So...I've been seeing a lot of criticism of Biden on the Ukraine situation, and quite frankly, i don't get it. Honestly, I think he's doing the best job we can do, and that his policy perfectly reflects what my own would be on this situation.
As I laid out around the time the conflict began, a response to Russia's invasion would have to send a message of disapproval of the situation, in an attempt to deter future actions on the part of Russia, but also not escalate us into all out war with Russia. Biden has threaded that needle well. The sanctions are decimating Russia's economy, and we are not in a war.
I know some want to support a no fly zone, or somehow get us more involved, but here's the thing. A no fly zone is basically NATO or the US going into Ukraine, and threatening to shoot down anything they don't approve of in the area. That would involve us attacking Russian air forces directly, and lead to all out war. And I know some republicans like to puff out their chest, attack Biden as weak, and go on about how if Trump were in power none of this would've happened, but yeah, okay. At that point you're not even in reality. Trump was praising Putin early on and honestly, Trump is a pushover on Russia. There's a reason the Russians were so interested in electing Trump. He would be a weak leader in combatting Russian aggression. Because 1) Trump is a moron, and 2) Trump is sympathetic toward strong man dictators like Putin. So expecting Trump to do better is laughable. Republicans love to claim this since historically dems were seen as weak on Russia while republicans strong, but let's be honest, Biden is being more aggressive against Putin than Reagan against Gorbachev. I don't remember Reagan sanctioning Russia's economy back to the stone age. Either way, the strategies are similar.
When we deal with Russia invading countries, our normal approach toward it is to not get officially involved directly. We instead help the opposing side that Russia is fighting. In the 1980s this involved us funding and arming the Mujahideen (which later became the Taliban). Now, it involves funding the Ukrainian military, which is far more sympathetic to us than the Mujahideen were (and therefore less likely to use those weapons against us in the future). So, we provide military aid. We help other countries like Poland provide aid we can't (for example, give Poland F16s, while Poland gives Ukraine its MIG29s that Ukrainian pilots know how to fly).
Like, really, we're pressuring Putin as much as is reasonable here. The sanctions are wreaking havoc on Russia economically, and we're helping arm Ukrainians with weapons that they can use against Russia's army. That's how we contain Russia. That's always how we contained Russia. We have a 75 year history of dealing with Russia being an aggressive power, and we know how to handle them. So let Biden play the playbook. Clearly we can't back down, because let's face it, this is Hitler level crap he's pulling and appeasement is a bad strategy. But at the same time, we're taking the strongest possible action against him without escalating this to a hot war. That's why I support what Biden is doing. He's running the American playbook vs Russia, he's running it well, and we need no change in direction here.
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