by Frontpagemag.com
Expert panelists speak at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s 2021 Restoration Weekend.
Don't miss this engaging panel with Larry Greenfield, Daniel Greenfield, Gordon Chang and Dr. Ben Tabatabaei as they discuss: 'The Fallout From Afghanistan - China, the U.S. and the Threats We Face.' The panelists spoke at the David Horowitz Freedom Center’s 2021 Restoration Weekend on Nov. 11th-14th at the Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. A transcript follows.
Transcript:
Larry Greenfield: In 1986, I met Commander Ahmed Shaw Massoud, the Lion of the Panjshir valley, in the mountains of Afghanistan. He was the most pro-U.S. of the alliance of resistance to the Soviet Union.
Fast-forward to September 9th, 2001, two nights before 9/11, when al-Qaeda terrorists disguised as cameramen secured an interview with him and blew him up, murdered him; knowing he would be our key ally in our response to 9/11, which was coming forward the next Tuesday.
Fast-forward again to the recent withdrawal of the final 2,500 U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the loss of our military base and weapons and intelligence capability, and the resultant human rights counter-terrorism and national security debacle we've just seen. Ahmed Shaw Massoud's son is now the leader of the remaining tribal resistance forces against the Taliban, which has retaken over Afghanistan.
The United States now has no cooperation. With the Taliban to defeat 2,000-plus ISIS K forces, we have no in-country intelligence or military base. And we must rely on Pakistan for overflight rights to monitor and hit terrorists. And we still have American hostages there.
Welcome to our national security foreign policy panel: the fallout from Afghanistan and the threat from China and Iran and the region. I've asked Daniel Greenfield, brother from another mother, to catalog the decision points and the consequences of the Biden Administration's blunders. Daniel is the brilliant and prolific showman, Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center and an expert on the political Left and radial Islam. Please visit frontpagemag.com to read his daily blog, "The Point." Perhaps, Daniel, the party of Jimmy Carter and Barack Hussein Obama, and John Kerry and Ben Rhodes, has only met our low expectations for incompetence and radicalism in the new administration.
Then we will hear from Gordon Chang, perhaps our nation's most informed expert on China, as well as an expert on North Korea and the author of "Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes On the World" and "Losing South Korea." Mr. Chang hails from New Jersey, is a graduate of Cornell Law, an international lawyer based in China and Hong Kong for many years, the author of "The Coming Collapse of China," and more recently, "The Great U.S. China Tech War." He's a Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.
(Applause)
Gordon, doesn't the Afghan debacle encourage the Chinese authorities to continue their agenda?
And finally, we welcome back Dr. Ben Tabatabaei to discuss the implications of the Biden foreign policy. For the broader Middle East, Ben is an international consultant, an economist and professor; who has advised companies, foreign governments and U.S. counterterrorism officials. Ben, China signed a massive long-term deal with the Iranian mullahs to support their regime and power in return for reduced-cost energy. The Biden team has halted domestic oil drilling, benefitting Iran and the rise in the price of oil. We welcome your perspective as well.
First, please welcome up Daniel Greenfield.
(Applause)
Daniel Greenfield: What happened in Afghanistan? Two words: the Biden Administration.
(Laughter)
Daniel Greenfield: But really, two other words: political solution.
The Biden Administration had a great plan for Afghanistan. There was going to be a political solution. Not a military solution, a political solution. And the political -- can you hear me better now?
Audience: Yes.
Daniel Greenfield: Okay. The Biden Administration bet everything on a political solution in Afghanistan. Now, what does a political solution mean? Instead of a military solution, everybody would come together. The Taliban would join with the State Department, called a democratic, inclusive government in Afghanistan. They would have Gay Pride parades in Kabul, there would be synagogues and churches opening. There would be STEM programs for girls, and they would respect everybody's gender pronouns.
(Laughter)
Daniel Greenfield: It did not occur to them that the Taliban had been fighting against precisely this sort of thing for 20 years. Over 20 years, if you go back to before September 11th. It did not occur to them that the Taliban had actually put their lives on the line. They'd engaged in a prolonged guerilla war precisely to prevent a democratic, inclusive government from functioning in Afghanistan.
