Demanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin be booted out the G20, the world’s top 20 economies, 79-year-old President Joe Biden, 79, showed his European counterparts in the EU and NATO that no one’s more aggressive when it comes to Putin. But just as the EU and NATO are trying to figure out the right posture, Biden wants to hit Putin with yet more punishments for his Feb. 24 war in Ukraine. No one at the EU or NATO, at least publicly, have asked Biden his end game, apparently running the Ukraine War from the White House. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begged NATO ministers today in Brussels for more lethal weapons to battle the Russian Federation. With the war over a month old and with Ukrainian cities bombed into the Stone Age, there’s almost no talk from Biden or Zelensky about ceasefire talks and eventual settlement of the conflict.
After Putin invaded Crimea March 1, 2014, former President Barack Obama and then Vice President Joe Biden convinced the G8 to drop Putin, turning the block into the G7, where it stands today. While it’s logical to do the same thing now, it’s adding insult-to-injury at a time when Western powers, including the U.S., need to make some overtures to Putin to end the conflict. Zelensky and Biden have showed no interest in ending the conflict, supplying Ukraine with $14 billion and unlimited weapons to fight the Russian Federation. Putin has already warned about the use of nuclear weapons if the U.S. and NATO continue to decimate the Russian economy. Kicking Russia out of the the G7 could precipitate Putin to do something erratic. While Biden continues to saber rattle, NATO and the EU wants to take a more measured approach because any war would be in their backyard.
EU and NATO officials haven’t figured out yet that the Ukraine War is run out of the White House, not Kiev. Biden has been calling the shots from the beginning, deciding early on that he’ll use Ukraine to fight a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Let there be no mistake, Putin figured out from Day One that the firepower and fury coming from Ukraine comes from the U.S. Members of EU and NATO must look at the conflict as a proxy war against the Russian Federation. Putin knows that Biden decided to go after him, using Ukrainian troops as cover for the U.S. If the EU and NATO don’t want the war to spread to other EU countries, they should remind Biden that peace, not war, is the highest priority for the EU. Zelensky found out the hard way that NATO and the EU want no part of his war with the Russian Federation, even with sympathies toward Ukraine.
Pushing Putin too hard could backfire on Biden, who, from the beginning, clearly calls the shots in the Ukraine War. “I plan on attempting to see those folks as we as, I hope, I’m going to be able to see—guess I’m not supposed to say where I’m going, am I?” asked Biden rhetorically. But anyway, I hope to get to see a lot of people,” hinting that his trip would meet with Ukrainian refugees. So, for all reasonable optics, it’s clear that this is Biden’s war, hoping to inflict a mortal wound on Putin’s reign of power. No one in the EU or NATO expected Biden to take over the war, deciding how-and-when there would be any ceasefire talks let alone peace talks. Biden sees an opportunity to deliver a mortal wound to Putin’s 22-reign of power. If his mission fails, the U.S. will have egg on its face, in another brutal failure, like the Afghan War. Biden’s gamble could end the U.S. as a superpower.
What happens to the European peace architecture if Russia breaks off diplomatic relations with the United States? Members of the EU and NATO must look carefully at Biden’s belligerent attitude toward Putin, regardless of how wrong-headed the war. Putin made a calculation based on the extent to which the U.S. and NATO supplied lethal arms to Ukraine. While Zelensky talks about Ukraine as a “peaceful country,” why did he accept untold number of lethal arms from the U.S. and NATO? Biden calls the Feb. 24 Ukraine War “unprovoked and unjustified,” but what was Putin supposed to do knowing Ukraine was being armed to the teeth by the U.S. and NATO? Members to the EU and NATO must discuss with Biden what he expects happen if the Ukraine War continues to rage indefinitely. EU and NATO officials know that longer the war goes, the bigger the chance for a devastating mishap.
Whether admitted to or not, China opposes the Ukraine War, but blames the U.S. and NATO for impinging on Russian national security. Biden tried to get China to denounce Putin, only to find that the official Chinese Communist Party position blames the U.S. and NATO for meddling in Ukraine. After boycotting the Beijing Winter Games, how could Biden think he’d get cooperation from Chinese President Xi Jinping? XI had enough of Biden accusing him of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Western China. When you add to that, Biden’s insults of Putin, calling him a “soulless killer” March 18, 2021 and a “murderous dictator” and “war criminal” March 16, destroying the U.S. capacity to play a diplomatic role. EU and NATO officials need to rethink whether they want to join Biden’s crusade to rid the world of Putin. If they want peace, they need to work at it with both parties to the conflict.
