Joe Biden, President of the United States, made a snide comment that could lead to a major conflict in Ukraine. This is similar to how Barack Obama almost tried to get us into a major conflict in Syria.
My colleague Rick Moran wrote Wednesday about Biden’s embarrassing press conference. “Biden appeared open to a minor incursion by Moscow,” he said.
Biden stated, “It’s one” that Russia could engage in “a minor intrusion and then we will have to fight over what to do and what not to do, etcetera.”
Message Sent. Team Biden has no idea what they would do if Moscow wanted to seize another part of Ukraine. This kind of weakness, this lack of preparation, is a recipe for aggression.
“There have not been any minor incursions,” Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky reminded Biden on Thursday morning.
It gets worse.
Biden admitted that NATO does not have a common front, at a time when any leader would pretend to be international unity. Later in Wednesday’s press conference, he said to reporters: “But it depends what Putin does, actually. To what extent will we be able to achieve total unity on NATO’s front.”
But, wait. But wait!
Biden stated that he believes Russia “will be in a position to prevail over Ukraine for a long time,” which indicates that Putin will have all the time he requires.
His White House spinmasters were forced to work overtime Wednesday because of the combination of indecision, disunity and acquiescence Biden displayed.
PressSec Jen Psaki issued a statement hours later insisting on what Biden would not or could not do: “President Biden is clear with Russian President: If any Russian Military Forces move across the Ukrainian Border, that’s an invasion again and will be met by a swift, severe and united response from the United States of America and our Allies.”
Biden wasn’t clear on that. Not at all.
To repeat the canned spin, the Administration sent Kamala Harris, Alley Vice President, to Good Morning America. She insisted that “we will consider any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty or territorial integrity by Russia and Vladimir Putin’s aggressive action and it would be met with severe and certain costs.”
Don’t listen to the White House spin. The PR-meisters’ spins hours later have no bearing on the decision-making ability — or lack thereof– of a president in crisis.
Do you find any of these familiar? This is what it seems to me. Let’s take the Wayback Machine back to the summer of 2013 when the Syrian Civil War really got into full swing.
Barack Obama, then-president, was asked about the potential use of chemical arms by the Assad regime.
I said at the time that “whole bunches” of things ‘being used’ or just ‘moving about’ changing his equation counts as being very clear’. I would hate to have seen what ambiguity might have looked like.
Short summary: Obama drew a line around Assad moving arms around. I thought that Obama was just talking his way to war. Instead, Obama made it seem as though his red lines never existed and handed over the responsibility of Syria policing to Putin.
Obama has weakened our position in the Middle East and unnecessarily strengthened Russia, at a time when we were still completely dependent on Middle East oil. Obama, through his actions against domestic energy production, was determined to maintain that reliance or worsen it.
Here’s more:
A serious president would have visited the UN. He would have visited our allies. He would have gained support from the American people. He would have done more than just a promise to look into it.
These words were written nine years ago by me about Obama and Syria. They still apply to Biden today.
Biden could have used the past year to reduce the risk of war through diplomatic initiatives with NATO and United Nations. Instead, Biden lets Putin take the initiative and test the waters, and then Biden responds verbally, hasty, and unprepared.
Barack Obama is just like his boss.
Obama almost mumbled his path into a major war. Biden may yet follow his lead. Obama’s incompetence or cowardice, which he tacitly admitted to in 2013, saved us from war.
This makes it difficult to imagine what price Biden — and we — will have if he wants to stop the war in Ukraine.
Doing your research and being prepared is a good idea, especially when it comes to things like world peace.
