Billy Long: Disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is gift that keeps giving to our enemies

(From Seventh District Congressman Billy Long)

On the morning of October 4, 2022, residents of Northern Japan heard alarms blaring, warning that they should seek shelter from a nuclear missile fired from North Korea. Luckily, the missile landed in the Pacific Ocean, but the threat felt by the Japanese was real. It’s just another in a series of concerning incidents coming out of Pyongyang.

Since September 25, 2022, North Korea has conducted seven nuclear missile tests, with a total of 25 so far this year. This raises the tensions to their highest levels since 2017, when North Korea last fired a missile over Japan. 

Back then, President Trump was resolved to stop aggression from North Korea. He strongly opposed North Korean missile tests, along with his United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. He also told the world that the United States would “never accept a nuclear North Korea.” 

This strong language brought North Korea to the negotiating table, leading to two summits between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. During this time, tensions between the United States and North Korea cooled dramatically.

So what changed? President Biden came into office, and things quickly fell apart. After the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, Kim Jong-un felt the American president was not as strong on the world stage as his predecessor. 

Vladimir Putin saw this as well and launched an invasion of Ukraine. The weakened rhetoric and war in Ukraine have led the North Koreans to thinking they can get away with more now than they could under President Trump, and unfortunately, they were right about the media coverage. 

The escalating launches have not received outsized media attention, mainly because the world media is focused more on Ukraine and Putin’s own threats of nuclear action. And President Biden’s inconsistent message on these nuclear threats from Russia doesn’t help the situation either.

It’s clear that we need a president who is strong on the world stage. President Reagan used to call this ‘Peace through Strength.’ Basically, our enemies are less likely to cause trouble if they believe the United States will respond forcefully to any aggression. 

During President Trump’s tenure, that is what the world saw. Before the two summits with Kim Jong-un, tensions were high between North Korea and the United States. President Trump had to make it clear that any nuclear aggression from North Korea would not be acceptable. 

Once Kim Jong-un saw that President Trump was serious about this, he ratcheted down the tensions. If we want to contain North Korea, we first need President Biden to show the world that we will not accept the current actions from Pyongyang. That is the only way to bring them back to the table to engage in long term discussions.