Biden’s U.S. should collaborate, not bully

Re: America is back: Biden assembles leadership team, Nov. 25.

Joe Biden said, “The United States will be ready to lead again on the global stage.” He was elected by U.S. voters to lead a country with less than five per cent of the world's population. The rest of the world wants the U.S. to work co-operatively but not to automatically assume leadership.

The most important thing for us to note about the U.S. election is how close it was. Nearly half of those who voted, about 74 million adults, supported President Donald Trump's policies. Many view the Trump years as a nightmare. The U.S. disrupted major international mechanisms using its control of the international payment system, incredible military force and unrelenting political and economic pressure.

President-elect Biden wants to work with allies to keep “adversaries in check.” It would be better to stop making enemies. Openly practising “coercive diplomacy” (which it calls “maximum pressure”), the U.S. has often sought to enforce its national laws outside its territory and to seek “regime change” whenever a country would not bow to its will. Under Trump, this was obvious. Even without him, such behaviour is still possible. Many of those who support Biden also believe in the modern version of “manifest destiny.”

We would be making a huge mistake if we forgot these horrible years and the voters who liked them. Canada, and the rest of the world should welcome the U.S. as a partner but reduce its dependency on it.

David Lorge Parnas, Ottawa