(This is first of a two-part series. The first deals with the attack on American/NATO security and the second will deal with what, if anything, America/NATO can do about it.)
The Madman of Moscow has invaded Ukraine, but he has also attacked the United States – and the western alliance. In the first wave, Vladimir Putin has attacked the stock market and put the Biden inflation on steroids. If those are not hostile acts, I do not know what would be. But there is more.
While President Biden is basing American policy on wishful thinking rather than sound judgment, Putin has forced the United States and NATO to bolster the eastern border of the Alliance with thousands more troops at great expense – putting military personnel on the front line of defense instead of being home with their families. If the invasion of Ukraine was not perceived as an attack on the Alliance, why all the defensive military preparation?
Putin is also attacking America’s national security in a number of ways beyond the stock market and inflation. Thanks to Biden’s incredibly stupid anti-fossil fuel policies, America is no longer energy independent – as we were before Biden took office.
Biden has moved America from oil independence to a reliance on foreign fuel. America currently gets seven percent of its fuel from … Russia. Putin has us helping pay for the invasion of Ukraine and the attacks on American security. How sweet is that?
President Trump opposed the second Nord Stream pipeline to Germany because he thought Germany relying on Russian oil was a bad policy. Biden reversed the policy and gave the green light to the expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline.
Should Russia take over Ukraine, it will shift enormous natural resources from the western nations to Russia. Ukraine is rich in a broad range of natural resources – including rare minerals essential to technological growth.
As an ally, Ukraine holds a strategic position and was host to the American military – which Biden withdrew under the threat of invasion by Putin. This could have, should have and would likely have been expanded to a more permanent military presence – such as airbases and intelligence facilities. Ukraine already provided an intelligence platform closer to Russia. As in Afghanistan, the United States will lose those intel resources should Putin succeed.
The option for Ukraine to join NATO – as it should have — has been another defeat at the hands of Putin.
By exposing America’s weaknesses, Putin also shifts the power balance in the world. He has openly said that his long-range strategy to realign the power from the American/NATO bloc to the old Communist bloc – an existential threat to American security interests. Add this to America’s impotent responses to election meddling and periodic cyber-attacks, Putin signals to other adversaries – most notably China, North Korea and Iran – that Uncle Sam is an aging old man with diminishing capacity.
Putin is shattering the NATO alliance – a key component to American leadership and security in the world. Oh … I have heard all the kiss-butt commentators talk about how Biden has shored up NATO.
Then how do you explain Germany’s tepid response – no military aide to Ukraine and a temporary pause in the construction of the new Nord Stream pipeline. Italy opposes using oil as a sanction – because they get so much from Russia. The President of Hungary is almost an ally of Putin. France is not looking like it is firmly committed to the harshest sanctions. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine NATO will be weaker and more divided … period.
Those who think the United States has no security interests in what is happening in Ukraine are – to put it simply — damned fools. And those – on the right and left – who think we should just let Ukraine go or align with Putin because of his raw power are the political clones of those in America who pandered to Adolph Hitler before World War II.
Putin has made no secret of his desire to bring down the United States. What we have seen has been the opening battles of a strategic attack – one that America is losing for lack of effective and appropriate response. If we do not understand what is happening, that bright light on America’s horizon is a setting sun.
So, there ‘tis.