arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen confirmed that China poses a danger to religious freedom. What can be done to counter this situation?
There are many ways to put pressure on the Communist Party of China with the aim of allowing more religious freedom. In the Trump administration, I led the charge with Ambassador Brownback. A million Muslims in the West are kept in the most terrible conditions, Catholics in China are not allowed to live their faith freely. There are various tools we can use. The first is simply to push the Chinese Communists. The second is to hold them responsible for the terrible lack of freedom to profess a faith: the arrest of Cardinal Zen is a perfect example, that of Jimmy Lai in the past is another. These are people who are simply exercising their basic human right and the Communist Party of China imprisons them. The last thing I would say: it is important that religious institutions are a moral force, a guiding spirit and address the Chinese leadership. This cannot be done only by governments, the Italian government, the American one. And this is especially true of the Catholic Church. We need the Catholic Church to abandon the agreement it has made with the Chinese Communist Party. Allowing the Communist Party of China to mediate or veto who should lead Catholics in China constitutes a lack of moral clarity. It is a danger to those of all faiths in China.
(Extract from the interview published by the newspaper La Verità)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/vi-spiego-gli-errori-di-biden-con-putin-parla-mike-pompeo/ on Wed, 18 May 2022 05:53:12 +0000.