Posted on 02/13/2022 9:05:08 AM PST by Kaslin
Yesterday morning I expressed some pessimism in terms of what sort of progress might be made during Joe Biden’s anticipated phone call with Vladimir Putin. After all, weeks of shuttle diplomacy Washington, Moscow, Paris, and Vienna haven’t appeared to move the needle noticeably. Did Biden have some new offer that would be acceptable to our NATO partners while convincing Putin that there was a viable compromise available?
Well, the calls between Putin and both Biden and Emmanuel Macron took place as scheduled. In a rare instance of transparency from the Biden administration, the White House put out a statement summing up the call. The result was essentially a carbon copy of what we’ve been hearing for weeks. Russia is still making demands seen as “non-starters” by NATO and Biden claims to have warned Putin of “swift and severe” consequences. If Macron made any progress with Putin, he’s not saying anything about it. (NBC News)
resident Joe Biden on Saturday warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that the consequences of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which U.S. officials have said could be imminent, would be “swift and severe,” according to a White House description of the conversation.Biden told Putin that the U.S. and its allies and partners would “will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” should Moscow move on its neighbor, the White House said.
Biden also reiterated that a Russian invasion would produce “widespread human suffering and diminish Russia’s standing” in the world, the White House said, adding that Biden was “clear with President Putin that while the United States remains prepared to engage in diplomacy, in full coordination with our allies and partners, we are equally prepared for other scenarios.”
According to the White House release, the call lasted for a little more than an hour. What in the world could they have been talking about for that long without making an ounce of progress? We’re at the point where it would be nice if the White House would simply release a transcript of the conversation, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.
I believe that the fact that the generally secretive Biden White House put out this summary of the call is important. Assuming it’s accurate (and that’s a big assumption), it appears that Biden’s team is desperate to give the public the impression that Joe Biden is playing the tough guy and verbally roughing up Putin. He keeps talking about “swift and severe” consequences from a unified front of NATO and EU allies. Given the public’s dismal view of Biden’s handling of foreign policy matters thus far (at least according to almost every poll taken this year), the President is badly in need of a win that he can point to.
But is there a “win” available on the board? This situation can really only head in one of two ways… either Putin invades or he pulls his troops back, right? If he pulls back, repeating his claim that he never intended to invade in the first place, then Biden is left looking like he totally botched the intelligence management process and overreacted for no reason. That’s not a great look.
If Putin does invade, Ukraine almost certainly falls, though they may wind up fighting a sustained insurgency for a while. Biden is then basically forced to keep to his word and not send any troops in to defend the Ukrainians (or even the fleeing Americans) from Russia’s military offensive. Instead, he’ll launch crippling sanctions and shut down the Nord Stream II pipeline. That will splinter the alliance between the US and Germany, which needs the pipeline to be completed. It will also be a signal that Russia can invade pretty much any non-NATO neighboring country it pleases and the combined might of the United States, NATO, and the EU is incapable of stopping them.
I’ve given up attempting to read Putin’s mind at this point. On any given morning I wake up convinced (for a few minutes) that Putin is either definitely going to invade Ukraine or that he never intended to from the start and this was all a bluff to try to build some leverage. The one thing we’ve managed to accomplish at this point is to set Putin up to be the bad guy and a bare-faced liar if he goes ahead and invades now (on any claimed pretense) after publicly insisting for so long that he wouldn’t do it. Will he care? Probably not. And Russia would be aided in working around any new sanctions by its friends in China and Iran, along with the rest of the new Axis of Evil. Either way, I’m not seeing a very happy ending to this story no matter which way it goes.
Bidens team needs a war damn it. Right now!
Kinda funny if Putin just keeps a teaser carrot of war out in front of team Biden. They so desperately need that carrot to deflect their own incompetence.
Joe was making sure his payments were getting put in the right Swiss account.
Biden: Corn Popov, you’re a bad boy, who runs with other bad boys. I’ve got a 6 foot chain waiting for you if you dare to meet me behind in the pool parking lot!
Putin: What??
This is my surprised face.
Putin has started to impress me. He can suppress laughing at the idiot(s) at the other end of the line. I could not do it.
It has always been pointless to try to “read Putin”s mind.”
Our contingency planning should not be based on such divination, but on our own national interest.
Putin to Biden-"I'll send Ice Cream"
Biden to Putin-"Can I get sprinkles too?"
Putin to Biden-"OK"
Biden to Putin-"Done!"
Putin to Biden-"You're a tough adversary, President Biden, but Russia will comply"
I recall George Bush, John McCain and Hillary Clinton all claimed when they looked into his eyes, they could see his soul.
Try not to laugh too hard so you can’t finish reading this post to the end but I think the Leftist news media types really thought Putin was going to listen carefully to Biden, respectfully evaluate his statements and then compromise to avoid war thanks to Biden.
What could Biden do? He could threaten to send U.S. troops to Ukraine. But once he said that, Putin would launch the order to invade Ukraine so the Russians could take it before your troops arrive. Better to allow Putin “bluff”. The weather in Ukraine is warming up unusually early. The snow is melting. The ideal circumstances for the Russians to invade was a month ago when the ground was hard so Russian tanks could steamroll their way through.
Obama quote....Leave it to Joe to f*** things up.
I think they all said that about meeting James Brown, too. RIP.
Brandon will do what Hillary and Obama says...go to the economy and make Dem the heroes.
Every general fights the last war when the new one comes. Tanks aren’t necessary for today’s cyber conquests.
The only thing accomplished by the phone call is to reinforce Putin’s opinion that Brandon is a drooling idiot. He knows he may never get an opportunity like this again, especially if he has to deal with DJT again.
Don't you wish ours was so well protected.
Putin must have found it very difficult to keep a straight face during a call with a low IQ puppet whose feeble brain was also profoundly affected by dementia. He must have listened politely to a truckload of absolute gibberish. Maybe Mushbrain astounded him with his fabulous adventures as a KGB agent or having helped develop the atomic bomb, ably assisted by Cornpop.
It probably produced a lot of laughter from Putin.
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