Let's get something straight right off the bat. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is directly tied to Biden's election. If you can't see that -
- Putin took Crimea as easy as if he ordered it online during Obama's terms. We did nothing but sanction. Nothing changed.
- Putin did nothing further while Trump was in office and arming Ukraine.
- Even the diplomats who testified against Trump (ridiculously ineffectively - the only evidence by any witness with personal knowledge was that he did not want a quid pro quo, despite the D rhetoric to the contrary), admitted that he had done far more than Obama did for Ukraine.
- Biden and Obama did nothing or at best very little for Ukraine. The only time a Democrat thought Ukraine had any importance or we should be helping them was when they thought they could use their vulnerability to impeach and convict Trump.
- After 4 years of cooling his heels after Crimea became Russian again. Putin waited until we elected the weakest, most ineffective leader in our history, and then ordered his troops to the Ukraine border just a month and a half after Biden took office.
- Emboldened by Biden's humiliating and fatal (for many thousands) handling of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, our kowtowing to Iran for an agreement and our immediate about face of ships last April in the Black Sea when Russia started its build up (U.S. cancels warships deployment to Black Sea -Turkish diplomatic sources | Reuters, in case you can't believe it), Putin was encouraged.
- that Biden's idiotic canceling of the last phase of the Keystone Pipeline, the refusal to issue new leases to American companies to drill (they have made it clear, they are not drilling where there is no oil - the excuse that they have undrilled leases is always made and are reluctant to drill while the anti-oil forces are in power) enriched Russia and enabled them to act.
How right was Trump (yes, I know, you have been taught to hate him) when he castigated the European Union for buying from Russia while the U.S. paid for their defense (Trump blasts Germany over gas pipeline deal with Russia - Bing video, in case you've been persuaded it is not true)? Now they know it and are hastily looking elsewhere for energy, after admitting they are now powerless.
Tell me, President Biden, what is wrong with our provoking Russia, a country we do work with, but which is absolutely our enemy? Why is it we can't give planes to Ukraine ourselves when Poland hands them over to us for this purpose, while Russia doesn't seem the least bit concerned about provoking us by:
-Backing our enemy Iran?
-Backing our enemy China (people who think China aren't our enemy, just wait)?
-Going into Syria and supporting Assad (immediately after Putin had a private meeting with Obama-look it up)?
-Intervening in our election in 2016?
-Marching troops into and taking Crimea?
-Actually attacking Ukraine?
-Threatening the use of nuclear weapons and actually putting them on alert?
-Repeatedly threatening other countries, our allies and ourselves, that it is an act of war to help Ukraine?
What is with your administration telling the world that Russia might in fact use nukes if we intervene? Must we show our fear of them this blatantly?
Forget Russia for a moment. If pro-Putin assassination squads from semi-autonomous Chechnya can try to kill Zelensky, why can't we intervene? If Belarus, an independent country can aid Putin in destroying its near neighbor, why can't we and Europe intervene on Ukraine's side?
What is wrong with us? We still hope for Russia's aid in making another bad deal with Iran, this one worse than the first though we know we can't trust Russia as far as we can throw it. For goodness sakes, they cheat in sports so badly they aren't even allowed to officially enter teams under their name in international competition. They lie over and over about how they were just having war games in Belarus and were leaving, before they attack. They agree to exit routes for refugees and then murder those on them. But we still trust them? Why?
Teddy Roosevelt said many times in different ways that if we forgot about how to fight, we would find that we lost our vitality and nerve. I consider myself very lucky I was born into a time where my possible combat years landed between Vietnam and Iraq. I was ready to when I was about 20 and thought it was going to happen (Iran had our hostages and China invaded Vietnam). Some people wants to go to war, but it's not me or anyone I know. Few people want it to be their kids or grand kids either. We have so much, we have it so easy. But, that doesn't mean he was wrong. We did become very soft, especially as our military power grew. At least, those who were elected or appointed to lead our country seem to have become so. John McCain, vilified by both left and right, asked if Obama had turned around Roosevelt's statement about speaking softly and carrying a big stick, by talking tough and carrying a twig?
