Given everything coming out of the Biden administration in recent weeks, it seems like a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent. Or, is it? The stories and circumstances are foggy, which seems to be the intention of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Are Russian forces preparing for invasion or leaving? The propaganda from Russia says leaving, but the intelligence from everyone else says preparations are underway for a ground invasion of Ukraine.
Given that America seems to be having little or no impact on what’s about to happen, what do the American people think about getting involved in a regional war between Russia and Ukraine? The short answer: Stay out.
Most Americans say they would side with Ukraine over Russia, of course, but that sending U.S. troops into battle would be a bad idea:
While most Americans agree that the U.S. should help Ukraine, the majority do not back sending U.S. troops to fight Russian soldiers, a new poll shows.
A poll conducted by YouGov found that 55 percent of Americans think sending U.S. troops to fight Russia “is a bad idea.” The majority of those opposed, 62 percent, identified as Republicans. Only 13 percent of Americans surveyed thought it was a good idea.
Though most oppose sending soldiers to face Russia, Americans are in favor of helping Ukraine in other ways.
For some reason, the Biden administration sent one of its most inept ambassadors in Vice President Kamala Harris to deal with the situation. As the New York Post notes, last year Harris said she had never been to Europe, so at least that void in her resume has been checked off:
But Harris has next to no diplomatic experience, beyond her (laughable) mission to address the “root causes” of the migrant flood at the southern border. The result of that? More illegal immigrants (nearly 2 million) than ever crossed the border last year.
What sort of decision-making is going on in the myopic White House bubble? Is this an attempt to burnish her standing on the world stage and reset her disastrous image at home? If so, it is a reckless and risky way to pursue selfish political ends.
Asked tough questions, she often simply cackles. When NBC’s Lester Holt last year asked her why she hadn’t visited the border, she pleaded that she’d never been to Europe either. Well, Biden has fixed that now.
Nothing that Biden has done since the start of his presidency offers any inspiration that the United States is well-positioned to deal with such a thorny international conflict. From the bungled Afghanistan debacle, a move that arguably empowered Russia, to every other issue facing the country both foreign and domestic, the White House has limped its way through from one embarrassment to the next.
With what hope can Americans think this situation will be any different? Joe Biden, for his decades in Washington, has been wrong on every foreign policy entanglement or conflict he’s ever opined on. Putin is running circles around the U.S. with the smoke and mirrors going on in Ukraine.
It seems that whether Putin invades Ukraine or not might become irrelevant because Russia is on the verge of having enough leverage to ask for anything it wants in the name of averting the “inevitable” war that’s about to happen in eastern Europe.
In this case, a desire to avoid sending U.S. troops to the region is a bipartisan view:
Both Democrats, 45 percent surveyed, and Republicans, 39 percent, agree that the U.S. should send weapons to Ukraine, but not fight.
Americans also favored imposing sanctions on Russia and sending troops into NATO countries in Europe instead of sending U.S. troops to Ukraine.
After the Iraq war and twenty years in Afghanistan, Americans are not ready to get involved in an unwinnable war between Russia and Ukraine.
There are few if any positive outcomes for the United States if Biden chooses to escalate our involvement. Vice President Harris’ presence in Europe is almost a laughable token gesture that indicates the White House is watching but has no real intention of trying to broker a deal or lead the world on a different path.
Vladimir Putin is running this show while Biden sits on the sideline.
