The U.S. Is An Ordinary Country With Serious Shortcomings

usnews |  America's most consequential adversaries on Thursday pounced on the news of historic and deadly outages in Texas, saying the Biden administration should focus on taking care of its own citizens before assuming it has the mandate to advance its interests abroad at others' expense.

The Kremlin early Thursday took aim at American concerns in recent years at the Russian energy pipeline known as Nord Stream 2, which runs from its territory through the Baltic Sea and into key U.S. allies, notably Germany.

"It probably makes sense for our American partners to be less interested in Nord Stream 2 and to a greater extent be interested in the events in Houston, Texas, [its] energy and heat supply," Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters Thursday morning. And, taking a dig at a state that prides itself on its energy independence, he added: "Of course, gas [supplies] would not be in that way here." 

Iran, which U.S. officials privately say was behind this week's attack on an American base in Iraq, ran an almost gleeful gallery on the home page of its state news service entitled, "More Than 3.5 Million Texans Are STILL Without Power, Storm Death Toll Hits 23." It includes pictures of the widespread devastation in Texas wrought by the historic cold temperatures and broad outages.

And China's state-run Global Times published an op-ed Thursday morning blasting the massive electric grid failures in the Lone Star State, which have caused two dozen deaths and left more than 3 million without power amid bone-chilling cold temperatures in an area largely unaccustomed to severe winters. The plight of its citizens shows that China and others should no longer look to the U.S. for an example of leadership, it claimed.

"It is a severe natural disaster after all, and we cannot say that the U.S. is an ugly country just because many Americans are also suffering from man-made calamities. But what is happening there has undoubtedly shown that the U.S. is an ordinary country with serious shortcomings," according to the outlet, which is run by the Chinese Communist Party but is not considered a mouthpiece for it. "Actually, every country has its own problems, so the U.S. should focus on solving its own woes rather than denouncing other countries."