Pacifists (and I was raised to be one) understand that it doesn't mean that no one is going to threaten or attack you. At some point you should realize the truth of the Latin saying: Si vis pacem, para bellum - if you want peace, prepare for war. And if you rattle sabers and don't do anything when your bluff is taken, like Obama when Assad used chemical weapons or Biden does when he threatens severe consequences if Russia does this or that, well, what enemy except the very weakest is going to worry about you doing anything? Did we learn nothing from Munich? From Syria?
Biden has now put us in a position where any country opposed to us possessing nuclear weapons (China, North Korea, usually Pakistan, sometimes India) might just make a threat, empty or not, of using them, rightly expecting we will shy away.
I am sure the sanctions are hurting Russia. They hurt Iran too, but they didn't work. When Obama sanctioned those individuals around Putin, it did not stop him from annexing Crimea. The U.S. and other countries have been sanctioning the USSR or now Russia since 1948, with little to show for it. Sanctions haven't stopped Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and some other countries has not worked. It has on a few, Libya (at least partly) and South Africa, for example.
Most of my friends, with one exception I can think of, on all sides of the political spectrum, are against getting militarily involved, even though all of them sympathize with Ukraine and approve of the sanctions. Most though know the sanctions strong enough. They aren't. I understand why we don't want boots on the ground, but I do think we should provide the no-fly zone that Ukraine requests.
Why? Because we got them in this mess when we asked them to give up their nuclear weapons and missiles, always suggesting that we would have their back.
Why? Because we are much more likely to fight a third World War if we don't do something now. Our credibility is gone. And that is what stops wars.
My argument to my friends: The sanctions are nice, but obviously not significant enough. If we were going to do them, we should have gone all in from the beginning. No oil, no trade, no sports, no banks, total isolation - not half measures. Have fun with your friends China and Iran. We shouldn't be just stopping suspending them from SWIFT, but making sure they understand - every day in Ukraine means another YEAR without SWIFT. Every day in Ukraine means another year without buying Russian oil. And so forth.
Biden and before him Obama have done everything possible to make sure Putin knows that America will make all the signs of helping Ukraine he wants and sanction away, but when it comes down to it, if he decides to murder each and every last person in Ukraine, we apparently aren't going to do what's necessary thing to stop him. Putin knows this as it is a redux of 2014. You think I make that up. Here's the first and last paragraphs of an April 25, 2014 article by Jules Witcover:
"Sen. John McCain, who endlessly enjoys twisting the tail of what he suggests is a paper tiger in the White House, has altered the old Teddy Roosevelt axiom. He accuses President Obama of talking tough but carrying a big "twig."
* * *
But Mr. Obama's delay in imposing further economic and financial hardship on the oligarchy that rules Russia under Mr. Putin only encourages the view that the American president is an insufficiently decisive and resolute leader whose bark is worse than his bite. His almost plaintive yearning to achieve his foreign-policy objectives through diplomacy, which apparently much impressed the Nobel Peace Prize judges in 2009, only earns him the derisive taunts of Mr. McCain and other hard-line critics.
* * *
But America's longtime role as leader of collective action to secure independence and peace among nations is also at stake in Mr. Putin's brazen and calculated effort to revert to military power politics in his own backyard. Mr. Obama needs to address both aspirations with a greater appearance of toughness and clarity if he is to turn aside the barbs of critics like Mr. McCain who demand that he speak softly and carry a big stick."
Paper tiger in the oval office? [Commentary] – Baltimore Sun
Remind you of anything? Who was Obama's point person in Ukraine? Joe Biden (read the article if you don't remember).
How many Ukrainians must die first before we say enough is enough? Why applaud Zelensky's speech if we aren't going to do anything for him? We went all-in to Kuwait with much less at stake, but with almost the entire country thinking that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Putin is not insane. He is not going to lose Russia by using a nuclear weapon. He is a murderous bully though and needs to be confronted. Unfortunately, we only have a paper tiger right now to confront the Russian Bear.
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