After Vladimir Putin sent the Russian army into Ukraine, there were a plethora of reports – some attributed to “US intelligence” – claiming that the Kremlin resident had “gone mad” or “sick”.
Rejecting such speculation, I wrote here that Putin hasn’t lost his marbles and is the same gangster he’s always been: “As for his illness: does he look frail, deaf or even confused? I do not think so.’
Unfortunately, these are legitimate questions to ask President Joe Biden, leader of the free world, during the most dangerous tensions between East and West since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago.
Unlike his murderous counterpart in Moscow, the White House resident truly describes the words “frail, treacherous and confused”.
Unlike his murderous counterpart in Moscow, the White House resident truly describes the words “frail, treacherous and confused”.
If that were tied only to the 79-year-old Biden’s physical frailty, it wouldn’t be a big deal: The president, who led the world’s greatest military power, Franklin Roosevelt, until nearly the end of World War II, was confined to a wheelchair.
The problem of declining mental acuity is far more serious.
Biden has, of course, been talked about before – particularly during his campaign for the presidency in 2020. But he was effectively protected by his team from too many direct encounters with the press or even the public – a strategy that seemed much less questionable, since the action took place during the Corona pandemic.
damage
But over the past few days and weeks, evidence has been mounting that Biden’s hold on politics, or even reality, is weakening. And when it comes to war and peace, the consequences can be deadly.
The latest example came on Saturday when the President delivered a speech in Warsaw on the war in Ukraine and the West’s response. The official text, as pre-delivered by the White House, was excellent. My compliments to the team that wrote it.
At the very end, however, the President made the mistake of voicing his thoughts, telling Putin, “For God’s sake, this man cannot stay in power.” In other words, he was calling for regime change in Russia.
When it comes to Russia and Ukraine, the West is better off with a treacherous Biden than with a composed Trump
It would be a win for the world if Putin left the stage. But the US government’s correct strategy was not to relay to its own citizens the Kremlin’s claims that the West wanted to decide Russia’s future and that the government in Ukraine was somehow an agent of that desire to see Russia as “a vassal of… ‘ treat the USA’.
The White House media team did their best to limit the damage, arguing that Biden’s remark “was not in the official text of the speech,” and insisting that “the President’s point was that Putin had no power over his neighbors.” may exercise. He did not speak about Putin’s power in Russia.
Really, who knows what he meant? But the Russian state media picked it up and played the film of Biden’s unwritten remark over and over again – as if to prove to the Russians that the real US game was to replace their own leader. Or as Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It is not up to the President of the United States, nor to Americans, to decide who remains in power in Russia.”
And much as we would like it to be, Putin remains popular with his own people, perhaps even more so as a result of the invasion of Ukraine — though it’s a catastrophic mistake as well as a bad one.
As US Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass pointed out, Biden’s open challenge to Putin’s rule will “intensify Putin’s inclination to see this as a fight to the end.”
This is just the latest in a series of such “misstatements”. Asked last week about the prospect of Russia using chemical weapons in Ukraine, Biden replied that it would “trigger a response in kind.”
What did that mean? Would the US attack Russia with such weapons? Would it supply them to the Ukrainians for use? In truth, no one knew exactly what the President meant, probably not himself.
Declined
The official line is that while the US and NATO are providing military assistance, they will not ground (or indeed blow up) a single one of their own soldiers in Ukraine, having accepted President Zelenskyy’s request for a NATO-enforced grounding have declined). zone in his country to negate the threat of the Russian Air Force).
But during his visit to American troops in Poland last week, while speaking about the war in Ukraine, Biden told them, “You’ll see when you get there… You’ll see women, young people, standing there in the middle, in front of a damn tank saying, ‘I’m not going.’ ‘
If that meant anything, it meant that the President thought these American troops would be in Ukraine soon.
Again, the White House rushed into damage control mode: “The President has made it clear that we are not sending US troops to Ukraine, and that position is not changing.” In fact, at the end of his recent State of the Union address, Biden made a similar impromptu suggestion about impending US troop involvement – which, oddly enough, was not picked up by the media. He concluded what was largely devoted to the crisis in Ukraine by invoking, “May God protect our troops. Go and get her!’
You won’t be surprised to learn that the last three words weren’t in the official text of the speech. Because in this context, “Go, get them!” could only imply that these troops were being pushed into battle. . . in Ukraine.
Fortunately, unlike Russia, the US is not under the rule of an undisputed dictator. Not only are there the checks and balances of the American Constitution, but Biden has a team around him that can limit any damage done by his mysterious extemporaneity.
It would be a win for the world if Putin left the stage. But the right strategy for the US government was not to pass on the Kremlin’s claims to its own citizens
But it is necessary, so uncomfortable or even distasteful, to wonder what is going on between the ears of the most powerful man in the world. Dr. Greg Ganske did last year. Admittedly, Ganske is a former Republican congressman and therefore a political opponent. But he previously had a career in medicine and was in the US Army.
Incoherent
Anyway, Ganske said that when he shared lunch with then-Senator Biden in 1997, he was “witty and charming, with no stutters or incomplete thoughts.” It pains me greatly to see President Biden going down and worries me.
After providing numerous examples of the president’s recent rambling and incoherent statements, including failing to remember the names of a number of key figures (such as his own Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, whom Biden despairs of as “the guy who made this outfit directs,” labeled over there’), Ganske quoted ‘a neurosurgeon friend,’ who observed that Biden had suffered two intracerebral hemorrhages and was undergoing surgery for brain aneurysms. The neurosurgeon had said, “It takes a toll and may show up later.”
Not surprisingly, given his affiliation, Ganske contrasted Biden’s declining mental powers with Donald Trump’s, saying, “Trump isn’t senile and his brain is relatively sharp, whether you like what he’s saying or not.”
But when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, the West is better off with a treacherous Biden than with a composing Trump. The former president has long harbored an unwavering, if not to say amoral, admiration for Putin’s gangsterism.
On the eve of the invasion of Ukraine, Trump praised Putin’s “genius” in his dealings with that country: He praised what he called Putin’s line: “We’re going to go in and help the peace.” You have to say, that’s pretty savvy.’
Whatever Biden’s apparent flaws, his administration has coordinated with NATO and the G7 (on the extraordinary sanctions against Russia) in a way Trump would never have done — and perhaps didn’t even want to do.
At least Biden’s heart is in the right place. His head, not so much.