Joe Biden: Donald Trump has no idea what he’s doing on foreign policy 'The next president will face the enormous responsibility of picking up the pieces of America’s foreign policy.'

Joe Biden | Register Opinion contributor

Killing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State terrorist organization, is an important win for America’s national security. But almost every detail of the raid that has emerged in the days since points to a truth we already knew: Donald Trump is the most reckless and incompetent commander in chief we’ve ever had.

His impulsive decision to withdraw our troops from northeast Syria was not just a gift to our adversaries and a betrayal of our Kurdish partners. It reportedly also imperiled a priority counterterrorism mission that had been months in the planning. Trump is quick to claim the credit, but he made the job harder and more dangerous for our forces. And his abandonment of the Kurds is all the more galling knowing they provided critical information that enabled us to track al-Baghdadi. Ultimately, the U.S. military and our intelligence professionals are so good that they succeeded in getting their man — in spite of Trump.

Every day that Donald Trump is in charge of our national security is a dangerous day for the American people.

He has abandoned our allies while embracing dictators. He has abdicated American global leadership, ceding ground to Russia and China. He started an irresponsible trade war that has delivered next to nothing, except more pain for farmers, manufacturers and workers.

He has walked away from our democratic values, turned his back on human rights and ignored massive humanitarian suffering. He made the decision to rip children away from their parents. He has withdrawn from international agreements that made us safer, like the Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal. And he has repeatedly failed or refused to lead on critical issues that require global cooperation — from confronting the climate emergency to preventing the spread of disease to curbing nuclear threats.

After almost three years, he still has no idea what he’s doing on foreign policy, and there’s no indication that he cares. He continually puts his personal interest ahead of the national interest, and he still has more than a year in office. Imagine the damage he could inflict in that time.

The next president will face the enormous responsibility of picking up the pieces of America’s foreign policy and restoring respect for the United States around the world.

That person will have to address the world as it is in January 2021 — in whatever state of disarray Trump leaves it — and there won’t be time to lose building relationships with world leaders from scratch, or learning what it means to run the government and command the greatest military force in history. We need a leader who can, on Day One, pick up the phone to call our NATO allies and leave no doubt of whether the United States will meet its obligations or stand up for democracy and freedom.

I hope to be that leader. And I won’t need any on-the-job training.

More: Warren is a friend to capitalists, at least those who see revolution coming

If I am elected, my administration will place America back at the head of the table. I’ll rally our allies, mobilize global action to meet global threats and once more ensure that the United States is the leader of the free world. I will reaffirm the longstanding American commitment to leading with our values.

As president, I will remind the world that the United States of America does not coddle dictators. I’ll restore the value of America’s word on the international stage. I’ll ensure we are once more a beacon of liberty, a bulwark of democracy and self-determination and a champion of human rights.

The United States of America is the strongest nation in the world not just because of the example of our power, but also because of the power of our example.

That’s what has always set us apart on the world stage, and that’s something Donald Trump will never understand.

Joe Biden is a former vice president of the United States and a Democratic presidential candidate. This column originally appeared in the Des Moines Register.