Evidently, President Joe Biden and his national security team do not fully subscribe to a widely accepted national security premise presented by Richard Hass in his 1997 book The Reluctant Sheriff.
Hass argued that “Americans need to resist the lure of isolationism and maintain spending on defense, intelligence, foreign aid, and diplomacy at current levels.” He warned “anything less risked squandering the spoils of winning the Cold War – and setting the stage for a new era of dangerous global competition.”
Biden is undermining Hass’ maxim by choosing the path of least resistance to avoid direct confrontation with Russia.
The President, to his credit, has organized the NATO “posse” to come to Ukraine’s aid in Hass-like fashion. However, the Biden administration continues to refuse to fully empower Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his generals to put an end to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s gang rampage of the Donbas and the Crimean Peninsula.
Evidently, from his White House Ivory Tower, Biden cannot grasp the suffering of the Ukrainian people as civilian population centers are terrorized throughout the country by Russian missiles and drone strikes. Nor, just how precarious it is becoming on the frontlines in Avdiivka and Bakhmut as the artillery munition shortage deepens, giving Moscow a 5:1 advantage.
According to Gen. Chris Cavoli, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander and the head of US European Command, that advantage is expected to grow to 10:1 in the coming weeks.
Artillery is no longer the only munition in short supply though, air defense systems are coming up short and Russian missiles and drones are getting through at an alarming and deadly rate.
In failing to put an end to Putin, a callous modern-day Billy the Kid, Biden is proving Hass correct on a broader global scale. Putin’s co-gangs are aligning and wreaking havoc unafraid of a reluctant sheriff in the form of Biden.
High noon is here.
Not only has an emboldened Russia invaded Ukraine. Hamas brutally attacked Israel, killing over 1,200 civilians. And China is poised to invade Taiwan and North Korea threatens South Korea and Japan.
All are aggressively taking advantage of the permissive environment Biden first began creating by prematurely and haphazardly withdrawing from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021. Essentially, in Hass parlance, the sheriff got out of Dodge recklessly leaving it and the world stage to the outlaws in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang.
Biden is compounding this by withholding critical weapon systems and munitions needed in Ukraine. He is slow-rolling their deployment to the battlefields and is setting conditions on their use. The US even secretly modified their HIMARS so Ukraine could not use them to fire long-range missiles into Russia.
Now, in playing November politics with an eye on Michigan, Biden is irresponsibly attacking members of his own posse. He has publicly undermined President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to target Russian oil refineries – legitimate military targets. And he has harshly criticized how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is conducting combat operations against Hamas.
Biden, instead of “assuming the role of global sheriff, forging coalitions or posses of states and others for specific tasks,” as Hass puts it, has abandoned his role as sheriff and taken a spot on the bench all the while criticizing and second-guessing allies who are under fire.
The President has even had the audacity to complain as European nations step up to assume the leadership mantle he vacated. Biden’s posses have taken notice, as evidenced by NATO members seeking a new European sheriff suggesting the US step aside from leading the Ramstein Group.
Biden appears more intent on casting blame than taking on the task of Commander in Chief.
Evidently, securing votes in November has become his priority calculus – not decisively winning wars. Defeating Putin or deterring Chinese President Xi Jinping, both trying to impose their authoritarian vision of a multipolar world, is secondary. Biden’s blind spot from his Oval Office perch is obscuring his understanding of just how dangerously the world is devolving into war.
Washington, and Biden as its reluctant sheriff, need to wake up. Our nation’s enemies are at the gates of the city, and our country’s national security is badly exposed and vulnerable – as are that of our allies, especially Ukraine.
As the saying goes, “if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” Washington has not been part of the solution since November 2023 and does not appear to be heading down that path. Ukraine is running out of time – Russian mass beats empty artillery tubes every time.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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Comments (3)
Fortunately for Biden, his opponent in the coming Presidential election is Trump. No matter how weak Biden is painted in this opinion piece, a second Trump presidency would be an unmitigated disaster.
US lawmakers are failing to understand the gravity of this moment. Dark clouds are gathering, are clotting together and becoming one massive depression.
In the late 1930’s, Hitler and Stalin came to an understanding to cooperate and to use their combined might to expand both of their territories.
Today such an understanding exists between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
Each of these nations has their own specific wishlist and none of them criticize the territorial claims of the others. All are trying to operate with one accord, because all know they can profit from the conflicts that the others are stoking.
Meanwhile, they are counting on the US to favor one conflict and neglect the others. Maybe not entirely, but enough to take advantage of. This way, one or two of them will get what they want and grow stronger because of it.
These are dangerous times. Both Europe and the US will have to rise to the occasion and make clear that we are not intimidated by this dark brotherhood, that our attention is limitless and that we will handle all crises simultaneously. With determination. With conviction. We must, and we will.
It is enraging that this enormous pile of stinking B.S. written by Colonel Sweet and Mark Toth was allowed to be dumped on the digital pages of the Kyiv Post.
Placing the blame of Ukraine's struggles and the withdrawal from Afghanistan of NATO forces directly on President Biden is just straight-out lying about a man who is universally recognized (outside of authoritarian dictatorships and the brain-washed MAGA masses) as a decent and moral leader.
To accomplish what they want to happen, these two 'opinion writers' would need Biden to take his Oath of Office and set a blow-torch to it, send forces into the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court to round up lawmakers and Justices to be 'disappeared' into prisons to get the unfettered support they want for Ukraine. In other words, Sweet and Toth want Biden to become what many Americans hate and most Americans refuse to vote for - an authoritarian dictator like the previous President who will go down in history as America's most dangerous traitor.
