Thread by @KellerZoe

The impending war in Ukraine has exposed not just the impotence and shameful appeasement mindset of EU’s ruling elites in Brussels, Berlin and Paris. It has also sharply illustrated the tragic decline of American leadership on the world stage. telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/2…

It is no coincidence that Putin has mobilised more than 150,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders while Biden is in the White House. Clearly Putin views Biden as a pushover, a weak-kneed president that has no clear strategic vision for the US in the global arena

Much like Obama, Biden’s foreign policy has been reactive, based upon the naive ideal of multilateral diplomacy, rather than the projection of US might. Obama’s advisers spoke of “leading from behind”. Biden’s team (many served in the Obama administration) can barely lead at all.

Putin was already massing troops as early as March 2021. Instead of actively prevent a Russian invasion, Biden’s approach has been premised upon responding to one with economic sanctions that may never come to pass with a divided Europe heavily dependent upon Russia for energy.

In contrast to Trump, Biden has been both predictable and distinctly lacking in bite. Trump was prepared to use military force against Russian interests in Syria, and strategic leverage against Putin’s ambitions in Europe: he actively campaigned against Nord Stream 2.

Biden’s election ensured the massive pipeline project could be completed without the implementation of US sanctions. Biden’s refusal to take real action against Nord Stream 2 was a huge strategic win for the Kremlin, and a significant factor emboldening the Russians over Ukraine.

The disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan further convinced Putin that the US no longer had the stomach to fight against even far lesser adversaries, willing to allow the Taliban to return to power in a country that had been the launch pad for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The US weakness in Afghanistan and in Europe has been closely observed in China. No coincidence that the Chinese-Russian axis is now at its strongest point in decades. Putin and Xi are today collaborating on every major foreign policy issue, from Taiwan to Ukraine and Iran.

Biden’s foreign policy legacy may be uniting the US adversaries, whose aim is to replace the US-led international order.
He has short-sighted vision and extraordinarily bad judgment. Instead of heading to Europe this week to rally US’s allies, he is entrenched in Washington.

After just 13 months, the Biden era is already a monumental failure. His approach has been clueless and toothless, lacking in vision, and increasingly outflanked by hostile regimes. The direction the Biden presidency is taking us is a world without America at the helm.