So of course, when the Taliban continued fighting, continued to engage in a campaign of warfare to seize Afghanistan, they assumed -- and this is what was actually going on -- while the Taliban were conquering Afghanistan, the geniuses at the State Department, Secretary of State Blinken, believed that the Taliban were not actually trying to conquer Afghanistan. Blinken believed that the Taliban were just gaining leverage for negotiations to form an inclusive democratic government in Afghanistan. When the Taliban were conquering province after province, this was his idea of just coalition talks. Eventually, the Taliban would come to the table, and there would be a democratic, inclusive government.
You know, this was of course a state of delusion. But the state of delusion is also the State Department. Because guess what? What does Blinken and the State Department believe is going to happen now after the Taliban conquered Afghanistan? They believe there is going to be a democratic, inclusive government in Afghanistan, or the Taliban are going to form a democratic, inclusive government. Every other press conference, Secretary of State Blinken says there is going to be -- the Taliban need to form a democratic, inclusive government and respect the rights of women and girls and religious minorities, which is absolutely, totally going to happen. Really, it's absolutely going to happen. And as negotiating leverage, we're sending $144 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.
And there's a message there. You know, if you want $144 million more, you've got to form a democratic and inclusive government. Because the assumption is once you get a taste of $144 million -- you know, this was, by the way, happening while Americans have trouble affording to fill their cars with gas; they have trouble buying turkey for Thanksgiving; but we're sending $144 million to Afghanistan. But the idea is, once the Taliban get a taste of $144 million, and then we're going to say, you want another $144 million? You've got to form a democratic and inclusive government in Afghanistan.
It will, of course, come as a huge shock to them when this does not actually happen. It will not come as a huge shock to the Taliban when, in response, we send them $144 million more or $1 billion more. Because this is the way we do business. At least, this is the way the Biden Administration and the Democrat administrations before that, going back to the Clinton Administration, have done business before with the Taliban. We originally began engaging in diplomacy with the Taliban when they'd conquered Afghanistan the first time around under the Clinton Administration.
Now, the Biden Administration has been saying, we had no idea that the Taliban would quickly and rapidly take over Afghanistan in a matter of days. Who could've possibly seen this coming? Well, the first time around, the Taliban conquered Afghanistan in a matter of days. And this happened under the Clinton Administration. And guess who was sitting at the National Security Council under the Clinton Administration? A guy named Tony Blinken, who is now the Secretary of State. So he was there. He was there on the ground for the first time this happened. He's either really stupid or really dishonest, or maybe both. It's hard to say with the Biden Administration that's -- you don't know. Really stupid, really dishonest; it's hard to know. Did the Biden Administration really believe that the Taliban would actually go for an inclusive, democratic state? We don't know.
Anyway, the first time around, the Taliban conquered Afghanistan. And what did the Clinton Administration do? They immediately sent diplomatic envoys off to the Taliban. It's okay if they behead women; that's not a problem. We want to have diplomatic relations with you guys. So they sent an envoy to the Taliban. They asked the Taliban to send an envoy to Washington, DC. The Taliban turned them down. The Taliban turned down the Clinton Administration's request for diplomatic relations.
And after that, of course, the Clinton Administration said, no, we never wanted to have diplomatic relations with you in the first place. No, we respect women's rights too much to want that. No, it was actually the Taliban who turned down their approach at diplomacy. And of course, that was the pathway to September 11th.
Now, this time around, the Taliban had signed an agreement that they would not, they would not, conquer Afghanistan by military force. And of course, you can trust the Taliban to keep their agreement, just like you can trust Iran to keep its agreements, and you can trust China to keep its agreements. You can trust them. And the Taliban began conquering Afghanistan by force. And the Biden Administration said, well, they're not actually violating the agreement. Because what we really think is they're trying to use this as negotiating leverage for an inclusive government. The more the Taliban violated the agreement, the more the Biden Administration said, thank you, sir, may I have another?
(Laughter)
Daniel Greenfield: And, you know, this is part of the pattern. The more blatantly Iran violates its nuclear deal, the more the Obama Administration, now the Biden Administration, says, thank you, sir, may I have another? We should actually -- we need to build trust by keeping our end of the agreement. The more the terrorists violate their agreement, the more we have to keep our agreement.
