AP
As leaders gathered for this week’s NATO summit, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delivered a forceful speech urging American action against the “China-led Axis” threatening Ukraine, Israel and beyond. Here are excerpts of his remarks, given at the Hudson Institute on Monday.
Until recently, in the almost 40 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, thanks to America’s policy of peace through strength, the sounds of war and interconnected global conflict have been mostly silent.
But that is no longer the case.
Under the current path, the world is increasingly destabilized, and in this fateful moment, our actions here in America will continue to determine the path of the free world.
All of us here recognize that while democracy is not perfect, the burden of self-government is far lighter than the yoke of tyranny.
But right now, absent American leadership, we’re looking at a future that could well be defined by communism and tyranny, rather than liberty, opportunity, and security.
In Europe, Putin has made it clear that his plans do not stop with Ukraine.
He has likened himself to Czar Peter the Great, and you can read his essay about restoring the Russian empire — an empire that would include our military partners in Vilnius, Helsinki, and Warsaw.
Xi Jinping has made abundantly clear he’s interested in expanding his communist footholds, including in the South China Sea.
In the Middle East, the Ayatollah wants to resurrect the caliphate and eliminate Israel. . . .
To be sure, these threats have been growing for some time — but under weak presidents, they’ve been allowed to metastasize.
During the Obama administration, we saw eight years of international apology tours, the sequestration of our military, the buildup of ISIS, Russia’s invasion into Crimea, the spread of malign Chinese influence across the globe, and a nuclear deal that gave Iran everything they wanted.
Today, the same failures we saw under Obama have happened under Joe Biden, because he’s empowered an out-of-touch foreign policy establishment whose agenda is to once again appease, apologize and accommodate.
He doesn’t treat China like an enemy.
He’s stopped supporting Israel and has cozied up to Iran to revive the failed nuclear deal.
And, in the most inexplicable policy imaginable, he’s opened our borders wide to spies and terrorists, while reducing sanctions on the Latin dictators who wreak havoc in our backyard.
And now look where we are!
Obama’s weakness invited aggression, and Biden’s weakness has fueled that aggression like nothing we’ve seen since World War II.
Things were different when I came to Congress during the first Trump administration in 2017.
When I was elected chairman of the Republican Study Committee in 2019 . . . we published a report with 130 policy recommendations to counter China, deter Russia, and advance American interests in the Middle East.
And to the chagrin of the pundits who want to paint him as an “isolationist,” President Trump established a solid security posture that advanced the same principles outlined in our report.
Remember how he threatened North Korea with fire and fury the likes of which the world has never seen?
Remember how he took out Soleimani and al-Baghdadi?
Remember how he was the first President to send Javelin missiles to Ukraine, and how he took steps to rebuild our military?
Remember how simple Trump’s approach to arms control was? He ended one-sided treaties, he called out Russia for violating the INF Treaty, and ensured America was developing the weaponry to win if challenged.
He called out the threat of China and took on their unfair trade practices, got our allies to pay their fair share, enforced Iran oil sanctions, and brokered the Abraham Accords, and the foreign policy establishment hated it.
But he did not retreat. He did not apologize.
He instilled fear in our enemies, and with his leadership, made clear that American strength is essential to a peaceful 21st century.
To be sure, the Republican Party is not one of “nation builders” and “careless interventionists.”
Nor are we idealists who think we can placate tyrants.
We are realists. We don’t seek out a fight, but we’re always prepared to fight, and if we must fight, we fight with the gloves off.
And today, when our adversaries don’t need to cross oceans to harm our people, we need a new policy of peace through strength for the 21st century.
Even as the “America-last” bureaucrats regained power under Joe Biden, and invited aggression from our enemies, in the coming months, we have a chance to change course. . . .
But that’s a choice we have to make. We can choose to lead, or we can choose to be a speedbump down the road to serfdom. Decline is always a choice.
At one point, the West was facing elimination by Fascists and Imperialists, and the Jews were facing genocide by the Nazis.
At another point, we faced annihilation by the Soviets.
Today, we are threatened by Chinese communists, Russian oligarchs and Islamic terrorists.
We can choose to ignore them. We can try to appease them. We can listen to the naysayers who say our values aren’t worth defending or that there can be no victory.
Or we can respond again with all the fortitude and fight that once ran through every American vein.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) is the 56th speaker of the US House of Representatives.