Biden press conference gives Putin less than nothing to fear

President Joe Biden supplied a obscure reply to Russia's risk of deploying chemical weapons in Ukraine.
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

President Joe Biden didn’t make loads of information together with his press convention after sitting down with NATO leaders Thursday, and what he did make was complicated at greatest, and essentially discouraging.

That got here in reply to a query about what NATO would do if Vladimir Putin makes use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, as Biden warned earlier than going to Europe appears to be an actual chance.

“It will set off a response in variety,” the prez stated. Huh? Except somebody’s hiding them, no NATO energy has chemical weapons. At greatest, this appears to imply some severe harmful motion towards Russia’s forces in Ukraine.

However possibly not, since Biden then added that NATO would determine what to do “on the time.”

That means: They haven’t labored it out forward of time, and can wait ’til it occurs to begin figuring it out.

NATO has 30 members, a few of them extremely reluctant to confront Putin; if all of them should agree on a response, it’ll take days if not weeks. Some international locations could effectively demand extra proof.

That is the very reverse of what we’ve known as for — particularly, for Biden to publicly determine prematurely a selected US (not less than) hard-power response to Putin’s use of chems (or different weapons of mass destruction).

Imprecise threats aren’t sufficient, and the suggestion that we’ll negotiate the response with 2½ dozen different international locations after Putin strikes makes it not a risk in any respect.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has little to worry from NATO and President Joe Biden.

Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Picture by way of AP, File

That is even worse than Biden’s pre-invasion remark that the West won't do something if Putin merely grabbed just a few items of Ukraine.

The opposite notable a part of the presser was Biden’s heated insistence that he’d by no means stated the risk of sanctions was meant to discourage Putin from invading within the first place.

Hmm. Biden Nationwide Safety Adviser Jake Sullivan stated Feb. 11, “The president believes that sanctions are meant to discourage.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a longtime Biden crony, stated Feb. 20 that the aim of sanctions “is to attempt to deter Russia from going to conflict” and Feb. 23 that sanctions are a bid “to attempt to deter Russia from taking additional aggression.” Different prime officers chimed in a dozen instances.

That is Joe Biden: reversing himself and pretending angrily that it by no means occurred. Why ought to Putin consider any of his threats?

Somebody get the president a war-time consigliere.