President Joe Biden said some of the right things during his trip to Europe this week. Unfortunately, the commander in chief didn’t take much action of consequence.
Visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels, Biden pledged continuing U.S. leadership and support for the alliance. He was right to do so. NATO has ensured great power peace for much of Europe since the end of the Second World War. That peace has provided the political and economic space for dramatic rises in living standards and expansions of human freedom under the rule of law. This, in turn, has enabled massive U.S. exports to Europe, which should exceed $370 billion in 2022. Put simply, NATO preserves a common peace, a shared prosperity, and our mutual security.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s onslaught on Ukraine threatens that peace in the most serious way since the darkest days of the Cold War.
Considering the grave stakes in play here, it was regrettable that Biden did not robustly push NATO allies to do far more in their own defense. While some NATO allies such as the United Kingdom, the Baltic states, Poland, and now Germany are stepping up their commitments, many other European powers are not. It is inexcusable, for example, that the European Union’s three most powerful economies after Germany — France, Italy, and Spain — have not pledged emergency budgets to meet immediately the 2% of gross domestic product NATO minimum defense spending target.
Talking of the president’s public rhetoric, Biden did call out one leader aside from Putin. Unfortunately, it was someone with absolutely no relevance to the current crisis.
Quite why Biden felt the need to reference former President Donald Trump and the August 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, riots is unclear. Responding to what appeared to be a staged question by the center-left German magazine Der Spiegel, Biden condemned Trump’s rhetoric from nearly five years ago and insisted that he was confident of defeating his predecessor should Trump run again in 2024. Again, why was this distraction necessary? What possible service does such partisanship offer to the great moral and strategic cause of uniting the United States and our allies against Putin’s aggression?
Don’t just read the media room — read the world, Mr. President.
Relocating to the Poland-Ukraine border Friday, Biden did a little better. The president’s visit with U.S. troops now protecting NATO’s eastern flank went well. Except, that is, for a tongue slip in which Biden told the troops they would see Ukraine’s courage “when you go there.”
Still, Biden failed to commit to much greater support for Ukraine. And why didn’t the president visit Ukrainian territory for a short period? That symbolic step would have shown resolve in the face of Russia’s aggression and made clear America’s commitment to human freedom. Apparently deferring to Secret Service concerns, however, Biden said visiting Ukraine wasn’t possible. He is wrong. Russia would not risk assassinating a U.S. president and starting a war that would unify NATO at America’s back. Biden should have overruled his security advisers.
Unfortunately, this overdue caution only reflects Biden’s broader strategy toward Russia. As Putin blitzes, burns and starves the innocent people of Mariupol and dozens of other Ukrainian towns, Biden remains reticent to give Ukraine the means to gut truly the Russian war machine. Ukraine has made clear that it needs a lot more anti-air and anti-armor weapons to keep Putin’s forces on the back foot. Yet Biden continues to slow-roll weapons deliveries. In a failure of leadership, Biden has left the delivery of more advanced air defense systems to the whim of other allies. The president continues to spare no effort in reminding Putin that America will not directly intervene. Facing the potential of massive Russian chemical weapons attacks on Ukrainian cities, Biden warned only of vague “consequences.”
The risk is that Putin will see this hesitation as a carte blanche to satisfy his darkest impulses. The Russian leader sees this campaign of conquest as an almost theological mission. Unless simultaneously pressured by growing sanctions and the credible threat of U.S. military responses to the gravest outrages (his scaled use of biological or chemical weapons or the single use of a nuclear weapon), Putin is likely to escalate.
Biden needs to seize the initiative. Ukraine can defeat Russia in Ukraine, and the West will have secured a major victory over authoritarian terror — a victory China will have to pay attention to as it ponders an invasion of Taiwan. But that victory will only come if the president recognizes that now is the time to be bold. There is a great deal of space between what Biden is doing now and joining this war on Ukraine’s side. Neither of those options is acceptable, but Biden must exploit the middle ground.