So of course, the more Taliban violated their agreement, the more that Iran violated their agreement, the harder the Democrat administrations focused on keeping our side of the deal. And the Biden Administration was so focused on keeping their end of the agreement that when the Taliban insisted, you have to leave by the deadline, they left by the deadline. We're going to leave Americans behind in Afghanistan. That's fine; we have to keep our deal with the Taliban.
The Taliban, of course, had completely violated their deal. But the Biden Administration was valuing its relationship with the Taliban. Because the priority for them was not American national security, it was not American lives. It was the diplomatic relationship with the Taliban. And this was true across the board. This is what happens with Iran. It's what happens with Hamas and the PLO in Israel. Their response to -- no matter how much the terrorists violate their agreements, they push Israel to make more concessions, because this is how you play the game.
The Islamic terrorists, the jihadists, they push as hard as they can. They negotiate in bad faith. They lie blatantly. Because Islamic teachings tell them they don't actually have to keep agreements with infidels. And so they don't keep those agreements. Meanwhile, of course, we, like suckers, insist on keeping every iota of the deal. So the process was the Taliban violated every step of the deal. The Biden Administration, of course, said, you know, we're going to leave Americans behind in Afghanistan. But that's okay; diplomacy is more important.
Now, to our enemies -- whether it's Communist China, whether it's Iran, whether it's the various Islamic jihadis, including the Taliban -- diplomacy is a means to an end, and the end is conquering. To them, there's always a military solution. To us, of course, there's the insistence that there has to be a diplomatic solution. To us, diplomacy is the end. It's the end in and of itself. We want to have relationships. We're globalists. We want to build a huge hugging circle for the entire world, and we can hug everybody at the U.N.
Meanwhile, for the Taliban, like for all these guys, diplomacy is a means to an end. There's always a military solution to them. But if you can use diplomacy to get to where they want to get to, they're fine with that.
You know, there's an old joke about diplomacy being the art of saying, nice doggy, until you find a big enough stick. The Taliban kept on saying, nice doggy [indiscernible]. They kept saying, of course, we're happy to have an inclusive government. We're absolutely not going to launch a conquest campaign. And of course, they did that. And of course, we've learned absolutely nothing from the experience, except that we need to engage in more diplomatic outreach to the Taliban. Because that, of course, will absolutely resolve everything.
Now, afterward, we still have Americans trapped in Afghanistan. The Biden Administration has been lying about how many Americans are trapped in Afghanistan. They keep saying all the time there are a few hundred Americans. And yet, a week passes, they get a few hundred Americans out, and suddenly there are a few hundred Americans more. Somehow there's always a few hundred Americans trapped in Afghanistan. And there's -- you know, the cover-up has been incredibly intense. And we get little pieces of information that tell us just how bad it is. There's been a Department of Defense memo which actually stated that there are over a hundred extended family members of U.S. servicemen now in Afghanistan behind enemy lines.
Now, this was inevitable. Because the Biden Administration handed over the entire evacuation to the Taliban. Now, the Taliban actually came. They tested the Biden Administration. They were outside Kabul. They said, we can actually come into Kabul, or we can let you finish the evacuation in Kabul. What did the Biden Administration do? They said, we value our diplomatic relationship with the Taliban; we're going to let the Taliban take Kabul. And I'm sure they'll be very nice to us and let us handle the evacuation our way.
Instead, the Taliban put the Hakani network -- which is a part of the Taliban that is really backed by Arab terrorist donors; it has close ties to al-Qaeda -- they put them in charge of the checkpoints. They let some Americans through, they beat other Americans. They let almost none of the Afghans who had actually special interpreter visas get out of there. So most of those people were left behind. The 50,000 or so that the Biden Administration brought to the United States are not actually people that we gave visas to. We don't know who the hell these people are. Some of them have committed sexual assaults; they've committed other crimes.
And meanwhile, back in Afghanistan, the Hakani network, which is again entangled with the foreign backers of the Taliban, is in charge. And now there's talk about we should cooperate with the Taliban on fighting ISIS K.
