Had Biden approved Wallace instead, it would have told Putin that we’re in this fight for the long haul – so he’d be smarter to withdraw ASAP before he’s removed from office by a rogue chef (I will never get over that Yevgeny Prigozhin was in catering before he ran a private army). If Moscow wishes to negotiate, the West is open to it.Ĭritics say this is naïve. But after London announced plans to provide F-16 training – without Washington’s approval – Biden decided to back Ursula von der Leyen, on the presumption, we think, that a less ideological, EU-brand candidate will signal to Putin that an off-ramp remains in place. Britain wants Ben Wallace for the job, a hawk. Hence the latest row over who should replace the outgoing Jens Stoltenberg as secretary general of Nato. The administration is worried about pushing Putin so far into a corner that he lashes out with nukes, or digs in for as long as he has breath.
AMONG US LOGO PLUS
Thus Biden has reacted to Ukraine with rhetorical commitment plus a carefully judged amount of arms, providing enough to keep Ukraine in the game, but not quite enough, complains Kyiv, to win (an example: the administration declined to provide F-16s on the grounds that the country “doesn’t need them now”, but former defence secretary Robert Gates argues that had it started training Ukrainian pilots six months ago, F-16s might be making a difference today). After the election in 2020, he withdrew from Afghanistan.īiden won office because he actually has a pretty good grasp of what the American people will tolerate, and the bellwether president has intuited that voters still wish to run the world – but from a safe distance. Just as the American public turned sour on intervention post-Vietnam, Biden rediscovered his realism after Iraq – privately cautioned against the Libya bombing, even the raid on Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. He opposed Bush Sr’s Gulf War yet endorsed Bush Jr’s great adventure in Iraq, claiming credit for drafting parts of the Patriot Act. He entered Congress in 1973 opposed to the Vietnam War since then he has yo-yoed from dove to hawk and back. Perhaps because of his age, Biden is the archetypal post-war president. Such rifts underscore the long-term problem of a divided Europe relying on Washington for support that is dangerously contingent upon American politics. Some of us are unhappy about America donating cluster bombs Germany is reluctant to see Ukraine join Nato. No doubt he’ll be greeted with a grand display of unity and hope after the anti-Putin coup attempt, for the Russian invasion of Ukraine has never looked more like reckless folly.īut there are cracks in the Western alliance.
I’ve hit that age where I don’t laugh when he falls over, I look on with admiration when he gets back up. Joe Biden is in the UK ahead of the Nato summit.
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