On Ukraine crisis, Biden seeks to show his mettle
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
America’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan last year was a made-for-TV tragedy — complete with camera-ready scenes of frantic civilians, harried US Marines and helicopters hovering over an embassy roof.Ukraine is a foreign policy conundrum of an entirely different sort. President Joe Biden’s task is to stop a war from beginning, not to end one with dignity. But even if he wards off a Russian invasion, he shouldn’t expect any ticker tape on Fifth Avenue.“The politics of foreign policy are rarely fair, and this is the epitome of that kind of situation,” said John Gans, a former Pentagon speechwriter in the Obama administration. “You rarely get credit for the dogs that don’t bark.” In conversations in recent days with current and former officials, members of Congress and Capitol Hill aides, we found broad support overall for Biden’s approach to Ukraine, although some Republicans complained about specific aspects of the strategy. But the president’s options for resolving the crisis, many said, could give critics an opening. And, as Biden warned in his remarks Tuesday, confronting Vladimir Putin is not likely to be “painless” for Americans, even if Russia relents.“I think they started with a bit of an analytical mistake — that they could have a stable and predictable relationship with Russia so they could focus on China,” said Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia in the Obama administration. “But, generally, I’m impressed.” Since November, the administration has held more than 300 “diplomatic engagements” with partners and allies. Biden has sent troops to bolster jittery NATO allies in Eastern Europe. And the White House has used information as a weapon of deterrence, declassifying and disclosing intelligence to disrupt possible Russian operations in real-time.“Trump couldn’t have done this,” said Daniel Fried, a longtime Russia expert who retired in 2017 as the State Department’s coordinator for sanctions policy. “Trump wouldn’t have been interested.” Should Putin gain the upper hand, though, history’s judgment could be harsh. And even if things go well, some question the wisdom of devoting so much attention to a region that represents the geopolitical past, not its future.“We have to focus on China,” said Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon official in the Trump administration. “The military situation in Asia is increasingly acute, and we’re way behind. Russia’s a secondary issue.”