So what is ISIS K? It's not the original ISIS. It's basically -- ISIS K's commander was a former commander in the Hakani network. This was really a civil war between components of the Hakani network. And it's really a proxy campaign involving their backers. It currently is targeted at Iran, actually. It's not even targeted at us. This is why they're suicide bombing Shiite mosques. Basically, this is the Arab donors of the Hakani network and the Taliban fighting a proxy war using the Taliban and ISIS. It doesn't really involve us, except we should probably -- the world would be better off if both sides blew themselves up.
Bottom line is, what went wrong in Afghanistan? The same thing that went wrong in Iraq; the same thing that went wrong in so many other places. We refused to understand what Islam actually means. The Biden Administration wanted to believe that Islam really -- yes, it means the same thing that we do. The people on the other side -- yes, they may have beards. They may wave AK-47s around. But they're basically just like us. They want the same things that we do. They believe the same things that we do. I mean, CAIR told them that, so it must be true. And it turned out, actually, that the Taliban -- you know, Talib, they were actually originally madrasa students -- actually believe in Islam. They believe in creating an uncompromising Islamic emirate. They believe in running it under uncompromising Sharia law. And they will lie about their intentions. But ultimately, they do believe in an Islamic state and one that has no room for inclusivity, for democracy, for hugging, for puppies and kittens, or for gender pronouns.
The State Department recently celebrated Pronoun Day, because it's like nuclear war if you mis-gender somebody's pronouns. The Taliban don't celebrate Pronoun Day. They celebrate Jihad Day. Do you know what day Jihad Day is in Afghanistan? Every day. Every day is Jihad Day in Afghanistan. The Taliban just had a military parade featuring captured American military equipment. They do that every few days, because every day is Jihad Day. For the Islamic terrorists who are fighting, every day is Jihad Day.
They are always out to kill us, they're always out to destroy us. There is no political solution with people who want to kill you, who want to destroy you. Whether it's the Islamic terrorists, whether it's any of the other totalitarian organizations that my colleagues are going to discuss. You cannot actually have a political solution with them. What you do about that is a matter of choice. It's a matter of what you decide to do about it.
But we should not go in under the delusional assumption that we can actually negotiate, that we can actually have a political agreement with people whose entire life's work, whose mission, is to destroy us. When we forget that, we lose. The Taliban had a plan to win in Afghanistan; we had a plan to make a deal with them. They won, we lost. That is something to take away, not just in Afghanistan but in China, in Iran and everywhere else.
Thank you so much.
(Applause)
Gordon Chang: Thank you, Larry. And thank you, David Horowitz and Michael Finch.
And it is great to be among you patriots, citizens who are going to save our republic!
(Cheers and applause)
Gordon Chang: Today, we start with a question: What's going to happen after Biden's debacle in Central Asia? And unfortunately, the worst outcomes are the most likely. Because now, all of the conditions for history's next great war are in place.
Jim Holmes of the Naval War College says that this period in time reminds him of 1937. 1937 was a year in which, if you were living in Europe or America, you would've sensed the danger. If you were living in Asia in 1937, you would've been even more worried. Because that year saw the second Japanese invasion of China in that decade. But no matter where in the world you lived in 1937, you could not be sure that the worst would happen, that great armies and navies would clash around the world. Because you still had hope that somehow the situation could be managed.
Well, as we know, the worst did happen. In fact, what happened was far worse than what anybody thought. And today, we are back to 1937, thanks to Biden and to China.
As an initial matter, Beijing has had long relations with the Afghan Taliban, both before and after 9/11. And basically we have seen that after we drove the Taliban from power, China started to supply that insurgent group with the weapons to kill Americans and NATO forces.
And this support for killing Americans has continued to this day. Indian intelligence was instrumental in December of last year in breaking up an Afghan ring composed of Chinese spies and members of the Hakani network. And the Trump Administration believes that the Chinese portion of this ring was, among other things, paying bounties to kill Americans.
So China killing Americans? We shouldn't be surprised if China actually gives the Taliban an atomic bomb to give to terrorists, who are based in Afghanistan, the ability to incinerate American cities. Would the Chinese be that vicious? Well, we have to remember that China proliferated nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan. And then China supported Pakistan's AQ Khan network that sold this Chinese technology around the world, including to North Korea and Iran.
