Biden's Ukraine miscalculations

 Naomi Lim:

...

Biden has made "a lot of miscalculations, a lot of mistakes, a lot of missteps" before and during the Russia-Ukraine invasion, according to former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Simone Ledeen, acknowledging the conflict's "second and third order effects" on energy and food.

Ledeen, for instance, likened Biden warning Ukraine of Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion plans as an invitation for the dictator to attack. Biden underestimated Europe's reluctance to forgo Moscow's oil and natural gas as he advocated for sanctions as well, she said.

"The Biden administration did not get the robust support that they were expecting from NATO and non-NATO allies," she told the Washington Examiner. "Part of the calculus also could have been related to Afghanistan and the way that we left."

As another example, Ledeen pointed to Biden ad libbing, "For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power," alluding to Putin, during a speech in Warsaw, Poland, shortly after the invasion.

Ambassador Nathan Sales, former acting under secretary of state for civilian security, democracy, and human rights, implored Biden to "do more" to bolster Ukraine after the death or injury of roughly 13,000 civilians as Russia increases its territory from 7% following Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea to 20%, mostly in the eastern Donbas region.

"We should provide Ukraine the weapons it needs to win, not just fight to a draw, and stop wringing our hands about provoking Vladimir Putin," the Vanderberg Coalition advisory board member said. "We also need to up our sanctions game, targeting the energy sector and other industries that fuel the Kremlin’s war machine."

Atlantic Council Eurasia Center Deputy Director Melinda Haring awarded Biden a B+ for his Russia-Ukraine invasion response. She praised his declassification of intelligence that negated Moscow's advantage of surprise, in addition to his ally coalition-building. But Haring agreed with Sales, adding that Biden could have better communicated why the U.S. should be involved in a conflict 5,000 miles away.

"The only thing he's asked Americans to do is to pay higher prices at the pump, and he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times, but he's talking to elites," she said. "He explained what we would and would not do in terms of our policy, but the fate of this war really hangs in how long the West will support Ukraine not [only] with weapons, of course, but also with financial assistance."

...

Haring mistakes the facts.  Biden started deliberately raising gas prices on the first day of his administration and his energy policy actually wound up funding the war because Putin benefited from Biden's raising the world price of oil.  The Europeans contributed by their failure to find alternative sources for oil when Trump told them of the dangers.  Now Biden is lying by blaming Trump for the war that Biden funded.  This may be one of the first wars where the US, in effect, has funded both sides. Biden's economic policies also have been a disaster for the US and for Europe.

Biden's response to the war has not been as bad as his energy policies which caused it.  The US and European NATO countries have helped Ukraine expose the weakness of the Russian military.  They have made it a very costly war for Russia by destroying Russian equipment and military leadership.  The war appears to be devolving into something of a stalemate at this point.