Vivek Ramaswamy is a billionaire and a candidate for president of the United States with a nice smile. He made a big splash at the 23 August primary debate. Former president Trump has said that Ramaswamy would be a very good pick for his vice-presidential running-mate.
With all due respect to Messrs. Trump and Ramaswamy, the latter should never be allowed anywhere near the presidency or the vice presidency because he is a complete idiot with respect to national security and foreign policy.
Ramaswamy’s statements on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Israel, and Taiwan prove that beyond any doubt.
Idiot On Ukraine
Ramaswamy is eager to cut off our aid to Ukraine. That’s wrongheaded but nevertheless a legitimate position among Republicans. He wants to do that in order to use the money to secure our southern border, never mind that we could easily provide for both at once. (READ MORE: The War in Ukraine Is No Game of Drones)
When we get to the details of Ramaswamy’s Ukraine policy, we have to shake our heads in disgust.
Ramaswamy wants to give all of the Ukrainian territory to Russia that it has conquered in Ukraine. In addition, he wants to make Russian President Putin a promise that Ukraine will never be made a member of NATO. Never mind that the Ukrainian armed forces are continuing to fight the Russians.
And what does Ramaswamy think he’ll get in return for these concessions? Ramaswamy says that Putin will have to cancel his alliance with China’s Xi Jinping. (Any guarantee Putin would make to end his attempt to conquer Ukraine wouldn’t be worth spit.)
The Putin-Xi alliance was announced three weeks before the Ukraine invasion by Russia, on the opening day of the Beijing Olympics on 3 February 2022. The announcement, made jointly by Putin and Xi, was made at what was reportedly their thirty-eighth meeting. According to their joint statement, it is a “no limits” alliance.
Ramaswamy says that Putin has to end that alliance. Why? Apparently only because Ramaswamy is telling him to do so. Immeasurably delusional, Ramaswamy is also displaying a total lack of judgment.
But he is sticking with that idea. The other day he told Fox News, “I would freeze the current lines of control. I would further make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. That’s enough to get Putin to do the deal.” That crosses the line between inexperience and stupidity. (READ MORE: NATO Needs Ukraine, and So Do We)
Idiot On Taiwan
Ramaswamy wants “strategic clarity” with regard to Taiwan. He intends to reach it in two steps.
First, he declares that we should commit to defending Taiwan but only until the U.S. establishes independence on manufacturing computer chips for which we, and most of the West, rely on Taiwan.
What that means is that Ramaswamy is playing word games and won’t defend Taiwan at all.
Under that formula, our “strategic ambiguity” with regard to Taiwan would be ended, but Ramaswamy doesn’t understand that so would our “one China” policy that has kept the peace around Taiwan since Richard Nixon’s administration.
We could be self-sufficient on computer chip manufacturing but market forces have made Taiwan the preferred source. How long that would take — and how much it would cost to overcome market forces — to make us independent Ramaswamy hasn’t said.
Second, after we’d agreed to defend Taiwan, Ramaswamy wants to return to “strategic ambiguity” once we’ve become computer chip independent. Apparently Ramaswamy believes our friendship with Taiwan has no moral or historical value.
And how can any nation in the world believe that we’ve returned to the “one China” policy after abandoning it?
Though he’s now trying to weasel out of his statements on Taiwan, Ramaswamy told radio host Hugh Hewitt two weeks ago that China has “unfinished nationalistic business dating back to their civil war in 1949. And if that’s the sole basis for Xi Jinping going after Taiwan after we have semiconductor independence, then you know what? I am not going to send our sons and daughters to die over that conflict.” (READ MORE: When the Taiwan War Will Happen)
What that means is that Ramaswamy is playing word games and won’t defend Taiwan at all.
Although I believe a Chinese attack on Taiwan will come before Biden leaves office, Ramaswamy would give Xi a finite date on which he could attack Taiwan without our interference: the day we’ve become independent on computer chip production. Ramaswamy is now denying he ever said that. But it’s a matter of record.
Where that leaves Japan, South Korea and Australia — each of which would be endangered by China’s conquest of Taiwan — Ramaswamy hasn’t said.
Idiot on Israel
Before the 23 August debate, Ramaswamy said he wanted to end U.S. aid to Israel by 2028. Nikki Haley tried to hold him accountable for that position during the debate, but Ramaswamy ducked away without answering her. Since then, he’s tried to backtrack saying that he wanted our aid to Israel to become unnecessary by 2028.
The statements he has made and the policies he advocates aren’t just rookie mistakes.
He evidently doesn’t realize that Israel is our only real ally in the Middle East and a bulwark against a nuclear-armed Iran. He neither knows nor cares that we get more and better intelligence from Israel on the Middle East than our intelligence agencies are capable of producing.
Ramaswamy has also said that he wouldn’t use US forces against Iran, indicating that even if Iran attacked Israel he wouldn’t defend it. He said a war against Iran is something we don’t belong in. He also doesn’t want to expand the Trump-engineered Abraham Accords with more Arab nations because it would disturb the “uneasy equilibrium” in the Middle East.
The Saudis are now engaged in negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians intending to make a peace agreement like the Abraham Accords with Israel. Saudi Arabia is the most influential Arab nation. Its leaders must be wondering what the hell Ramaswamy is thinking. (READ MORE: The FBI Sets Its Sights on Israel)
The Abraham Accords are probably the greatest achievement of the Trump presidency. Now Ramaswamy wants to throw them away.
Ramaswamy is a danger to our national security and that of our allies. The statements he has made and the policies he advocates aren’t just rookie mistakes. They demonstrate his fundamental lack of knowledge and judgment about how we need to act with respect to our allies and enemies. They make him unfit for office.