The view expressed in this essay are definitely not those expressed by PJ Media or many — if any — of its writers. But it’s a viewpoint that needs to be heard.
Joe Biden has performed above expectations since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. In some ways, especially in the way he built a very tough sanctions regime, he has been impressive. Getting NATO to follow the U.S. lead at almost every turn has been a welcome surprise.
Biden’s performance has somewhat unnerved Vladimir Putin, who obviously underestimated NATO’s solidarity. For Putin, it may well be a fatal mistake if the sanctions continue for any length of time. The Russian oligarchs and the military-intelligence complex that keep him in power will not have infinite patience. Putin could face a reckoning in a few months unless he can find a way to circumvent the sanctions.
Related: Why Doesn’t Barack Obama Get More Blame for Putin’s Ukraine Invasion?
This doesn’t mean I would ever vote for Joe Biden or support him on the other 95% of issues on which he and I vehemently disagree. But for the time being, we are still one country. And Joe Biden — no matter how you think he ascended to the presidency — is our leader.
And this is a crisis. A crisis with a nuclear-armed adversary who may soon find himself pushed into a corner. If Vladimir Putin believes he can win by dividing and conquering us, the danger of conflict — conflict with a nuclear-armed enemy — rises considerably.
Prior to the invasion, Biden’s performance was confusing, weak, hesitant, even incoherent. But perhaps there was a collective realization by NATO countries that they must all hang together. If not Ukraine as the place to take a stand, then where? That made it easier for Biden to get NATO to block Russia from the SWIFT financial transaction network and sanction Russian banks — two moves that most of our NATO allies were reluctant to take.
“I think there’s broad support for the president in what he’s doing now,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week in a news conference. “Our biggest complaint is, what took him so long?”
“The President has successfully brought together our friends and allies to coordinate a unified and powerful response to Putin’s actions,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said in a statement after Biden’s State of the Union.
“Yes,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), the top Republican on the House’s foreign affairs committee, when asked on CNN on Sunday if he agrees with Romney that Biden has successfully united allies against Russia, adding: “I have been critical, as you know, of this administration. But I would have to say, I would credit also all the NATO countries, not just one man.”
Biden’s biggest problem going forward will be to maintain NATO cohesion while putting the screws on Russia. But Biden has to be careful not to paint Putin into a corner where the Russian president might feel that his only way to survive is to start a general war and eventually cross the threshold into nuclear war.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:
There are possible other paths toward further escalation, but they all eventually lead toward the nuclear threshold. Scores of war games carried out by the United States and its allies in the wake of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine make it clear that Putin would probably use a nuclear weapon if he concludes that his regime is threatened. It is hard to know exactly what turn of events would scare him enough to cross the nuclear threshold. Certainly a large NATO army entering Russian territory would be enough. But what if events in Ukraine loosened his grip on power at home? Indeed, achieving regime change in Russia indirectly by making Putin lose in Ukraine seems to be the logic behind some of those who are pushing for escalation today.
After the crisis is over, there will be plenty of time to criticize Biden for his shortsighted and dramatically stupid energy policy. But for now, I’m sticking with Biden and will support him because Americans need to be united in times of crisis.
Anything less risks the unthinkable.
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