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If you read the WSJ article Biden hasn't been running things since at least 2021. The fault for the Ukraine war is almost entirely Jake Sullivans. The American

If you read the WSJ article Biden hasn't been running things since at least 2021. The fault for the Ukraine war is almost entirely Jake Sullivans. The American foreign policy establishment abandoned trumps deterrence policy which stopped putin invading in 2018.

mft_ 2y ago
Could you share a link to the article, please?
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-white-house-age-function-diminished-3906a839 https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-white-house-age-function-...
Larrikin 2y ago
Russia didn't invade until Trump left office because Trump was doing his best to weaken or destroy NATO.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  Putin didn't invade in 2018 because trump threatened to nuke Moscow if he did. https://kyivindependent.com/trump-suggested-he-would-have-bombed-moscow-for-invading-ukraine-wp-reports/ https://kyivindependent.com/trump-suggested-he-would-have-bo... He also talked about this conversation with Putin in the Joe Rogan interview. If Trump had weakened NATO it would have made an invasion more likely, not less.
  - cyberax 2y ago
    Putin didn't invade in 2018-19 because he was still preparing. There are indications that the invasion was planned for 2020, but obviously COVID happened. Trumpy tantrums did nothing.
    - throwaway48476 2y ago
      It took a month to prepare. The original plan was to invade in 2018 but Trump said no. Then covid happened and it got delayed again. Then the Chinese asked that Putin wait until the Beijing Olympics were over. This is how it became February 2022. Further the Biden Afghan withdrawal convinced Putin that Biden wouldn't react.
      - cyberax 2y ago
        Bullshit. 2018 was the year when the FIFA World Cup was held in Russia. Putin obviously didn't want to sabotage them. Trumpy tantrums did nothing, I repeat. Neither is he going to do anything useful once he gets back into the office. Putin will play him off like a sucker he is.
        an_guy 2y ago
        Why would Russia care about some football tournament if they really wanted to invade? It's makes even less sense than parent comment
        throwaway48476 2y ago
        Despots care a lot about PR. Otherwise they wouldn't spend so much on international sports.
        cyberax 2y ago
        "Russia" did not really want to invade. _Putin_ wanted to invade. You need to separate these two entities. In 2018, Putin was still riding the high of the successful Crimean annexation. His plan had clearly been to repeat that exercise to boost his ratings by the next election (in 2024). 2018 was too early for that. We now can see that the preparation for the war started in 2020-2021. For example, Putin made sure that Russia had a big enough monetary Reserve Fund. And unlike many other countries, Russia did not do state-sponsored economic stimulation during the lockdowns.
    - red-iron-pine 2y ago
threeseed 2y ago
I actually think the current approach was a deliberate strategy. Rather than help Ukraine quickly win the war they prefer to slow bleed Russia to help their aims in Syria, Iran, Taiwan etc.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  Blunt russian power yes. It doesn't work though, such weakness has only emboldened the Chinese who have started building landing barges to invade taiwan. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/china-suddenly-building-fleet-of-special-barges-suitable-for-taiwan-landings/ https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/china-suddenly-...
  - red-iron-pine 2y ago
    bro those barges were getting build regardless. already on their road map, they just decided to do em all at once.
- throwaway12810 2y ago
  And economically strangle the EU, which is now additionally danger of being crushed between whatever is bargained between Trump and Putin. At this stage it is impossible to say whether Syria and possibly Greenland are part of a bargain to end the Ukraine war (You get the four provinces, we get Syria and take Greenland from the EU, probably by political influence via NGOs and a sort of color revolution that leads to the "independence" of Greenland).
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    Color revolutions only exist in the paranoid mind of dictators.
    - dictionary_guy 2y ago
      Interestingly, Wikipedia is run by dictators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution But thanks for updating us on the latest forbidden term. I wonder how many words we will have left next year.
nozzlegear 2y ago
This directly conflicts with numerous firsthand accounts of the Biden administration, as reported by journalist Bob Woodward in his most recent book War. In his reporting, Biden is hands on and directly involved with foreign policy. In one account, Jake Sullivan's own wife listened in on a daily briefing call with the President and came away from it saying she wished the world could "see this version of the president," because he was so sharp and focused. Regarding Ukraine, Biden was the one who made the decision not to get the US directly involved in the war. Sullivan even had to play devil's advocate in Biden's decision, because he and the CIA chief thought it was a horrible idea to announce to the world that we were committing to zero troops on the ground. One of Biden's biggest beliefs is that "great powers don't bluff," though, so it was important for Biden to clearly communicate the limits of US engagement in the conflict. He wanted the Ukrainians to know (according to the reporting in the book) that the US would supply and support them, but the cavalry would not be charging over the hill to save the day. If some horrible event happened in Ukraine, he knew that his generals, the media, and the public would look to him and say "well, don't you think now is the time we should get American boots on the ground? Why aren't you acting?"
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  Delusional. The Biden administration slow rolled delivering tanks/jets/ATACMS for years. For ATACMS in Russia they delayed over two years. The options were never just doing nothing or put boots on the ground.
  - Larrikin 2y ago
    Why are the only accounts that support this Trump strong Biden weak narrative are multiple throwaways with no sources.
    - throwaway48476 2y ago
      I have linked sources in this thread.
      - 2y ago

mft_ 2y ago

Could you share a link to the article, please?

throwaway48476 2y ago
https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-white-house-age-function-diminished-3906a839 https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-white-house-age-function-...

