Whether Harris or Trump wins, Americans must unite to confront the enemies abroad

The tyrannical rulers of the anti-West Axis of Evil — Russia, China, Iran and North Korea — have a stake in America’s Election Day. They are hard at work pursuing their shared goal of undermining and defeating America, from without and from within. The wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are the present arenas for military confrontation that is indirect — so far.

Though no U.S. troops are on the ground in either place, the flow of arms and material resources to America’s allies and partners has become an increasing financial drain and a distraction of diplomatic and political attention.

Former officials and other national security experts have complained that weapons sent to Ukraine are weakening our ability to help defend Taiwan from an attack by China, which they see as a greater threat to U.S. national security than Russia. Taiwan is a critical supplier of computer chips not only to the U.S. but to the world economy. And its strategic location as part of the first island chain that lies between China and the open ocean makes it a vital target in Beijing’s expansionist drive in the Indo-Pacific.

Yet, two years into the defense of Ukraine, some of the same experts who said it was a lower security priority than Taiwan now argue that even Taiwan’s defense is too costly and too dangerous because it risks direct conflict with China.

The rationale for extreme caution reinforces the enemies’ expectation that the West will eventually wilt as it did when Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, when it seized Eastern Ukraine and Crimea in 2014, and when it failed to deter Russia’s fully expected third invasion of a neighboring country in 2022. They believe Washington and its allies will not continue to bear the burden of policing the Free World even though only a U.S.-led coalition can meet the challenge. The United Nations as presently structured, with two of the world’s evildoers wielding veto power, cannot carry out its self-declared mission “to take effective collective measures ... for the suppression of acts of aggression.”

On the political front, the aggressors’ main target of opportunity is today’s U.S. presidential election. As they have done for more than a decade, America’s adversaries have intervened with misinformation and disinformation campaigns. They seek to influence voters to support candidates and policies favorable to the foreign powers’ aims. More importantly, over the long run, they strive to sow domestic disunity and chaos among the American people and undermine their faith in our democracy.

The America-haters are united in the latter objective, pitting Americans against one another, even though their respective national interests may sometime diverge.

In 2024, members of the Axis favor different presidential candidates. Russia, given Donald Trump’s long-stated admiration for Vladimir Putin, clearly wants the former president back in the White House. Iran, on the other hand, would like to have a Kamala Harris administration that would continue the Biden-Harris policies of accommodating Iran’s interests.

While Trump’s one-day plan to end the Ukraine conflict would force Ukraine to concede some territory to Russia, Trump has made clear that he would be tough on Iran. Beijing also favors Harris because of Trump’s past hostility toward China during the pandemic, when he felt compelled to state that he had not been somehow been duped by Xi Jinping.

Whoever the next president is, he or she needs to make a fresh start with the new Congress on foreign policy decisions and national security funding. With the election about to be behind us, past positions, mistakes and political posturing must be put aside and the incoming administration must come to grips with the new reality that a formidable group of enemies has gathered and is actively colluding to bring down the United States. We have long been in Cold War II and are at the beginning of World War III unless U.S. leaders take the measures needed to halt the downward cycle.

North Korea has already unexpectedly opened a new front in the war against the West by injecting itself as a participant in the existing conflict in Ukraine. Within weeks of Pyongyang and Moscow signing a mutual defense pact in June, the Biden administration warned that any North Korean troops joining Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would quickly become “cannon fodder.” Yet, four months later, when the North Korean contingency is actually upon us, the surprised administration is only now beginning to consult with NATO allies about an effective response. President Biden needs quickly to coordinate with President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO allies to stop North Korea before it sees a green light to go further with its reckless action.

Harris as vice president can be expected to support that decision if Biden makes it. Trump, whether he will be Biden’s successor or not, needs for once to rally around the flag when a foreign policy is sound and support an administration that is not his own — just as Democrats need to leave politics at the water’s edge if Trump returns to office.

The American people vote today, and have an important role to play in thwarting the enemies’ malevolent plans for this country. We must quickly begin to heal, not exacerbate, the grievous wounds that the two major political parties have visited on the country during this terrible political season and for years before. That will be difficult if the election results are as close as the polls indicate, but all citizens must do their part to defeat America’s real enemies.

Joseph Bosco served as China country director for the secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and as Asia-Pacific director of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief from 2009 to 2010. He is a nonresident fellow at the Institute for Corean-American Studies, a member of the advisory board of the Global Taiwan Institute and member of the advisory board of The Vandenberg Coalition.