OPINION:
For decades, a president’s approval rating picks up any time the country faces a major strategic challenge as the US does with Russia and a threat of nuclear escalation. From Truman in Korea to George W. Bush in Afghanistan, Americans rallied to their leader.
President Joe Biden has achieved the opposite through his early acceptance of a minor Russian incursion into Ukraine, offering its President Zelenskyy a plane ride out, and delaying aggressively arming Ukraine. Instead, Mr. Biden tried – and failed — to prevent the conflict in Ukraine with diplomacy.
Americans see Mr. Biden’s early failures in Ukraine as a continuation of his blundering withdrawal from Afghanistan, which caused a ten-point popularity loss and confirmed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that America now has a weak president.
The obvious failure of Mr. Biden’s policy in the handling of Ukraine is admitted by former acting-CIA director Michael Morell. When Mr. Biden took on Mr. Putin and called for his removal, Michael Morell stated that this can only consolidate the beleaguered Russian elite.
Referring to Mr. Biden, Mr. Morell specifically stated: “His comment that Putin has to go was an unforced error. It strengthens Putin at home. It makes it very difficult for any domestic opposition to coalesce together. And no Russian citizen wants to be told by the main Russian enemy what their leadership can look like and not… I think framing this as democracy versus autocracy drives the Chinese closer to the Russians and makes it difficult for some of our allies who are autocrats to stand with us”.
The last US ambassador to the USSR, Jack Matlock, emphasized the importance of a professional approach such as Ronald Reagan exercised toward Gorbachev. Mr. Reagan constantly said, “Attack the message, not the messenger.”
Proving he is no Mr. Reagan, Mr. Biden has publicly called Mr. Putin a butcher and a war criminal. The White House is burning all bridges for dialogue with the Kremlin instead of maintaining a channel of communication as the USSR did during the Cuban missile crisis through Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.
Paradoxically, the more aggressively Mr. Biden speaks out against the Kremlin — the lower his rating. Mr. Biden obviously believes his new-found tough stance is supposed to restore his lost popularity and prevent the coming Democrats’ midterm election loss of the U.S. Congress. It isn’t happening. It must be remembered that President Joe was part of the Obama/Clinton/Biden triad which attempted to “reset relations with Russia.” Mr. Obama’s goal to appease Mr. Putin was evidenced by his 2012 open-microphone conversation with Russian President Medvedev.
Ukraine and Afghanistan are not the only reasons Mr. Biden’s rating is at the all-time low of 42%. People fail to be impressed with his foreign policy expertise. The record 8.5% inflation in the US, and a sharp rise in energy prices that forebodes a recession also smash his popularity. The U.S. is importing eight percent of its oil from Russia. Europe is importing over a quarter of its supply and more than 40% of its natural gas. This is a strategic dependence that could be resolved if Biden would support American and Canadian petroleum energy production. This is a strategic dependence that could be resolved if Biden would support American and Canadian petroleum energy production.
Russia is also a significant exporter of rare-earth metals, chemicals, and fertilizers. Moreover, Russia and Ukraine are leading food and grains suppliers, and the war might lead to food shortages in developing countries triggering unrest, including among US allies. Global food shortages have an adverse influence on US food prices.
Then comes the scandal surrounding Hunter Biden’s financial shenanigans, computer revelations, and tax non-payment which is likely to further undermine his father’s credibility. As The New York Times had to admit: “People familiar with the investigation said prosecutors had examined emails between Mr. Biden, Mr. Archer, and others about Burisma and other foreign business activity. Those emails were obtained by The New York Times from a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. Biden in a Delaware repair shop. The email and others in the cache were authenticated by people familiar with them and with the investigation”.
The New York Times writes, Hunter Biden referred to the then-Vice President in the email as “my guy — and said that his services should ‘be characterized as part of our advice and thinking — but what he will say and do is out of our hands.” Vice President Biden traveled to Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, about a week after the email.
Calls are mounting to find out the truth about the Bidens’ dealings in Ukraine. The conservative Fox News commentator Mark Levin accused the mainstream media of having silenced the scandal for over a year. He has called for a special counsel to investigate Mr. Biden’s family. This same investigation should also examine Hunter Biden’s suspicious Chinese business links.
America cannot afford White House corruption amidst the worst international security crisis since World War 2. Members of Congress, the public, and the media are increasingly demanding a thorough investigation. America cannot leаd the West and stand up to the Kremlin if the President’s son might be compromised by links with the government-connected oligarchs in Ukraine and China.
- Colonel (Retired) Wes Martin has worked with the armies of the Soviet Union and Ukraine. Throughout forty years of law enforcement, he conducted investigations on three continents.
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