Showing that peace is not the highest priority of 79-year-old PresidentJoe Biden, the Whit House rejected any concessions on Ukraine to 69-year-old President Vladimir Putin itemized two weeks ago in a set of demands to the U.S. and NATO. Putin wanted the U.S. and NATO to agree to no allow Ukraine membership to the trans-Atlantic allianc. Ukraine has been rejected for NATO membership over the last eight years after Putin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula after a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the duly elected, Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. No Western nation or the press admits that the CIA backed coup forced Putin to annex Crimea to protect his Sevastopol navy bass. But since the coup, Western nations blamed Putin, accusing him of naked aggression in seizing Ukrainian territory. Biden warned of a Russian invasion.
Biden went so far at a two-hour press conference last week to opine that he thought Putin would invade Ukraine, causing panic in Kiev. Kiev officials, led by Mayor Vitali Klitschko, told Kiev residents not to panic, even though the U.S. president said a Russian invasion is imminent. When the U.S. announced it was removing diplomatic personnel at the U.S. embassy, Ukrainian officials said the U.S. decision to empty out its embassy was “premature.” But U.S. officials knew that in response to Putin’s demands for less NATO encroachment in Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO would reject all of Putin demands. French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said today that the European Union should not follow the American approach of confrontation ton, serving notice to French President Emnnuel Macron to follow a diplomatic path to peace.
Putin asked the U.S. to stop supplying lethal arms to Ukraine, something he said threatened Russian national security because Ukraine was on the Russian border. Putin said he doesn’t want Ukraine turned into NATO’s armed camp to threaten the Russian Federation. Yet Secretary of State Antony Blinken said today that the U.S. would not compromise on its principles, including keeping NATO’s open door membership. Blinken said the U.S. response to Russia would not be released to the public but restated that the U.S. and NATO would not change its policies on membership to the trans-Atlantic alliance to accommodate Putin’s demands to keep Ukraine out. Ukraine has asked but denied membership for the last eight years following Putin’s annexation of Crimea. Blinken’s cavalier approach to Europe shows he’s willing to risk war on the European Continent.
Biden’s vendetta with Putin has gone too far, with too much at stake for the European Continent. There’s no reason Biden couldn’t figure out a way to compromise with Putin to preserve the peace in Europe. When the U.S., U.K. and other EU countries supply Ukraine with lethal weapons, what’s Putin supposed to do? Just allow Ukraine, which sits on the Russian border, to become a NATO ammunition dump to threaten the Russian Federation. “There is no change, there will be no change,” Blinken said, knowing that U.S. stubbornness, could affect the European Continent. Rebuffing Putin’s demands is precisely why French President Emmanuel Macron wanted to meet face-to-face with Putin to find a way of de-escalating the Ukraine crisis. Blinken passed the buck to NATO, saying its members make up their own decisions about new members.
Playing macho with Putin, Biden has put his own ego over peace on the European Continent. Blinken didn’t have to be so smug telling the press that “there is no change, there will be no change.” What kind of flexibility and compromise is that when so much is at stake in Ukraine, and, for that matter, all over the European Continent? Biden’s lack of flexibility shows he’s more interested in beating Putin at his own game, rather that figuring out “off-ramps” with which to resolve the current stalenate. Blinken said today the ball is in Putin court, meaning he can decide what he wants to do. But with Biden and Blinken showing no compromise, it’s unlikely Putin’s going to withdraw his forces near the Ukrainian border. “All told it sets out a serious diplomatic path forward, should Russia choose it,” said U.S. Russian Amb. John Sullivan. If that’s not arrogance, then what is?
Biden thinks he’s calling the shots in Ukraine, delivering more lethal weapons to the Slavic nation with special ties to the Russian Empire. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine was a dutiful Soviet satellite and industrial hub, especially in the Eastern region’s Russian-speaking Donbass region. Whether admitted to or not by Ukraine or the U.S., the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup created the current mess, where Putin annexed Crimea to protect his Sevastopol naval base. No one in Ukraine or the West mentions anything about a CIA-backed coup. Yet Biden and Blinken act as if the Ukraine mess is Putin’s problem. When it comes to a solution, the U.S. delegation tells Putin today to “take it or leave it,” accept the West’s conditions for peace or face potentially crippling economic sanctions. But what has Putin done other than deploy 100,000 troops in Russia near the Ukraine border.
