America’s Credibility Crisis on the Global Stage
There’s no obvious way to determine when something has gone from being a problem to being a crisis. But, like obscenity, you know it when you see it. And the Biden administration’s problem with national-security leaks has become a crisis.
The worst example was probably the recent revelation that a set of Israeli plans for Iran strikes ended up in Iranian hands. But perhaps the most flagrantly unprofessional example is in today’s New York Times. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky requested Tomahawk missiles from the U.S. to help fend off Russia’s ongoing invasion. One administration official’s response was to run to the Times and not only sneer at the request but insult Zelensky in the process.
“U.S. officials have privately expressed some exasperation with Mr. Zelensky’s victory plan, calling it unrealistic and dependent almost entirely on Western aid,” the Times reports. As an example, the Times cited the inclusion of Tomahawks in that package, “a totally unfeasible request, a senior U.S. official said.” Further, Ukraine “hadn’t made a convincing case to Washington on how it would use the long-range weapons, the U.S. officials said.” Zelensky “was stunned” by the administration’s rejection. The strong implication is that he shouldn’t have been.
The whole article, but particularly that section, has a what is this guy even thinking tone. Condescension aside, what was the purpose of spilling the previously undisclosed beans about the Tomahawks? It’s hard not to read the piece as an intentional brushback pitch to Zelensky, which raises the troubling likelihood that the leak came from someone very high up in the White House.
Zelensky was justifiably furious. “And this was confidential information between Ukraine and the White House,” he told Nordic media, according to Politico. “How should we understand these messages? So, it means between partners there’s nothing confidential?”
This isn’t the first time Zelensky has wondered if he could trust Washington. Last year, he blamed a failed counteroffensive on leaks, and he publicly mused that “the West is afraid that Russia will lose the war,” though he added that the West didn’t want Ukraine to lose either. Ukraine’s brilliant Kursk offensive in August was kept secret from allies—and it was a success.
The FBI is investigating the leak of supposed Israeli attack plans against Iran. The FBI has also been investigating the possible mishandling of classified documents by Biden’s top Iran negotiator Robert Malley. (Malley has since been placed on leave and his security clearance was suspended.) After Malley took leave, Semafor revealed the existence of an Iranian government influence operation that involved two of Malley’s advisers, one of whom, Ariane Tabatabai, was described by Iranians as a member of “the core group.”
A leaky national-security team is hardly unheard of. But what makes this situation unusual is the sense that the administration is running on autopilot. Biden is checked out, and his national-security advisers are soon to be out of work even if Kamala Harris wins the election. They do not appear to answer to Joe Biden. They do not, and will not, answer to Kamala Harris (or Donald Trump, for that matter, since he’d also bring in his own team).
And much as we may admire the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk and the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh—which was also kept secret from the Biden administration—we do not want the whole world to follow this trend. It’s called the American-led world order for a reason, and a superpower in extended hibernation cannot lead.
This isn’t the same as a president being a lame duck, because that status is expected and planned for, and even a lame-duck president has authority. When Biden was convinced to drop out of the race for reasons that also undermined his legitimacy to serve out the rest of his term, it precipitated not an orderly political transition but chaos. What we didn’t realize was that chaos within the administration had long preceded Biden’s announcement that he wouldn’t seek a second term. After all, by the time he dropped out of the race, the people who worked closely with the president had been aware of his limitations for a couple of years already.
The recent national-security leaks are the result. The U.S. government appears to be run by competing factions of unelected officials. If you pitch your plan to the wrong faction, as Zelensky just learned, it might go straight to the New York Times. Zelensky may be undiplomatic at times, but his country is our ally and it is at war and its president does not deserve to be publicly ridiculed by anonymous U.S. officials on behalf of the administration. Any more of this nonsense, and American credibility may take a hit it can’t fix and can’t afford.
