Russia-Ukraine Conflict Puts Biden Administration’s Weakness On Full Display
Michael R. Pompeo
FoxNews.com
January 24, 2022
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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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
Read the full op-ed HERE.