Punditry StaffThe U.S. Intelligence community, to its credit, has predicted the Russian invasion of Ukraine for a while. During this time, as the AP reported, President Biden had an opportunity to better arm the Ukrainians with heavy weapons and an air defense system to further deter Russian aggression. Instead, he, like Barack Obama and Donald Trump before him, balked at this notion. This left the President with applying sanctions as the only option available in the U.S. arsenal. This zero deterrence policy of wishful thinking is now followed by words of “severe” and “devastating” sanctions to describe Biden’s actions.
Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, described what Biden has done since knowing Russia was going to invade Ukraine early on. Nomaan Merchant of AP wrote:
The United States did very little during the last year except to wait and now watch Vladimir Putin, the mass murderer, apply his craft on the women and children of Ukraine. Shame on the Biden Administration for its feckless response to a thug it knew intimately because of the Crimea crisis of 2014.
To the shame of many Americans, Putin just wrote Biden’s history in black and legible ink.
APPEASERS WISH AND LEADERS ACT
This is the problem with appeasers. They wish that their minimum action is good enough to deter men of violence. And no matter how often history prove them wrong, they refuse to change their behavior.
President Biden knew, for a while, that Putin was going to invade, as based on the intelligence community’s good assessments. He knew that the fate of Ukraine has been sealed. What did he do with the time he had? Absolutely nothing. Except releasing the intelligence findings to the public in the hope it may deter Putin.
Like I said. The zero deterrence policy of wishful thinking.
Now that the last three U.S. Presidents, collectively and without any shame, acted in ways to facilitate the invasion of this peaceful and democratic country, they all will try and re-write their history to shed a better light on the excuses they have for their inaction.
Trump excepted. We have a phone call of Donald Trump threatening Ukraine, as Putin’s best planted agent in the west, to deny him that luxury. Anyway, he is too dumb to deny it.
Appeasers wish for the best and real leaders act to deter bad actors from writing their history. To the shame of many Americans, Putin just wrote Biden’s history in black and legible ink.
I like Biden when it comes to his domestic polices. But when it comes to his foreign policies, he is just another Barack Obama. Weak and incompetent.
In addition to Ukraine, may I remind you of his exit from Afghanistan?
If Caesar said “Veni, Vidi, Vici”, I would say Biden told the world “Veni, Vidi, Ritirato”.
NO TO SANCTIONS ALONE
Sanctions are not the answer to someone like Putin. The world knows, after misusing this tool for so many years on so many countries without any palatable results, that they have no teeth. They don’t deter. The only real deterrent to violence is violence itself.
Biden knew that sanctions will come back to bite him. He knew that many of his critics are going to expose that wishful thinking does not save countries from war. Yet, he could not bring himself to arm the Ukraine to defend herself from Putin. It takes courage, strength, and true leadership qualities to make that fearless decision.
Unfortunately, appeasers doubt their own actions by making worst scenario assumptions that often result in taking the least resistant road. In Biden’s case, it was not about saving Ukraine from Putin. It was about telling the American people that we have no beef in this fight, and that I did all I can under the circumstances.
The problem is that most voters would see Biden’s reluctance in involving our troops as the marquee of his policy, and forget, or don’t know, that he could have done more to save democracy itself from the teeth of her eastern wolf.
If Julius Caesar said “Veni, Vidi, Vici”, I would say Biden told the world “Veni, Vidi, Ritirato”.
The Zero Deterrence Policy of Wishful Thinking
Punditry Staff
