"Biden has promised the Ukrainians that he will stand by them ‘for as long as it takes’—but he has nevertheless made sure that the war has gone on much longer than it had to," Phillips Payson O’Brien writes.
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I loatheTrump. But Trump is willing to talk to Putin and get a ceasefire agreement. Biden refused to speak to Putin for over 2 years because of Ukraine. This is childish and dangerous, being a leader of a nuclear power and not speaking to the leader of another nuclear power.
So you are willing to sacrifice New York or Chicago or Washington DC or San Francisco or Houston or any American city to defend Kiev? Are you a maniac?
What's the point of talking with Putin? Before February Biden, Macron, Scholz and others spent hours talking with him and you see the outcome. Putin doesn't want to talk, he wants Ukraine to capitulate. The only way to stop him is by the military force.
"[Biden] administration seemed cowed by Russian threats that Putin would use nuclear weapons if the U.S. assisted Kyiv too much. Moreover, an ingrained fixation on seeking stability in Russia seemed to make the White House nervous about doing anything that would threaten Putin’s rule too much."
Excellent article:
"...the Biden administration has treated the Ukraine conflict like a crisis to be managed, not a war to be won. The administration doesn’t seem to understand that Russia can be beaten."
We’ll just never really know, will we? Biden did as he was advised by his military experts, and based upon his own experiences over 50+ years of government service
The ‘Progressive Left’ lashing itself to the neoliberals and the military industrial complex was always going to create and incoherent mess. At least Nixon did not undo Great Society programs. Biden, old and weak when he entered office will leave his successor nothing to undo.
100% Biden screwed the Ukrainians with his shitty risk adverse policies. Infinity better than the Russian apologist GOP, but way too little too late at every step.
Pretty sad comment section. An oped like this needs the counter arguments that can make a podcast more enlightening. We don't have the classified information, how Ukraine prepped before the invasion, or what Ukraine's plans were. I don't like the overall argument being emotional instead of logical.
WTF is going on at The Atlantic? The post election analysis has been shit and now they are blaming Biden for prolonging the war, when the Republican Party has embraced Russia and acted like Ukraine was a petulant child looking for handouts.
I agree with a lot of this critique. Biden managed this war, always two steps behind and never allowing Biden to strike back on Russian soil giving Russia a sanctuary to strike from and regroup. Allowing Ukraine to be pummeled is not a winning strategy.
Only after it became apparent Ukraine was willing to fight did Biden step in. It was his own military advisors who testified it was hopeless. Keep in mind the Brits stepped in aggressively. To that end Biden did not have a policy to win but defaulted to a managed crisis of attrition
The entire world including Russia were surprised at the ineptitude of the Russian military. You’re right - we gave them too much credit … Now The Felon will hand Ukraine to Putin in exchange for Greenland
Biden was balancing an incredibly fine line where overstepping could trigger Article 5 or worse. And the reality is none of the people who agree with O'Brien, would be defending Biden from getting dragged out the WH if he was forced to send US troops to Poland or Ukraine.
This would have been better:
"The Biden administration has treated the Ukraine conflict like a crisis to be managed, not a war to be won. The administration doesn’t seem to understand that Russia can be beaten."
I don't think this is really a fair critique, considering he had such pushback amongst the GOP for even doing what he did to fund the Ukrainian defense, not to mention the whole situation has got to be super carefully managed so that it doesn't look like we are escalating it?
What a stupid take. The Republican lead Congress was listening to their shadow furor and withheld funding for months when it was needed most. Also, Biden was trying to make sure that a nuclear warhead was not used on the earth surface for the purpose of war. Are you fucking retarded?
Often your stuff is quite good. The joke about an engineer, an accountant, and an economist stranded on a desert island fits here. The engineer drafts plans for a raft, while the accountant counts the items available to build a raft, and the economist says, "...assume...we have a raft."
This has gone on for so long because of Putin. Had Biden sent in troops to fight, you'd whine about that too. Admit you're #TeamTraitor and be done. It's obvious to the rest of us that nothing Biden does is good enough for you.
This is a situation the U.S. never should have gotten involved in. I’m not a big supporter of Russia, but it isn’t Washington’s problem and our involvement is fraught with catastrophic consequences. If Biden wasn’t so obsessed with Ukraine joining NATO, this conflict would not have ever broken out.
Republicans who split America into factions of those who support invasions for genocidal purposes against those who might want to help the attacked people have done almost as much harm as Russia itself. /1
Russia has no reason to end its assault on Ukraine as long as Vladimir Putin knows he can wait it out until a government friendly to the attack gets back into power. /2
When Biden was vice president and Obama was having a problem with him Biden told him you need to do more than sanction him. He knew how dangerous Russia was. If we didn’t step in, there’ll be a full scale of war right now and Russia may have taken over Ukraine
It think that this is written to look like a well thought out piece but in actuality it just offers an analysis that is way too simplistic… For starters, it completely ignores the role of congress/funding and the fact that many Americans did not even support US involvement.
Those aspects were omitted, true, but the Biden policy was the focus here. The aspect that troubles me is the assumption that, since history shows Putin didn't use nukes, that somehow means he wouldn't have used them if Biden had been much more aggressive. No analysis on that assumption at all.
Bruv. 50+ years ago we put a man on the moon with punch cards, chalkboards, and fire. If you look at the declassified tech from Vietnam, it's straight out of Halo Infinite. What do you think they're cooking since the advent of supercomputers? UFO phenomena are probably secret but not preternatural.
The Atlantic does nothing but undermine our democracy now. Shit takes to get views. You’re editors suck & we are sick your foreign influences. You let journos write with out disclosing their conflicts of interest, foreign nationals get to blather on to their hearts content and then you hired Conway
“As Brian Katulis of the Middle East Institute observed, "The U.S. looks like a deer in the headlights right now... It's not driving events; it's reacting to them." Biden’s foreign policy mirrors Obama’s failed "lead from behind" strategy—reactive, hesitant, and dangerously passive.”
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Blocked
Blink twice if Goldberg is in the room with you now and you cannot speak freely.
What else is there to say?
They can keep ruining their military for pennies on the dollar.
They've been asking for airpower since day one, exactly because putin is the aggressor.
https://apnews.com/article/congress-ukraine-aid-border-security-386dcc54b29a5491f8bd87b727a284f8
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/06/us/politics/senate-ukraine-aid-bill.html
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-republicans-block-ukraine-and-israel-aid-as-they-demand-border-policy-changes
"...the Biden administration has treated the Ukraine conflict like a crisis to be managed, not a war to be won. The administration doesn’t seem to understand that Russia can be beaten."
Weak men led us to bad times -- bad times with Trump.
"The Biden administration has treated the Ukraine conflict like a crisis to be managed, not a war to be won. The administration doesn’t seem to understand that Russia can be beaten."
"[Biden and Jake Sullivan] treated the conflict as a crisis to be managed, not a war to be won."
And you pretend you're a journalist
This has gone on for so long because of Putin. Had Biden sent in troops to fight, you'd whine about that too. Admit you're #TeamTraitor and be done. It's obvious to the rest of us that nothing Biden does is good enough for you.
Unfollowing!
That is news and it is not correct!
You know who is to blame for how long it’s gone on? Russia…then the Republicans who thwart said at every step and repeat Russian propaganda.
Two things can be true at the same time.
Otherwise, how did the Hindus describe the weapons 10,000 years ago?
https://www.gaia.com/article/do-hindu-texts-describing-the-flying-vimanas-also-detail-a-nuclear-war
.....
Does O'Brien know that this isn't America's war?