An admission of reality, that most people already grasped, from an administration that spent the previous weekend touting sanctions as a way to bring Putin to his knees and avert invasion. That claim was laughable of course, Russia was well aware of what NATO’s response would be before Putin rolled the first tank on the Ukrainian border.
To make the situation more embarrassing for the Biden administration, the president says we’ll have to “wait a month” or so and see if the sanctions are working:
https://twitter.com/backtolife_2022/status/1496954414589960199
So long as Ukraine can wait around for a month of Russian attacks, we should start to get an idea of whether trying to hurt Putin financially might make a difference. Wait, what?
There isn’t a whole lot more Biden can do at the moment since the United States is operating from a position of weakness.
Biden and other NATO allies could levy tougher sanctions on Russian energy markets, for example, but that would end up severely hurting Europe and the United States as well.
In short, America and the west are basically observers of this conflict watching as Putin rolls tanks on Kyiv unabated except for the Ukrainian military.
In recent polling, it appears as though Americans believe Biden isn’t being tough enough on Putin:
The survey finds 56% feel President Biden has not been tough enough on Russia. Few (8%) say he’s been too tough, while 29% think his handling is about right.
For comparison, that’s close to the assessment of former President Trump on the same question nearly four years ago: 53% said he wasn’t tough enough on Russia, 5% said too tough, and 35% about right (July 2018).
Forty-two percent of Democrats join 52% of independents and 72% of Republicans in wanting Biden to be tougher. Nearly half of Democrats, 47%, say the president’s actions are about right.
The irony in these numbers is that the media constantly portrayed former President Trump as being “too soft” on Russia for years. Now, when the rubber meets the road, it’s Biden who appears weak by allowing an emboldened Russia to maneuvers its way into a Ukrainian invasion while the western world sits with no leverage over the situation.
Trump had a greater understanding of superpower dynamics and the basic premise that a strong America meant greater peace and security around the world. It’s the basic “peace through strength” Reagan model of foreign policy, and it works. Biden tossed that out the window the second he was inaugurated, instead deciding to focus on climate change as the biggest foreign policy goal.
Energy policy is synonymous with foreign policy and national security. Unfortunately, Biden let it all slip away by destroying the efforts of Donald Trump to make America less dependent on foreign oil.
It’s quite clear that the President and Vice President are both in over the head when it comes to outmaneuvering a foreign adversary such as Vladimir Putin.
