Putin seems to understand Biden. Putin also seems to understand hollow threats and ineffective sanctions.
Putin, in addition, reduced natural gas exports to Europe by 41% last month... It appears to be a "squeeze play." Putin would appear to be choking off natural gas supplies to Europe as a wedge, to divide the United States from NATO allies over the threatened "severe sanctions."
The Biden administration is desperately trying to convince an unidentified audience watching somewhere that the administration is very, very serious about Ukraine's borders. The problem is, the administration, by its actions is not very, very serious about Ukraine's borders. If it were, it would have sent Ukraine substantial military materiel and conducted corresponding military exercises in adjoining NATO countries such as Poland and Hungary.
Engaging NATO and exercising military airlift, logistics and ground combat capabilities has always been an effective deterrent. Remember deterrence? It is not just a quaint relic of the Cold War. It is inducing an adversary to adjust its cost-benefit analysis, making the cost of creating trouble prohibitively high and ultimately not worth the effort.
To Putin, a Russian invasion of Ukraine is arguably just the next step in what appears an ongoing plan to incrementally reconstruct the former Soviet Union, or at least a large part of it. Putin began with Georgia and the Crimea; it is hard to imagine him stopping with Ukraine.
While the Biden administration blusters and postures over Ukraine's border, the administration has an increasingly dangerous situation along America's border.
Biden's deputy national security advisor, Jonathan Finer, was trotted out to lecture Americans about the fundamental principle for all nations – "that our borders should be inviolate, that our sovereignty should be respected." Oh, really? What about America's southern border?
Here is the shocking "fact sheet" – all you need to know about just how dangerous our border situation has become.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to understand US President Joe Biden. Putin also seems to understand hollow threats and ineffective sanctions. Putin reduced natural gas exports to Europe by 41% last month, choking off natural gas supplies to Europe as a wedge to divide the United States from NATO allies over the threatened "severe sanctions." Pictured: Biden and Putin meet on June 16, 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Peter Klaunzer - Pool/Keystone via Getty Images)
A lot of Internet bandwidth has been dedicated to news reports of Russia's military activities along the Ukrainian border. President Biden has promised "severe sanctions" against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia, should the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Ukraine be infringed upon (again) in any way.
Continue Reading Article
No comments:
Post a Comment