Biden's ineffective response to Russia's war in Ukraine

 Conrad Black:

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The principal U.S. response is sanctions that look much more serious than they are. Oligarchs and cronies of Russian President Vladimir Putin are being sanctioned randomly, too late, ineffectually, and in any case, this is no way to respond seriously to aggressive war by Russia on Ukraine. The oil sanctions are nonsense: They kick in late, apply to a minimal amount of Russian oil exports, and will occasion the Kremlin no inconvenience whatever. As China is ignoring the sanctions, Russia may vacate them at leisure.

Behind these noisy gestures, the United States has done practically nothing to assist Ukraine except to continue and, very late, to accelerate the Trump policy of providing Javelin anti-tank weapons and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. This certainly greatly enhances Ukraine’s war-making ability on the ground and makes the movement of Russian armor very hazardous. The Stingers are a great inconvenience to Russian helicopters but are generally ineffective against fixed-wing aircraft and, in any case, have an altitude limitation of 10,000 feet. The president has endlessly reverted to platitudes about defending “every square inch of NATO territory,” as if oblivious to the fact that no NATO territory has been threatened in this crisis.

In fact, even Biden’s most protective media supporters must soon recognize that his position on Ukraine is essentially a fraud. While no doubt genuinely decrying the Russian action, the United States government, unlike the American people, is much more concerned with retention of a working relationship with Russia than it is with anything that happens in Ukraine. If relations with Russia actually were of any use to the United States in the larger game of responding to the greater challenge posed by China, administration policy might be justifiable. Putin has received many importunate pleas for assistance in relieving American strategic discomfort. After a Russian hacker immobilized gasoline distribution in the southeastern states up to and including Washington, D.C. last spring, Biden asked Putin to except a reserve list of American targets Russians would not hack, and the federal government approved a large blackmail payment to the culprit.

Biden appointed a notoriously slavish admirer of the Iranian theocracy (Robert Malley) as his negotiator in trying to revive Obama’s Iranian nuclear treaty (arguably the stupidest international agreement the United States ever made); Biden has unctuously declined to deal directly with Iran but has used the good offices of the Kremlin in facilitating the abject surrender that is clearly emerging as the Biden policy to welcome Iran as the world’s next nuclear military power.

Most egregiously, the president announced in the State of the Union message last month that he would continue his insane pursuit of high energy costs for Americans and reduced petroleum and gas production for America in pursuit of a minuscule reduction of carbon use in the world, all in the spurious name of fighting climate change. This has not only caused the United States to be a substantial importer of oil again, a status it toiled for 15 years to escape; rather than reviving domestic oil production, the United States is now also begging from door to door between Venezuela and Iran (both more vocal opponents of the United States than Russia) after having had the door slammed in its face by our former Saudi ally.

The United States, Russia, UK, France, and China all guarantied Ukraine in 1994 when it voluntarily gave up the nuclear weapons it had inherited from the Soviet Union, and all have reneged. The Kremlin will not take seriously any administration that so happily abases itself to Moscow. The posturing about protecting NATO is bunk. If Ukraine survives as an independent country, Biden will claim the credit; if it doesn’t, he will disclaim responsibility, and in the meantime, he blames his inflation on Putin. These are all falsehoods.

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There is more.

The US is suffering under the "leadership" of a delusional liar in Biden and it is having a negative impact around the world.  To say that Biden's energy policy is "insane" is too kind.  It is idiotic in the extreme.  It is not reducing the use of fossil fuels, but it is driving up the price in a cynical attempt to inflict financial pain on Americans to get them to accept the crappy Big Green alternatives which cannot possibly replace fossil fuels.  

As with most Biden initiatives, his response to the war in Ukraine is half-assed.  He is missing an opportunity.  Russia has been exposed as much weaker militarily than most people thought.  He apparently fears "World War III" but it should be clear by now that Russia could not survive such a war under Putin.  Putin lacks widespread political support for his aggression within Russia, but I see no Biden policy to exploit that.  That Biden still wants the Iranian deal is further proof of his lack of intelligence.

See, also:

Charge Putin with war crimes – here's how the world can bring him to justice Vladimir Putin is an evil dictator who continues to commit monstrous acts in Ukraine

And: 

Biden’s only objective in Ukraine, as in Afghanistan, is that the bad guys win well before the midterms