Two Weak Presidents

JFK’s weakness at the Bay of Pigs led the USSR to take greater risks and Biden’s weakness has encouraged Putin’s Russia to do the same.

Weakness breeds aggression from foreign adversaries, defeat and war.

Last night in an address described as “emotional and aggrieved,” Putin stated that Ukraine had always been a part of Russia.

That is true, at least until Stalin made Ukraine an independent Soviet satellite, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine ratified its independence from Russia. Putin’s blindness to a changed post-Cold War world bodes trouble for Ukraine but also trouble for Putin.

The nations of the world are discovering their “nationhood” and Ukrainian nationalism is a reality that promises to distract Putin from retaking another former Soviet “satellite” nation and promises not to generate greater income for Russia from Ukrainian resources.

That is what is unfolding in Ukraine, but the greater picture includes China.

The outcome of the standoff between Russia and the West will decide whether Communist China moves to take Taiwan now possibly as early as October and before November when control of Congress is recovered by Republicans.

In any event, Biden’s reputation as the weakest President since JFK is sealed.