Biden National Security Strategic Report Reveals Domestic Focus

The Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (INSSF) report will not ring a bell with many Americans. The current version, issued by the Biden White House in March, may create some to some confusion as to what national security is all about.

“The simple truth is, America cannot afford to be absent anNay longer on the world stage,” claims Joe Biden. In the wake of Afghanistan, Syria, and alliances such as NATO, the simple truth is that American remains a major presence on the world stage. Much of the report focuses on challenges from within the United States. These challenges come from “corruption, inequality, polarization, populism, and illiberal threats to the rule of law,” and also “nationalist and nativist trends” that leave us “less prosperous and less safe.”

It is essential to national security, the report claims, “to truly address systemic racism.” Readers get no clue that, in a nation that twice elected an African American president, this subject is a matter of intense debate. So is the subject of “climate change,” a major theme in the INSSF report.

By the count of an active military officer writing in American Greatness under the pen name Watson Cassandra, the Biden INSSG report mentions “diversity” seven times, and “climate” a full 27 times. “Economic” concerns are mentioned 34 times. COVID-19 comes up nine times and “Domestic violent extremism” also gets a workout. On the other hand, the report comes up short on examples of such extremism, and how it threatens national security more than nuclear-armed adversaries such as China and Russia.

By Watson Cassandra’s reckoning “we have an administration that believes the greatest threats are those citizens who disagree with the administration’s agenda.” If embattled Americans think that’s a stretch, they might note that the INSSG report mentions “build back better” four times.