POINT OF VIEW

“The sky is falling… The sky is falling!” So said Chicken Little when an acorn struck him on his head. He panicked and ran to the king to report this dire unfolding catastrophe. In the process of running around crying about the coming disaster, he stirred up panic throughout the barnyard.

Much the same might be said about announcements screamed by President Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and General Mark Miley about Ukraine. All have orchestrated a symphony of panicked fear throughout Europe and the world over the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

If indeed Russia intends to invade Ukraine there is little the West can do other than react. Stopping 130,000 heavily armed troops and armor is impossible. Also, Russia must be aware that the result of such an action would likely have unintended consequences for them. Such is always the case with a war. The plan is the first casualty.

However, Putin is already winning. By merely placing massive troops on his own land bordering Ukraine he has generated just the reaction he sought. Biden & Co. have responded just as he wished. Sending arms, urging citizens to flee, closing embassies, running around Europe in a fit of fear, and constantly calling Putin to check what can be done to prevent something that might not even happen.

The President of Ukraine seems not overly concerned. His major worry is Biden’s panicked reaction because Biden & Co. are ruining the Ukrainian economy by his persistent cries about an invasion and alarming the population. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky likely wishes Biden would just shut up.

As for Putin, he is laughing. He is playing Biden for the fool that he is. Putin sits in his office and waits for each national president to visit HIM hat in hand, sitting at the end of an extremely long and humiliating table, suffering his insults, and playing his games. When they leave, he has a good laugh because he has established dominance over all of Europe without so much as firing a pistol. All this a result of an old man’s panic and that of his weak advisors.

Much of this is of our own making. People forget that when President Bush spoke with Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1990s the Soviet Union had collapsed. Bush promised no expansion of NATO. Bill Clinton betrayed that trust when he allowed Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic to join NATO in 1999. Then in 2002 George W. Bush allowed seven other Eastern European nations to enter the club. All this in violation of agreements.

Russia could do nothing at the time about this development. But now it can and that is what Putin is doing. He is demanding that the relationship be rolled back to 1997. When in fact he likely wants it rolled back to the old Russian Empire. Putin feels his oats and Biden’s response shows extreme weakness and fecklessness. Putin, like in the Sci-fi movie “The Tingler”, thrives on fear. Biden feeds him.

A stronger hand would likely have not made any public announcements, but merely quietly informed Putin that an invasion would not be a good idea for anyone and leave it at that. Leave the ball in his court and allow him to decide if military action would serve his overall purposes or prove a disaster. Let him stew without a wide audience.

Russia might now be manipulating the intelligence to cause Biden and his cohorts to believe totally inaccurate information and embarrass themselves and the rest of the world. Case in point, Blinken warned that Russia will invade before the Olympics are over. Does anyone really believe that Putin would embarrass his closest ally Xi Jinping? Unlikely! He is playing with Biden like a cat with a mouse while enjoying prancing in the international spotlight. What is alarming, perhaps Biden’s reaction has sparked Putin to become more aggressive. He smells fear!

We have walked this road before. This is terribly reminiscent of the parade of weakkneed Western European diplomats who journeyed to Berlin to speak with Hitler over the Rhineland, Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Poland. Instead of a strong, silent response… They cried about peace, negotiated out of fear, projected weakness, and got into war.

All this having been said, we should always be mindful of politicians who have problems on the home front when contending with foreign policy. Xi Jinping, Putin, and Biden have serious domestic issues. That cannot be forgotten. Furthermore, we have no idea how far Putin is willing to push the Ukraine crisis. Given the recent confused western reaction, he may now become more aggressive. Therein lies the real problem…the existing highly charged atmosphere allows for miscalculation on any side.

The world is in a very dangerous place. It resembles a leaky powder keg and there are children running around with matches.