When Will Truth Prevail?

            The Trump haters are out in full force again and are blaming President Donald Trump for the invasion of Russia into Ukraine. The ironic fact of the matter is that Russia went into Crimea during the Obama administration and invaded Ukraine during the Biden administration but made no such moves during the four years that Trump was President of the United States.

            David Harsanyi also finds this fact ironic. After listing several headlines blaming Trump for the invasion, he wrote that similar comments from so-called experts can be found across social media. He suggested that Trump’s “most passionate antagonists must be slightly curious” about why Putin did not make any moves during the Trump administration. 

What better time could there have been for an invasion or annexation? Why now and not then? Then again, the notion that President Joe Biden has shown firmness or deftness on foreign policy is at odds with not only recent events – most notably the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan – but also 50 years of his history.

            Harsanyi then proceeded to give example after example of how “Biden has been relentlessly wrong” in his foreign policy.

… In 2009, Biden went to Munich and delivered the Obama’s administration’s first major foreign policy speech, arguing that it was “time to press the reset button” after eight years of purported American antagonism toward Russia.

It was Biden who then spearheaded the effort to reward Moscow by giving Russia access to the World Trade Organization….

Biden loves to take credit for Obama-era foreign policies. Well, it was the Obama administration that also spent years trying to kill the Magnitsky Act, which listed corrupt Russian officials and barred them from American financial markets, before bipartisan pressure compelled them to flip-flop.

In his book “Red Notice,” Bill Browder, the driving force behind the act, wrote that “ever since Barack Obama had become president, the main policy of the U.S. government toward Russia had been one of appeasement.”

Even before Obama was caught on a hot mic telling Putin puppet Medvedev that he would have more “flexibility” on missile defense after the 2012 presidential election, he had already canceled long-promised missile defense systems to our allies in Poland and the Czech Republic.

It was the Trump administration that approved the sale of Patriot missile system to Poland. For that matter, it was Trump who, finally, approved the sale of defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine.

            As you may remember, Democrats mocked Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012 when he said that “Russia was our top geopolitical threat.” It was Biden who went on the Sunday shows to depict “the Putin kleptocracy as a burgeoning ally and partner.” “Though ‘we have disagreements with Russia,’ Biden noted, they were ‘working closely with us’ on a slew of issues. ‘This is not 1956,’ he scoffed, a few years before Putin’s special forces dropped into Crimea.” Harsanyi was not finished with his examples.

Obama also allowed Russia to operate with impunity in Syria, almost surely to protect the prospects of the Iran nuclear deal. Trump, unencumbered by the need to kowtow to the Iranians, killed a few hundred Russian mercenaries in Syria.

            Biden bragged during the 2020 presidential election that Putin’s “days of tyranny and trying to intimidate the United States and those in Eastern Europe are over.” According to Harsanyi, Biden has “done little to uphold his promise of deterring Russian expansion” and continued to give more examples of Biden’s blunders.

In his first year in office, the president who promised to stop “rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions” killed the Keystone pipeline, which would have left us less susceptible to the vagaries of the international energy market.

Biden also strengthened Putin’s hand by waiving Trump-era sanctions on a company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany. Last year, Biden sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the Arctic Council for another shot at a “reset,” in which, as Bloomberg explained it, “Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin can reinvigorate U.S.-Russia relations that have been in a deep freeze for years.

            With all Trump’s faults – and he has plenty, his foreign policy of “peace through strength” was far more successful in keeping America safe and strong than Biden’s policy of appeasement. As the facts listed above illustrate, this appeasement policy “has been a 15-year project.” Putin is no dummy, and he obviously recognized that “this is the time to strike.” The real problem is that Biden’s policies – foreign and domestic – are digging America into a hole that is getting deeper and deeper as time goes along.

Has World War III Started?

            Thursday at 5:00 a.m. local time, Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, announced that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine. The invasion followed the Monday announcement that Russia recognized “the independence of two regions where pro-Russian troops had held a presence for years.” 

            As his reason for invading Ukraine, Putin said that Russia was using military power to “demilitarize Ukraine because of the threat of it joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.” Then he put the blame for “the possible bloodletting” on “the conscience of the current Ukrainian regime.” He claims that he has “Truth and strength” on his side and that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine. However, these statements contradict earlier statements that “Ukraine was an invention of Russia.” He lamented that “the old Soviet republics should not have been allowed to leave Russia.”

            Loud explosions were heard near Kiev after Putin’s announcement. The parliament in Ukraine voted to ease gun restrictions, which allows the people of Ukraine to defend themselves and their country with guns. President Joe Biden has shown weakness since he became president. He done little and acted slowly to order economic and financial sanctions against Russia. Now he is consoling Ukraine.

“The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces,” wrote Biden.

“President Putin has chosen a premediated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way,” he continued.

“The world will hold Russia accountable,” Biden added.

            Russia, China, Iran, and other bullies in the world were held back from action by President Donald Trump. However, they recognized the weakness in Biden and started making moves. We must remember that Barack Obama was President of the United States when Russia took Crimea. America needs strong leaders for its own safety as well as the safety of the world.

What Should the U.S. Do About Ukraine?

             Russian forces have been moving to the Ukraine border for several months and advanced into Ukraine last weekend. Now, there are nearly 200,000 Russian military troops almost surrounding Ukraine. Americans are asking why Ukraine is important to us. Alexis Mrachek is a research associate on Russia and Eurasia at The Heritage Foundation and has some answers.

1. Increased Energy Prices

A further Russian invasion of Ukraine could continue to put pressure on energy markets globally and in the U.S.

Oil and natural gas prices are at multiyear highs for Americans, driving up costs for heat, power, and transportation….

… Russia is the No. 2 producer of natural gas and No. 3 producer of oil in the world.

2. Violent Spillover onto NATO Allies

Americans should care because if a major war breaks out in Ukraine, it could spill over to neighboring countries.

Wars by their nature are messy and rarely respect political borders. This could have an enormous economic impact on the U.S. …

3. Sovereignty, Secure Borders, and Self-Defense

Americans should care because of what is referred to as the three S’s: sovereignty, secure borders, and self-defense. These pertain to Ukraine just as much as to the United States.

In regard to Ukraine, the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country should be prioritized and protected. In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine. And since that year, Russia has illegally occupied Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which accounts for approximately 7% of Ukraine’s landmass and more than half of its coastline, and continues to stoke a were in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

And right now, Russia is threatening to violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity even more so. This is typical of Russia….

Self-defense also matters to Ukraine just as much as it matters to Americans….

Secure borders are also important Ukraine, as they are to the United States….

4. Putin’s Invasion Undermines Democracy

Finally, Americans should care about the situation in Ukraine because Putin has been doing everything he can to undermine our interests for the more than 20 years he has been in power over Russia. Ukraine has expressed a desire to emulate the U.S. and has put in place a working democracy….

What Happens in Ukraine Affects Us All

Don’t believe any false narratives saying the U.S. shouldn’t care about what is happening in Ukraine. The U.S. cannot ignore the situation. When you consider the factors outlined above, the situation hits close to home. What happens with Ukraine affects us all.

            Putin is wrong at every level to invade Ukraine. He is a bully who is threatening world peace. The only way to stop him is by force. President Donald Trump had him stopped, but President Joe Biden is too weak to do anything.