Pavlich: Blinken’s diplomatic failure

On Dec. 16, 2014, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) took to the Senate floor and opposed the nomination of Antony Blinken to become President Barack Obama’s deputy secretary of State. 

“Mr. Antony “Tony” Blinken, who is not only unqualified, but in fact in my view, one of the worst selections that this president has chosen. I hope that many of my colleagues will understand that not often do I come to the floor to oppose a nomination from the President of the United States , because I believe that elections have consequences. In this case, this individual has actually been dangerous to America,” McCain said. “He has been a functionary and an agent of a U.S. foreign policy that has made the world much less safe today. Let’s just review some of the elements, in particular, and his role in conceptualizing and furthering it.

“It lacks any concept of how to retain our foreign policy goals. This has led to foreign policy failures, including the continued slaughter of the Syrian people by President Bashar Assad … and the betrayal of our key allies, especially in central Europe,” he continued. 

Those words served as a warning, and eight years later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has proven true McCain’s assertions about his capabilities to launch America and its allies into a more dangerous world. 

With the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine marking Europe’s first major land war in decades, just six months after the catastrophic and chaotic exit from Afghanistan, Blinken is clearly incapable. His diplomatic efforts have repeatedly failed in spectacular fashion. While Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions to invade a sovereign country are his own, a failure to deter the situation through aggressive diplomacy and proper, prioritized deployment of U.S. policy, is Blinken’s responsibility.

For weeks the State Department warned of a Russian invasion while claiming the door to diplomacy and lines of communication were still open. Out of caution, Blinken moved State Department personnel out of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, insisting it wasn’t a retreat and that talks were ongoing.

On Feb. 22, 2022, Putin announced he was sending “peacekeepers” into eastern Ukraine. Shortly afterward, bombs started dropping over Ukraine, marking the failure of U.S. State Department diplomacy with Blinken at the helm. Making matters worse, Blinken emboldened Putin on his way into the crisis by focusing on the wrong priorities.  

For over a year the State Department has engaged in a large-scale campaign to hinder domestic U.S. energy production in order to appease largely worthless and expensive global climate pacts.

“As Secretary of State, my job is to make sure our foreign policy delivers for the American people — by taking on the biggest challenges they face and seizing the biggest opportunities that can improve their lives. No challenge more clearly captures the two sides of this coin than climate,” Blinken said during remarks in April 2021, just a few months into the new administration. “We’ll put the climate crisis at the center of our foreign policy and national security, as President Biden instructed us to do in his first week in office. That means taking into account how every bilateral and multilateral engagement — every policy decision — will impact our goal of putting the world on a safer, more sustainable path.”

While the U.S. has cut its own domestic production and exports, it increased the amount of oil imported from Russia in 2021. The Europeans, who easily convinced President Biden and Secretary Blinken to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, furthered Russia’s dominance over the continent by jumping on board with Nord Stream 2. The U.S. and Europe still need oil and gas, but to satisfy self-imposed virtue signaling emissions standards, they’re buying it from hostile countries and funding war crimes. Putin is happy to sell oil that fuels his interests, especially to naive and academically driven Westerners willing to kneecap themselves along the way. 

A lack of pressure on NATO countries to pay their committed shares to the alliance, on top of engaging in climate change alarmism and self-inflicted energy outsourcing to hostile actors, is fueling Putin’s war against innocent Ukrainians. The European Union and U.N. are watching in horror as civilian hospitals and maternity wards are bombed. But now, it could be too late, and direct energy sanctions haven’t been deployed. 

Blinken’s decision to “put the climate crisis at the center of our foreign policy and national security,” has proven to be major and historic mistake. With one year down and two foreign policy crises already on the board, Americans should be concerned about the diplomatic “leadership” running the State Department. 

Pavlich is the editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.