In case the collapse of Afghanistan wasn’t any indication, President Joe Biden has been a disaster when it comes to foreign policy. On the subject of Russia and Ukraine, he is getting failing grades across the board.
A USA Today/Suffolk poll taken Feb. 15-20, before Russia launched its renewed invasion, showed that 49% of people disapproved of Biden’s handling of the situation, compared to just 34% approving. When it came to being a strong leader, Biden got even worse marks — 63% think he is weak, compared to 32% who think otherwise.
A Gallup poll found roughly the same sentiment, with 55% disapproving of Biden’s response to Russia. And the same was found by a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which determined that 43% of people approved of Biden’s handling of the U.S. relationship with Russia, while 53% said they were very or extremely concerned about Russia’s influence in the world.
None of this is surprising. Biden’s weakness and unwillingness to take a hard stand against Russia clearly played a role in Russia’s decision to move in. Biden froze arms sales to Ukraine in June and December of last year in pursuit of “diplomatic” solutions. The Biden administration also sent officials to Capitol Hill to lobby Democrats against sanctions for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which Biden admitted would give Russia leverage over Europe.
According to the White House, we couldn’t impose sanctions on Russia before an invasion because the sanctions were supposed to be a deterrent. After the invasion began, Biden then informed us that “no one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening.”
President Biden today: “No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening.”
VP Harris on Sunday: “The purpose of the sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence.”
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) February 24, 2022
No personal sanctions on Putin. No ejection from Swift. Nothing directly targeting the energy sector. Keeping Europe in line is like herding cats, I get it. But if we’re at all serious, this won’t do. And in a month, Ukraine could well be decapitated and fully occupied. https://t.co/5GesgBNcu2
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) February 24, 2022
Biden, who promised to reinvigorate our global alliances, fought to kill the Nord Stream 2 sanctions as a favor for Germany instead of telling an ostensible American ally that becoming more dependent on Russian energy was unacceptable. Biden himself crippled the U.S. energy industry, killing the Keystone XL pipeline while begging OPEC to boost production to make up for his decision.
And, of course, Biden’s weakness was put on full display in Afghanistan. Biden abandoned our Afghan allies (and stranded Americans) to the Taliban, while he and Secretary of State Antony Blinken meekly asked them to follow their agreements and to stop acting like the Taliban. It was made clear that the Biden administration didn’t want to avoid just physical confrontations but diplomatic confrontations as well.
Now, with the weakness of Biden’s resolve on full display, China is once again threatening Taiwan. Biden has done nothing to deter evil expansionist regimes and has done little to crack down on them after they make their moves. Biden has been wrong about every major foreign policy decision in his lifetime, and it appears he isn’t going to buck that trend any time soon.
