Getting bad news from Beijing, 79-year-old President Joe Biden finds himself with only the European Union [EU] and NATO in condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Biden did the unthinkable since taking office Jan. 20, 2021, alienating the world’s most power superpowers, accusing them both of human rights abuses. Biden now has to live with the undeniable reality that he’s pushed Russia and China into a military and political alliance. While the EU has more dependency on Russia, especially for energy, the U.S. is hopelessly dependent on China for just about everything. China’s decision to oppose sanctions on the Russian Federation makes Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s work all the more difficult. Under Biden, the U.S. has lost it clout on its Communist rivals in Russia and China, now joining together to oppose U.S. foreign policy.
Biden’s decision to not send troops to Ukraine and reject Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request for a no-fly-zone, has left U.S. and EU influence on Russia confined to punitive economic sanctions. But sanctions could backfire on the U.S. and EU if energy prices continue to go through the roof. Contrary to the pie-in-the-sky idealists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (R-N.Y.) Green New Deal, the real world runs on fossil fuels. So when Biden took office, bending to the climate change lobby, he cancelled many of the energy independent projects promoted under former President Donald Trump. Now the U.S. finds itself unprepared to weather another oil shock coming from the Ukraine war. Members of Congress now want Biden to stop buying Russian oil. U.S. oil companies would have to replace the lost petroleum from alternative sources.
If Biden acquiesces to Democrats and Republicans insisting he stop buying Russian oil, it could create price spikes and nationwide shortages. Biden’s only chance to avert an economic train wreck in the U.S. is to start ramping up domestic oil and natural gas production. Ending Russian oil supplies would require the U.S. to buy more Saudi Arabian or Iranian oil, setting U.S. energy independence back a generation. Biden’s fatal mistake was getting on his high horse of human rights, lambasting Russia and China from Day One of his presidency. Now 68-year-old President Xi Jinping backs Putin to demilitarize Ukraine. Xi isn’t pleased with the U.S. and NATO supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons with which to potentially attack the Russian Federation. China patrols its neighboring countries and waterways vigilantly to protect its national security, often getting into skirmishes with encroaching states.
Biden finds himself bailing too much water out of his sinking canoe, needing good relations with U.S. adversaries, not simply reliance on the EU and NATO. All the talk of the EU and NATO amounts to very little when it comes to an aggressive defensive posture in Europe and beyond. “Ours is a defensive alliance. We seek no conflict. But if conflict comes to use we are ready for it and we will defend every inch of NATO territory,” Blinken said today, trying to reassure former Soviet satellites, now members of NATO. White House officials have been hyping Putin’s war in Ukraine as more than a regional conflict but a pattern of Putin’s attempts at global hegemony. So the White House turned up the alert level on all former Soviet satellites now part of the NATO alliance. None of the EU countries, including Germany, wants a war with the Russian Federation, certainly not China.
When Biden and his national security team kept pushing Putin into a corner, the EU and NATO was cringing, knowing that a war might break out in Europe. No one in NATO or the EU, no matter how much White House rhetoric, want to confront the Russian Federation. Biden was told by Putin December 24, 2021 that if the U.S. didn’t take his requests for security concerns seriously, he would have to take “military-technical measures” to reduce the threat to the Russian Federation. Whatever Biden’s vendetta with Putin, the EU and NATO wanted no part of it. Biden completely ignores any role he’s played in pushing Putin into war in Ukraine. Now that the war’s here, Biden has told the EU and NATO that the U.S. will not commit troops or providing any kind of no-fly-zone, fearing WW III or a dreaded nuclear war. Biden badly miscalculated what Putin would do in Ukraine.
Blinken’s trip, meeting EU foreign minister in Brussels, doesn’t have much to reassure about, since the U.S. isn’t directly involved in military action in Ukraine. EU foreign minister wants to know what, if anything, the U.S. would do if Putin decides to move on from Ukraine and start intimidating former Soviet sates. White House rhetoric that the war in Ukraine is about the preservation of democracy in Europe and around the planet isn’t helpful to former Soviet satellites concerned now of whether NATO would actually provide protection. Blinken comments about Russian hitting Ukraine’s largest nuclear reactor, raising more fears of a nuclear disaster. Blinken wants to end the war but how much is Ukraine and the White House willing to compromise with Putin for a ceasefire and lasting peace talks? White House officials need to stop ripping Putin and find common ground for a ceasefire.
