Kamala Harris is a danger to the security of the West?!

By: Con Coughlin / The Daily Telegraph
Translation: Telegrafi.com

If the prospect of Donald Trump's re-election as US president has caused jitters in the Western alliance, imagine the ensuing chaos if the November race results in Vice President Kamala Harris as America's next commander-in-chief.

At least with Trump we have a sense of what to expect if he succeeds in his bid to secure a second term in the White House. On key security issues, such as the future of NATO and the war in Ukraine, Trump has made his views clear, even if they do not exactly align with the objectives of other Western leaders.

Trump's constant threat to pull Washington out of NATO if other member states do not pay their fair share of the costs of running it – along with claims he could end US support for Ukraine – have causing many to consider Trump's second presidency as an existential threat to the future of the Western alliance.

Trump's statements on these and other key security issues stand out, but many of these claims are made for headlines that drive his campaign, rather than being an accurate representation of his views.

For NATO, for example - as Trump said in a recent interview, to Nigel Farage for UK News - the former president insists that he remains committed to the alliance, as long as other member states meet their defense spending commitments. As for Ukraine, Trump's claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin would never have risked invading Ukraine in 2022 if he were still in office makes sense.

Putin's calculation that he will not face any serious resistance from the West was made on the basis of the chaotic military withdrawal - led by the US - from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. This convinced the Russian leader that the West was not serious in the protection of their own interests.

The role of the US president, Joe Biden - in orchestrating this disaster - has been easily overlooked through the honors given to him, especially by liberal fans, since he announced his decision to leave the presidential race. Harris, on the other hand, is unknown, especially in relation to the foreign policy perspective of the woman who seeks to become the 47th president of America.

Harris, it should be remembered, had no serious experience in foreign policy before she was chosen as Biden's running mate. Nor had her time in domestic politics borne much fruit. Instead, the main reason she was chosen appears to be about the possibility of broadening the appeal of Democrats during the 2020 campaign to win by having a left-wing activist woman as their candidate.

Whether Harris will continue her left-wing activism from the White House is a moot point.

Certainly, judging by her less-than-impressive treatment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to Washington this week, she has a lot to learn about the art of governance if she wants to be a credible contender for the White House.

With Biden still recovering from the coronavirus at his Delaware beach home, neither the president nor his deputy were available to observe the established official protocol of welcoming the Israeli leader when he arrived in Washington on Monday. Instead, Harris chose to travel to Indiana for an event at a university, which also suggests she was not present when Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of the US Congress.

Harris' absence from Netanyahu's speech, which has been denounced as "boycotting" by critics, is politically expedient at a time when Democrats are deeply divided over the Gaza conflict, with more than 30 Democrats boycotting the event as a sign protests against the continuation of Israel's military offensive in the enclave.

Harris also doesn't have an impressive record on foreign policy issues — stemming the flow of illegal immigrants from Latin America, which she was given responsibility for after the Biden administration named her "border empress."

Far from making a meaningful impact on an issue that has taken center stage in this year's presidential race, Harris' only notable contribution was a trip to Guatemala City in June 2021, where he declared: "I want to be clear to people in the region who think make that dangerous journey to the United States-Mexico border: Don't come."

Her desperate appeal fell on deaf ears, to the extent that illegal border crossings reached historic levels under the Biden administration.

With such an indifferent track record, all the evidence suggests that Harris – if he manages to win the presidential race – will be an even bigger challenge to the Western alliance than Trump.

The arrival of such an inexperienced figure, taking on the mantle of leader of the free world, will certainly be welcomed by despots in countries such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, whose main objective is to destroy Western influence in affairs world. /Telegraph/