American Presidents, every one of them from Clinton to Biden, had the means to stop this but didn't. And because of this American feebleness, China now is on the march. And in the vacuum that was created by our chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, China is supporting Taliban to the hilt. It is, for instance, running interference for the Taliban in the U.N. Security Council. It is also urging countries to support the Taliban with material aid. And of course, the Chinese have kept their embassy open in Kabul. I suspect that Beijing is now the main financial backer of the Taliban, as it probably was during the insurgency.
In any event, the Chinese hope to cash in on their newfound friend in Afghanistan, which is really their old-found friend. Remember, Biden in early August issued an executive order to set a goal that half of all American vehicles in 2030 would be electric powered. Well, to be electric powered, you need batteries. And for batteries, you need lithium. And Afghanistan, by the way, is called the Saudi Arabia of lithium and other minerals. If China can mine lithium and other minerals in Afghanistan, we'll become even more dependent on the Chinese, and it will help the Taliban immeasurably.
Well, this is all evident from what we're hearing about the relationship between the Taliban and China. The world is dangerous now because of many reasons. But one of them is because deterrence is breaking down. We are no longer able to deter the Chinese, according to what they say.
And this was evident as Kabul was falling. Because there were two Chinese propaganda narratives then. First one was that the United States was incapable, that we couldn't win wars anymore, that -- how could we hope to counter magnificent China if we couldn't deal with the Taliban? The other propaganda narrative involved Taiwan. Beijing was saying when Beijing invades the island that it will fall within hours, and that the United States will not come to help.
The Chinese are extremely arrogant these days. We've heard this, for instance, from the comments of Di Dongsheng, who's an academic, dean of Renmin University in Beijing. He gave a lecture which was wide-streamed across China at the end of November of last year. And Di among other things said that, with the incoming Biden Administration, Beijing was looking forward to once again determining outcomes at the top level of the American political system. His comments that China had manipulated the core elements of the American political system is a warning. And so are his comments that China basically cannot be refused and that every American, every American, can be bought.
And Di's comments certainly got a lot of amusement when he mentioned two words. Daniel talked about two words. My two words are: Hunter Biden. Obviously, what Di says is not correct. But the point here is not what's correct and what's true. What's important is what the Chinese think. And at this moment, the Chinese elite -- whether we're talking about an academic like Di Dongsheng or a political leader like Xi Jinping -- the Chinese believe those things that will lead them to do dangerous acts and those that are reckless.
Now, unfortunately, the Biden Administration has reinforced this notion in the minds of the Chinese that they can do whatever they want. And unfortunately, China has more than just Afghanistan in mind. What does China want? It wants to take away our sovereignty and rule the world. And it also wants to rule the near parts of the solar system.
Xi Jinping, in his July 1 speech marking the centennial of China's ruling organization, said this. "The Communist Party of China and the Chinese people, with their bravery and tenacity, solemnly proclaim to the world that the Chinese people are not only good at taking down the old world but also good at building a new one." These are code words for Xi Jinping, who wants to re-impose China's imperial-era system, where Chinese emperors believed that they not only had the mandate of heaven over tianxia, or all under heaven, but that heaven compelled them to rule the entire world.
Now, China is now ruled not by someone who wants to compete with us. Biden says, oh, they're just competitors. China is ruled not by people who want to adjust the current international system. China is ruled by someone who wants to overthrow it. And that means Beijing is now ruled by a revolutionary.
With regard to the near parts of the solar system, since about 2018, Chinese officials have been talking about the moon and Mars as sovereign Chinese territory. That's right. A part of the People's Republic of China. That means that they believe that those heavenly bodies are like the South China Sea: theirs and theirs alone. And that also means that the Chinese will try to exclude other countries from going to those heavenly bodies if they have the ability to do that. And we don't have to speculate. Because that's what Chinese officials have been saying.
And by the way, in April, Beijing announced the name of its Mars rover. China said the name of the rover is Zhu Rong, named after the Chinese god of fire. Well, how nice. Yes. Zhu Rong is the god of fire. But he is also the god of war and the god of the South China Sea.
So what do we do? First thing: We got to get a new President.
