Saturday, January 29, 2022

Why Putin hasn't been deterred

Victor Davis Hanson writes,
Germany is NATO’s richest European member and the power behind the European Union. Yet Germany will soon be dependent on imported Russian natural gas for much of its energy needs.
Putin knows that the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appear more worried about “white privilege” and climate change than enhancing military readiness to deter enemies such as himself.
With Putin’s nemesis, Trump, gone, Russia assumes the appeasement years of the Obama-Biden Administration are back again. As in 2014, once more Putin is moving against his neighbors.
Some Ukrainian expatriates and current government members worked with the American left to ensure the first impeachment of Trump.
Now Ukrainians are exasperated that their prior intrusions into domestic American politics have backfired with the disastrous Biden presidency—and his apparent de facto acceptance of an inevitable Russian annexation.
Putin is undermining a sovereign nation, fissuring NATO, and, if successful, might continue the Ukraine slow-squeeze model in the Baltic States and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, China smiles, hoping the Ukraine blueprint can be used against Taiwan.
Exasperated Americans fear that Putin will be deterred neither by sanctions, nor by arms sales, but follows only his own sense of cost-to-benefit self-interest.
Read more here: https://www.dailysignal.com/2022/01/27/why-putin-hasnt-been-deterred/?
Hat tip Doug Ross @ Journal

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