I have serious doubts about the patriotism and loyalty of these two authors. Their time would be better spent with convincing the people they most likely worked with and lived with all their lives - the right-wing Americans who are at this moment starving Ukraine from the funding Biden has been fighting for over the past three years.
@Coach John,
@Coach John,J on and I did not place the entire blame of the Afghan withdrawal on Biden.Rather, we specifically criticized him for the haphazard nature of it. As an aside, Biden, as president, should have reversed Trump's foolish decision to abandon Afghanistan or at least delay it. He didn't and the withdrawal as a result was chaotic and proved to be the beginning of a permissive environment that Putin, Xi and other rogue actors including Kim Jong-un & Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have exploited ever since.Nowhere in our article did we suggest or even hint Biden should do something illegal let alone coerce Congress into acting along the lines you suggest.
Biden has the constitutional authority to sidestep Congress and declare all of the badly need munitions and weapons systems Ukraine needs surplus. Were he to do so, he could then outright give them to Ukraine or sell them to Kyiv for as little as $1.But he hasn't.It is also important to note that it legally falls to Biden and Biden alone as to what capabilities to give to Ukraine. He is the one who has slow walked desperately needed offensive weapons systems and munitions since day one of this now 778 day war - including Patriots, ATACMS, Abrams tanks, F-16 fighter-bombers and deep strike precision weapons that could, for instance, take out the Kerch Bridge, a critical supply artery connecting the Russian mainland to the Crimean Peninsula.
1/2
@Coach John, Nowhere do argue let alone hint Trump would be doing anv of this better. Quite the opposite we criticized Trump & Speaker Johnson for obstructing Ukraine funding in our weekly national security column in The Hill in Washington DC.
But the truth remains, the House could fully fund Ukraine tomorrow and Kyiv still would be lacking the crucial weapons capabilities needed to survive and ultimately defeat and expel Russia from all of its sovereign territory.
If you truly want to see Ukraine win, then respectfully stop viewing the war through partisan political lenses. Nowhere do we criticize Biden for being a Democrat. Nor do we praise Republicans for being Republicans. We do criticize Biden for blatantly putting political calculus ahead of Ukraine's war needs (e.g., Austin telling to not bomb Russia’s oil refineries because it could drive up the price of global oil; one, they are legitimate military targets as they contribute directly to Russia’s war effort against Ukraine and, two, it’s highly hypocritical given the U.S. during World War II gave priority one status to hitting Nazi Germany’s oil refineries in Romania & elsewhere).
@Mark Toth, While I concede your correct conclusion that President Biden should declare the needed weaponry as ‘surplus’ and provide it forthwith, there are a few points made in your response I strongly refute.
*’As an aside, Biden, as president, should have reversed Trump’s foolish decision to abandon Afghanistan or at least delay it.’ Unlike Trump’s actions of ripping the Obama era JCPOA that rusted in Iran’s current acceleration of its nuclear enrichment program, Biden actually honors treaties struck by previous presidents; namely the Doha Agreement, which was forged under Trump and made Biden legally obligated to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. The chaos we saw in Kabul resulted from the Afghan government and its military abandoning the capital. The evacuation of 125,000 from Kabul without dropping in the 101st Airborne into an urban battlefield was a monumental accomplishment, despite the naysayers who pointed at their TVs and criticized Biden.
@Mark Toth, *This is Lloyd Austin’s quote: “Those attacks could have a knock-on effect in terms of the global energy situation.” This statement, in no way, is a directed condemnation of Ukraine’s strategy of targeting oil facilities. It is merely a notice of how these attacks will affect global oil markets. Since the attacks continue, Austin’s statement has had zero effect on current UAF strategy.
*Your quote: ‘If you truly want to see Ukraine win, then respectfully stop viewing the war through partisan political lenses. Nowhere do we criticize Biden for being a Democrat.’
Where you see ‘partisan politics’, I see ‘realpolitik.’ America faces a binary choice this year, Biden who has repeatedly taken the case to the American people pushing for Ukraine aid from Congress, and the Trump camp’s clear concession to surrender Crimea and the Donbas to Russia. Stop viewing the war through partisan lenses? Have you been to America lately? Partisanship cannot be avoided – and I will take Biden, thank you very much!
*Explain all you want, but this story of yours will backfire – because it feeds the narrative in the eyes of many Americans that Ukraine may be a lost cause, when it clearly is not.
@Coach John, Well stated as always. Your points are correct. Biden is absolutely better for Ukraine than putinrumps (whose RNC head Whatley just declared Ukraine an enemy, but not russia).
The authors seem to concede that point. If the authors notice that presistant MRGA troll 'jack' (always under new guise) always only spews the propaganda of putin, they may question why an obvious russian troll is on their side in this debate. He criticizes all other Kyipost authors, but not thes two today. They have feed troll jack the wedge issue he desires.
We share many folks frustrations that the Biden administration seems unable to sidestep putin's putinrump, who despite his civilian status (and legal culpability) still control many in the GOP. I suspect the authers are simply attempting to embararras the Biden admin into doing something...anything ....to finally sidestep the MRGA minions stalling in the house. We can live with Biden being embarassed if it means his admin somehow gets the aid package they are requesting into the hands of Ukraine faster.
I think the authors also share this desire, but perhaps may not have anticipated the propaganda fodder this article potentially gives the MRGA group. The MRGA continue to promote putinrump for president....its the major theme of a russia's trolls on these forums..
At any rate, thank you for your continued reasoned and well researched responses ALWAYS in support of Ukraine.