(Cheers and applause)
Gordon Chang: Thank you. And while we're at it, how about a new Vice President and Speaker of the House?
(Cheers and applause)
Gordon Chang: And make no mistake folks, we can get this done. Because even in my deep blue Jersey, we're getting it done.
(Applause)
Gordon Chang: The second thing we need to do: We need to cut off the blood supply to those who mean us harm. We need to end trade and investment with China. And I know that's drastic.
(Applause)
Gordon Chang: But we should not enrich a hostile regime that is killing Americans with, among other things, coronavirus and fentanyl. And we should be ending all technical cooperation agreements with China. We shouldn't be giving them the world's best technology for free. And remember, it was Americans who taught Chinese researchers how to manipulate coronaviruses to make them even more dangerous to humanity.
Third thing: We must defend Taiwan.
(Applause)
Gordon Chang: Not only is Taiwan part of our Western defense perimeter, but it's a democracy. And we cannot allow China to take any democracies. And also, after the fall of Afghanistan, Taiwan has become the test of American resolve.
If we don't do these things, let's talk about a 1930s scenario. The next time China causes a conflict, either intentionally or by accident, I believe that China's friends -- Russia, North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Algeria -- will either, acting in direct coordination with the Chinese, or maybe just on their own to take advantage of the situation -- they will then move against their victims. That would be Ukraine in the case of Russia, South Korea in the case of North Korea, Israel in the case of Iran, India in the case of Pakistan and Morocco in the case of Algeria. We could see conflict at both ends of the Eurasian land mass and across the rim of Africa. This is what a world war looks like.
Calendar says it's 2021. But it sure feels like 1937.
Remember, ladies and gentlemen, we are in the fight of our lives. We are in the fight of our lives for our republic, because it is in peril. But we will defend it. We will defend it. Because America, America is worth fighting for.
God bless America. Stay strong. And thank you.
(Applause)
Dr. Ben Tabatabaei: Good morning. I want to thank the David Horowitz Freedom Center and Michael Finch for this opportunity. It's wonderful to be among patriots.
(Applause)
Dr. Ben Tabatabaei: And our constitutional republic, it's worth fighting for. As William Gladstone, the British diplomat said, that the U.S. Constitution is the greatest document penned by the minds of men in the history of the world.
(Applause)
Dr. Ben Tabatabaei: All right. Let's start first with Iran. Iran is not just another country in the Middle East; it's a civilization. It's a civilization with a history of over 7,000 years, and officially, since the founding of the Persian Empire with Cyrus the Great, over 2,500 years. So it's not a country that was just created yesterday. Its cultural, its geopolitical and socioeconomic, as well as religious influence, has spread throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and the rest of the world. Even the founding fathers studied the life of Cyrus the Great.
Currently, Iran is occupied by radical Islamist clerics. It's a theocratic dictatorship. And these clerics are at war with Iran's history, culture and civilization. Before 1979, when the revolution happened, Iran was a monarchy under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah [indiscernible] of Iran. And it had the highest and fastest economic growth rate on the planet. It had very good relationships with the Soviet Union keeping them at bay, as well as with United States, Europe and even China. And at that time, because China was trying to develop, they rolled the red carpet for the shah and his government. And they were very close in working with the shah on various economic deals.
Now it's a different story. Forty-three years later, because of the severe mismanagement of the Muslim clerics in Iran, because of the implementation of political Islam -- which basically means the imposition of Sharia law by any means necessary, including the use of violence to subjugate people -- Iran is isolated. And as a result, they look to two patrons: Russia and China. Neither one of these patrons want to give Iran a fair deal. But they want to use Iran as a tool against United States. So with China, they proposed a $400 billion investment deal with Iran, with $280 billion invested in the energy sector and $120 billion in infrastructure.
What you have to know about the Chinese is they don't play fair. They're not going to invest $400 billion in Iran. What they're going to do, essentially, is they're going to make some investments in the oil and gas sector so they can extract the oil they need for their domestic consumption and not pay fair market share. Which means that it puts United States at a huge disadvantage. Because they're going to get free oil, and United States is not. And we have to pay the fair market share. And they don't.
