Thank goodness Biden, not Trump, is president during the worst European crisis since 1945 (Barf alert)

Washington Post ^ | March 1st 2022 | Max Boot

[Ennis85]

I’m not a praying man, but if I were, I would be on my hands and knees thanking the Almighty that during the worst crisis in Europe since 1945, the United States is led by Joe Biden, not Donald Trump.

Biden has been as masterful in his handling of the Ukraine war as he was ham-handed in his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. For months he has been warning that Russia would invade and predicting that this would trigger a “swift and severe” response. He even laid out details of Russian plans to stage false flag operations and to install a puppet regime in Kyiv.

There was much skepticism on all counts, with Russia and its apologists denying until the last moment that the invasion would occur. But Biden was dead right. This is the opposite of the Iraq War, when U.S. intelligence and leadership was discredited. American credibility has been enhanced by Biden’s deft handling of this crisis. Today it is Moscow, not Washington, that is acting based on bad intelligence: Russian dictator Vladimir Putin massively underestimated Ukrainian resistance.

While publicly calling out Putin, Biden and his aides were working furiously behind the scenes to unite the West behind an agenda meant to support Ukraine, punish the Kremlin — and, implicitly, to deter China from an attack on Taiwan. Their efforts were more successful than anyone could have imagined a few weeks ago, with Western countries uniting to evict some Russian banks from the SWIFT system of inter-bank transfers, to impose sanctions on the Russian central bank and to rush arms to Ukraine.

Admittedly, part of this mobilization is due to factors beyond Biden’s control: Putin’s reckless aggression has shocked the world, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s stout resistance has inspired it. But there would not have been this

[Widget Jr]

Pardon me as I catch my breath. It is rare to see paragraphs over one hundred words on this site anymore. :)
Here a thread for a timeline on Biden (link)

In some ways I think you are making it more interconnected and complex than it really is, but what do I know? My two cents are no more valuable than anyone else's.

1. Trump accommodated Russia's security interests. Under Trump only Montenegro and Macedonia joined NATO. Trump did not push for Ukraine to enter NATO, and made clear he would defend it if Russia invaded. Trump expanded U.S. oil production without trying to curb Russian production. That met Russia's economic and security needs and kept Putin from invading Ukraine.

2. My opinion is Schiff knew the FBI had Hunter's laptop and jumped the gun to protect the Democrats for the 2020 Presidential election. I don't think he cleared it with other Democrats or Biden like he should have and dragged them along. TDS prevented the Democrats from stopping Schiff from pushing a bad move. The impeachment failed, and made Biden's personal corruption more public when before it was hidden. Without the impeachment the Barr and Wray would have kept it buried. Now Barr and Wray can no longer hide they are covering up for the Democrats.

3. Russia collusion had nothing to do with Ukraine. Hillary wanted protection from being prosecuted under Trump for her email server. The DOJ and FBI wanted protection for the FISA abuse they did on Trump and covering for Hillary's server. Other than the Benghazi emails, the server was rumored to have lots of other secret files on it. This was when the Clinton foundation was raking in money. Hillary Clinton's server is the worst intelligence, espionage and federal law enforcement scandal in American history. Questions about Obama's birth certificate are minor compared to this.

The intersecting corruption between Hillary, Obama, DOJ, and FBI that allowed this to happen is a story staring everyone in the face that no one wants tell. It was better for everyone involved to cover it up and direct all the anger at the new kid in town, the outsider who is not part of the club.

(Does it trouble * anyone * in Washington D.C. that after going after Trump as hard as they did with so little to show for it, the FBI, DOJ, the courts, and the military can actively undermine the lawful authority of future Presidents without consequences?)

4. Biden is not that smart on international politics and oil. He made key mistakes before Russia invaded Ukraine. He shuts down Keystone and oil leases, making Russia oil stronger politically. He encourages Ukraine to join NATO without having any strategic policy to support it. He crossed all of Putin's red lines with no strategy to deal with Putin in place at all.

Where I think we can agree: No matter how we got here, Biden's inexcusably poor judgment and weakness enabled Putin to invade Ukraine. Putin just took advantage of the situation handed to him on a silver platter.