Larrikin 2y ago

Russia didn't invade until Trump left office because Trump was doing his best to weaken or destroy NATO.

throwaway48476 2y ago
Putin didn't invade in 2018 because trump threatened to nuke Moscow if he did. https://kyivindependent.com/trump-suggested-he-would-have-bombed-moscow-for-invading-ukraine-wp-reports/ https://kyivindependent.com/trump-suggested-he-would-have-bo... He also talked about this conversation with Putin in the Joe Rogan interview. If Trump had weakened NATO it would have made an invasion more likely, not less.
- cyberax 2y ago
  Putin didn't invade in 2018-19 because he was still preparing. There are indications that the invasion was planned for 2020, but obviously COVID happened. Trumpy tantrums did nothing.
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    It took a month to prepare. The original plan was to invade in 2018 but Trump said no. Then covid happened and it got delayed again. Then the Chinese asked that Putin wait until the Beijing Olympics were over. This is how it became February 2022. Further the Biden Afghan withdrawal convinced Putin that Biden wouldn't react.
    - cyberax 2y ago
      Bullshit. 2018 was the year when the FIFA World Cup was held in Russia. Putin obviously didn't want to sabotage them. Trumpy tantrums did nothing, I repeat. Neither is he going to do anything useful once he gets back into the office. Putin will play him off like a sucker he is.
      - an_guy 2y ago
        Why would Russia care about some football tournament if they really wanted to invade? It's makes even less sense than parent comment
        throwaway48476 2y ago
        Despots care a lot about PR. Otherwise they wouldn't spend so much on international sports.
        cyberax 2y ago
        "Russia" did not really want to invade. _Putin_ wanted to invade. You need to separate these two entities. In 2018, Putin was still riding the high of the successful Crimean annexation. His plan had clearly been to repeat that exercise to boost his ratings by the next election (in 2024). 2018 was too early for that. We now can see that the preparation for the war started in 2020-2021. For example, Putin made sure that Russia had a big enough monetary Reserve Fund. And unlike many other countries, Russia did not do state-sponsored economic stimulation during the lockdowns.
  - red-iron-pine 2y ago

threeseed 2y ago

I actually think the current approach was a deliberate strategy. Rather than help Ukraine quickly win the war they prefer to slow bleed Russia to help their aims in Syria, Iran, Taiwan etc.

throwaway48476 2y ago
Blunt russian power yes. It doesn't work though, such weakness has only emboldened the Chinese who have started building landing barges to invade taiwan. https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/china-suddenly-building-fleet-of-special-barges-suitable-for-taiwan-landings/ https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/01/china-suddenly-...
- red-iron-pine 2y ago
  bro those barges were getting build regardless. already on their road map, they just decided to do em all at once.
throwaway12810 2y ago
And economically strangle the EU, which is now additionally danger of being crushed between whatever is bargained between Trump and Putin. At this stage it is impossible to say whether Syria and possibly Greenland are part of a bargain to end the Ukraine war (You get the four provinces, we get Syria and take Greenland from the EU, probably by political influence via NGOs and a sort of color revolution that leads to the "independence" of Greenland).
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  Color revolutions only exist in the paranoid mind of dictators.
  - dictionary_guy 2y ago
    Interestingly, Wikipedia is run by dictators: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution But thanks for updating us on the latest forbidden term. I wonder how many words we will have left next year.

nozzlegear 2y ago

This directly conflicts with numerous firsthand accounts of the Biden administration, as reported by journalist Bob Woodward in his most recent book War. In his reporting, Biden is hands on and directly involved with foreign policy. In one account, Jake Sullivan's own wife listened in on a daily briefing call with the President and came away from it saying she wished the world could "see this version of the president," because he was so sharp and focused. Regarding Ukraine, Biden was the one who made the decision not to get the US directly involved in the war. Sullivan even had to play devil's advocate in Biden's decision, because he and the CIA chief thought it was a horrible idea to announce to the world that we were committing to zero troops on the ground. One of Biden's biggest beliefs is that "great powers don't bluff," though, so it was important for Biden to clearly communicate the limits of US engagement in the conflict. He wanted the Ukrainians to know (according to the reporting in the book) that the US would supply and support them, but the cavalry would not be charging over the hill to save the day. If some horrible event happened in Ukraine, he knew that his generals, the media, and the public would look to him and say "well, don't you think now is the time we should get American boots on the ground? Why aren't you acting?"

throwaway48476 2y ago
Delusional. The Biden administration slow rolled delivering tanks/jets/ATACMS for years. For ATACMS in Russia they delayed over two years. The options were never just doing nothing or put boots on the ground.
- Larrikin 2y ago
  Why are the only accounts that support this Trump strong Biden weak narrative are multiple throwaways with no sources.
  - throwaway48476 2y ago
    I have linked sources in this thread.
    - 2y ago