And because of the sanctions, none of these types of indictments can yet happen. So as long as the sanctions are in place in Iran, it will prevent, really, major investments by China inside of Iran. That's why they were so pleased when the Biden Administration came in, because they're hoping that they can reach an agreement with Iran and lift the sanctions. And by lifting the sanctions, essentially it gives China a tremendous advantage.
I opposed the pulling of troops out of Afghanistan. President Trump himself recently said that he would've never evacuated the Bagram Air Force Base. We had 2,500 troops there. And that kept the whole of Afghanistan stable. It prevented the Taliban from moving in. We had a strategic base kitty-corner from Iran, China and Russia. And I believe one of the major reasons why they pulled out of Afghanistan, the Biden Administration, was to please the Iranians.
And let's not forget that Iran, according to the U.N., is the largest [ trans-shipment ] point on the planet for the export of heroin. So the opium is produced in Afghanistan, but they don't have the infrastructure to move it. So the regime in Iran during this whole time was funding the Taliban with money and weapons for exchange for heroin. And then that would come into Iran, it would get shipped to Russia, China, Europe. And through Hezbollah, it would get shipped from Iran to the tri-border area of Latin America.
And from there, it would come into Mexico, and they would work closely with the Mexican cartels to move it into United States. As a matter of fact, when we capture members of the Mexican cartels who are working closely with Hezbollah, they have Hezbollah tattoos on their shoulders. Because the Mexican cartels are just brutal, but they don't have an ideology. Hezbollah has an ideology. And it's funded by Iran.
And Richard Holbrook, in his book, says that -- I explained to Biden, Vice President Biden, why Afghanistan was important, and the progress that we had made in Afghanistan. He became very agitated and got angry and said, stop repeating right-wing talking points. If we pull out of Afghanistan, it's going to help us win elections. So that's from Richard Holbrook.
The reason the world's currency is the mighty U.S. dollar is because United States is able to back up its credibility through not only political power but military power. And the reason we have to make sure that we keep our international agreements, especially treaties we have made, in protecting the sovereignty of other countries, is because when we don't do that, then it jeopardizes almost every other treaty. We didn't protect Afghanistan. If the Taliban can take over, then China says, maybe we can do the same thing with Taiwan.
On Tucker Carlson, he had a congressman on, where they were discussing why the congressman had written a letter to the Biden Administration to make sure that we have intelligence assets in Ukraine and we continue to provide military hardware to the Ukrainians. And he kept talking about -- Tucker -- kept talking about, well, we need to just close off the border. Great idea. We need to deploy the military by the border, which -- obviously, the Biden Administration isn't going to do that. The governor of Texas needs to deploy the National Guard.
(Applause)
Dr. Ben Tabatabaei: But if we allow the Russians to challenge us in Ukraine, then the Chinese will challenge us over Taiwan. So all of these things have consequences.
It recently came to the attention of members of Congress that Hunter Biden is a major equity holder in Chinese firms that have been blacklisted for stealing U.S. military technology. So the success of these firms means the failure of United States, or weakening of our position. He's a total national security risk.
When President Trump was in power, he did something amazing. China was our number-one trading partner. And by increasing tariffs and negotiating with the Chinese, as well as renegotiating NAFTA, Mexico became our number-one trading partner, then Canada, then China. And this had significant consequences. Because as wages increase in China, they become less competitive in producing goods, or cheaper goods.
So a lot of companies started moving their operations from China to Mexico, because it's the same time zone. As a result, it was transforming Mexico from a narco state to a functioning state. And by closing down the border, it prevented money from flowing in to the cartels. Because they charge between $5,000 to $10,000 for every person that crosses the border.
Biden undid all of that. A total disaster. So there are certain policies that must be pursued.
So what's the solution? The solution is continued effort to renegotiate our trade deals and take -- our [ dependence ] away from the Chinese. We can't really solve a major portion of our problems and challenges we have in Central Asia and the Middle East without a change of regime in Iran. It's not a military solution.
But that must become the official policy of United States. We don't need to attack Iran. But we do need to provide logistical, political, intelligent support to Iranians who want to get rid of this regime. That is very, very significant. Once that happens, then you can have peace and stability in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. And it would dramatically limit the influence of both Russia and China in the region.
Thank you. And God bless America.
(Applause)
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