Russia-Ukraine conflict puts Biden administration's weakness on full display

From negotiating with the malign Iranian regime while they have threatened former President Trump, or allowing the Taliban to sweep through Afghanistan and directly imperil American lives, or refusing to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for its central role in the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic or for its aggression towards Taiwan, the Biden administration’s record after one year in office is marked by abject weakness. 

But his weakness has been unmatched in attempting to deter Russia’s imminent invasion of Ukraine. 

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For months now, Vladimir Putin has massed Russian military forces on the Ukrainian border. Last month, on December 17, the Kremlin unveiled two draft agreements that essentially acted as ultimatums for NATO and the Biden administration. 

The demands? For the United States and NATO to guarantee that NATO would not expand further east, that the United States would withdraw its nuclear missiles from Europe, and that no NATO country would cooperate militarily with former Soviet countries.  In effect, Vladimir Putin wants to reestablish Russian dominance over Eastern Europe by recapturing old Soviet bloc countries.

Of course, this would be disastrous for Europe and American national security.  President Putin made no offers or concessions in exchange for these demands.  He included no guarantees to withdraw the mass of Russian troops in the Donbass region of Ukraine, and proposed no plan to end Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea. 

All he ‘promised’ was to no longer threaten America.  Any competent team in the White House, any capable American president, would have responded to such threats with immediate and tangible costs to the Russians. 

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They would have responded to the massive military build-up on Ukraine’s border with preemptive, crushing economic sanctions and an ironclad guarantee to help Ukraine defend itself should Russia invade.  President Biden should be rallying European allies to commit themselves to standing against Putin and his lawless, authoritarian actions.  But deterrence was lost with Biden’s weakness. 

In fact, a competent administration’s efforts to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine would have started a long time ago, when Team Biden first took office.  Unfortunately, no such deterrence has been established. When President Putin demanded that the Biden administration give him a New START treaty extension, they gave it to him for nothing. 

In the wake of Russian cyberattacks which shut down the Colonial Pipeline, President Biden told them you can only attack certain sectors but ‘sixteen’ are off limits. These were places where the administration had the chance to establish deterrence. Instead, it showed weakness, and President Biden’s recent comments to the press – in which he indicated that a "minor incursion" by the Russian military into Ukraine would somehow be permissible – have only encouraged a Russian invasion. 

The Trump administration made it clear, from day one, that we would not tolerate actions which undermined American security and our interests without imposing costs on those responsible.  With Ukraine, we not only firmly stated our intention to oppose a Russian invasion, but also supplied Ukraine with vital military aid which made any potential invasion far less appealing to the Kremlin. 

The Biden administration, while still supplying Ukraine with military aid, has been far murkier on whether the actions it would take in response to a Russian invasion – especially given President Biden’s recent comments about the lack of a response to a "minor incursion."  And the Biden administration should be enacting broad based sanctions now to preempt any invasion. 

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President Biden’s actions indicate that he simply doesn’t believe a Russian invasion will have much impact on Americans.  But were President Putin to achieve his objectives, a Russian-controlled Ukraine would have major implications for the American people. Energy prices would skyrocket due to the invasion’s effect on global energy markets, directly affecting how much it costs for every American to heat their home. Instability in Europe would strain our economic relationships there, resulting in less jobs here at home for Americans. 

War in Europe would endanger millions and destabilize the globe and our own security. And how can we make the case for controlling our own southern border while we allow a free nation’s sovereign borders to be violated with impunity? 

Only strength deters war; weakness begets it. President Xi Jinping, Chairman Kim, the Ayatollah – they and others like them are watching to see how America will respond to Russian attempts not only to invade a free nation, but to do so in direct defiance of NATO and the United States. 

If America shows further weakness here, if we fail to lead from the front, as President Biden has so many times in only his first year, we will only invite more catastrophic attacks in Taiwan, Korea, Israel, and elsewhere. 

The whole world watches how America leads. And when we fail to do so, we create instability and the cost, the risks to all Americans is real. 

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It will not only be the people of Ukraine who suffer – it will be America and our allies and the world as well. 

We have to establish deterrence in the model of Reagan and the model that we had for the four years of the Trump administration. If we do that, America will be safe and secure and prosperous, and the world will be more stable. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO