Vladimir Putin rattles his nuclear sabre and Joe Biden responds by telling him what we are not going to do. Good strategy, Joe. A somewhat nuanced nuclear threat by Putin and Mr. Biden reacts by stopping a scheduled nuclear missile test for fear of it being misconstrued as a provocation. Ironically, North Korea decided it was high time for them to unveil a longer range, more powerful missile and promptly launched a test of their own. Zelensky has repeatedly asked for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone to prevent Ukrainian cities from continually being pounded from the air, but Biden deferred again citing the risk of direct engagement and the possibility that a US aircraft would shoot down a Russian aircraft and initiate World War III. The Ukrainian President then requested that we supply him with aircraft for his beleaguered air force. Poland engaged in what was perhaps a self-serving diplomatic two-step by offering up their older MIGs, an aircraft that the Ukrainians would be familiar with, by way of passing them along to the US in Germany who would then transfer them to the Ukrainians. This time the request went all the way to the Oval office where Biden promptly shot it down citing, once again, the risk of provocation,followed by a long diatribe about the aircraft being older, requiring too much servicing, and would likely be ineffective as opposed to sending more shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles like the Stinger. As Mitt Romney eloquently put it “if they want MIGs, give them the MIGs”. So we send more dangerous high-tech missiles, but balk at a few jets?
And what exactly is Mr. Biden doing anyway, besides telling Putin what we are not going to do? Whoa, punishing sanctions, of course. I can imagine the fear this struck in Mr. Putin. He may have to cut back on the caviar. According to Chris Murphy, yet another lightweight politician from Connecticut who described Biden’s diplomacy as “stunning”, the administration has imposed “a sanctions package that is sweeping, that is unprecedented, that is breaking the back of the Russian economy”. Wow, Chris, were you wearing hip boots when you spewed that? As Kim Strassel revealed in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Biden has been a dismal failure on the sanction front as well. He failed to impose any deterrence as the Russians amassed troops at the Ukrainian border, and he continues to lead from behind, pandering to the Europeans and giving Putin a pass on energy exports. Only when Congress starting pushing a bill through the House did Biden respond with an oil embargo of sorts so he wouldn’t miss the opportunity to appear that it was his idea. And of course he followed up on that by begging the despots from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela to pick up the slack for us rather than ramp up US oil production. Why would you enrich other decidedly unfriendly regimes so they can wantonly pollute when the US has the cleanest energy extraction technology on the planet? Last I checked, Joe, we are all living in the same biosphere, so precisely who extracts the oil really doesn’t matter, it’s who does it with the least damage to the environment. And that would be us. It’s a lot like the days when we had smoking sections on airplanes. Didn’t work so well when you were the first seat in the non-smoking section did it? And even the whole emphasis on going after the oligarchs. I think Biden just likes to say oligarch. Maybe because there are no sibilants in it. He has trouble with those. Again Ms. Strassel reports that of the 35 oligarchs named by Alexei Navalny, the EU has sanctioned 12 of them, the UK 9, andBiden has sanctioned, uh….none. Murphy was right, that is “stunning.” But even more “sweeping and unprecedented” is Biden’s solution to appease the Europeans, to take command of the situation and take the proverbial Russian bull by the horns: we send Kamala Harris to fix it. You have to be kidding. If the Europeans thought for an instant that we weren’t taking this seriously, we could do no better to demonstrate that than send Vice-President Giggles. What an embarrassment. Even after her developmentally delayed explanation of the crisis (recall “Ukraine is a country in Europe…”) the administration is currently trying to dig her out of her comment that “the United States stand firmly with the Ukrainian people in defense of the NATO alliance”, somehow failing to realize that Ukraine is actually not a NATO country. This gaffe was prefaced with “So I will say what I know we all say, and I will say over and over again.” That’s a lot of saying from the VP, and that’s something she really should avoid: talking.
As I have said before, as the world plays checkers, Russia and China have been playing chess. Becoming dominant in the energy sector, expanding their global reach, making their economies sanction proof, expanding their military might and forging new relationships. They have been opportunistic. Meanwhile the West has been intent on shooting themselves in the foot, dismantling our energy independence, slashing our military budgets, infatuated with race relations and gender definitions, our countries are consumed by Covid restrictions, equity and green initiatives while our cities burn. But all this theater aside, who is perhaps learning most from this debacle, who has been watching? That would be Iran and North Korea. What we now know is that all it takes is a little nuclear tough talk and Biden reveals the US to be a paper tiger. Suffer through sanctions and inspections, my friends, because once you get the bomb, you’re on easy street. And what’s the downside? China will continue to prop up your economy for the benefit of you being a huge thorn in the Great Satan’s side, distracting the US from other priorities while our economy suffers, our military is spread thin, our energy sector crumbles and we become more reliant on foreign oil and foreign mineral mining to satisfy our climate change agenda at home. And of course Taiwan is next on the docket as China seeks to expand its influence in the Pacific Rim. And once the US loses credibility on the world stage, well underway after the Afghanistan fiasco, and becomes dependent on the importation of energy, the last straw will be to lose the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. And then, it’s all over. Checkmate.
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