Joe Biden appears to be attempting to scramble through the present crisis without giving away too much or being humiliated once again, but better options are available.
"Perversely, most of the aggressive left-wing media want to escalate the feud with Russian President Vladimir Putin to the point of driving Russia into the arms of China. This is the only way Russia (whose GDP is smaller than Canada’s) could seriously damage the West.
"At the same time, some conservative commentators, including some of the stars at Fox News, are unreasonably accusing those who favor resisting Russian aggression in Ukraine of being warmongers and trying to propel America into endless, useless war. Again.
"There is a legitimate American and Western interest in not allowing Russia to trample an independent nation of 40 million underfoot in the middle of Europe to the embarrassment of the Western alliance, and it is not a difficult scenario to avoid.
"For once, I’m prepared and happy to come partially to Joe Biden’s defense. The greatest problem with what he said about Ukraine at his press conference last week is not his customary ambiguity about the assertion of a legitimate national interest, or that the Western alliance (partly because of his own weakness) is divided on this question. Rather, the problem is very complicated. Biden grasps this, but he is famously bad at responding to such questions, even with rehearsal. Of course he is correct that there is a distinction between a wholesale invasion of a country and a frontier violation with very limited objectives.". . .
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