Putin is nothing if not an opportunist, and the images of American forces and their British allies struggling to contain the surging crowds at Kabul airport who were desperately trying to flee the country will have confirmed the Russian leader's view that, so long as Biden remained in power, he had nothing to fear from the US.
By ordering US forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, Biden effectively gave Putin the green light to press ahead with his invasion plans.
In every sense, the invasion of Ukraine started in Kabul, so much so that the Russian military build-up on the border with Ukraine prior to the invasion only got seriously underway after the August 2021 withdrawal.
Now, thanks to the utter incompetence of the Biden administration's handling of the Afghan crisis, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and most urgently Taiwan all find themselves struggling to deal with the disastrous consequences of the Biden administration's ineffectual leadership.
Had the warplanes been provided when President Volodymyr Zekensky first requested them at the end of last year, they may have arrived in time to make a calculable difference to the Ukrainian ground offensive, where a lack of effective air cover has slowed the Ukrainian advance.
Biden's dithering over the issue, with the White House initially ruling out approving the transfer of the jets before eventually changing its mind, now means that it is highly unlikely the warplanes will be in action this year, by which time the Ukrainian offensive will have ended.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has told his army to "prepare for war", appears to have reached the same conclusion as Putin.
In such circumstances, the Ukrainian people and the Taiwanese could be forgiven for believing that, just as happened in Afghanistan, Biden's inability to provide effective leadership on the world stage will simply result in them being abandoned to their fates.
By ordering US forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden effectively gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the green light to press ahead with his plans to invade Ukraine. Pictured: A US Air Force transport plane takes off from Kabul Airport on August 30, 2021. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP via Getty Images)
It is not just the beleaguered people of Afghanistan who are suffering as a result of US President Joe Biden's catastrophic decision to arbitrarily end America's military involvement in the country two years ago.
It is now abundantly clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch his brutal invasion of Ukraine was taken as a direct consequence of the weak leadership Biden displayed over his handling of the Afghan issue.
Putin is nothing if not an opportunist, and the images of American forces and their British allies struggling to contain the surging crowds at Kabul airport who were desperately trying to flee the country will have confirmed the Russian leader's view that, so long as Biden remained in power, he had nothing to fear from the US.
Six months later, the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine as Putin sought to fulfil his ambition of restoring Russia to its former imperial glory.
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