Nobody interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

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Biden is a laughing stock ….. am thinking most of Europe thinks so . Based on watching his speech today, he contradicted himself at least once if not several times concerning the ideas of freedom , The USA believes , but apparently not for Ukraine. These sanctions are not a serious deterrent, and Our politicians know that . Most
Likely Russia has already made strategic agreements with China .Concerning resources and banking issues .
By not reaction in a military effort . We have condoned the overthrow of Ukraine . IMHO.
Possibly the main people who will be hurt will be the gas sector in Europe. Our rates for some insane reason have gone up here in the middle of the USA .. Someone is price gouging .

stop this world, i wanna get off.

I am definitely enjoying both Ukrainians' courage (Zelensky is one hell of a President!) AND the internet meme machine churning out pro Ukraine Go-F-Yourselves russia memes.

For whatever it is worth,
"
Transcript
Senior Defense Official Holds an Off-Camera Press Briefing
Feb. 28, 2022
"
https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcript ... -briefing/

Our members in Europe can chime in, but based on what my extensive network of relatives in Europe have said, the laughing stock was Trump, not Biden.

Biden has a speech impediment, which makes his public speaking less than stellar. But behind the scenes, people who have met with him say he's on his game, and a political historian I read has credited his administration with some very smart behind the scenes maneuvers. No one in the west wants a WWIII, so diplomatic and behind the scenes it will have to be. I'm not well enough versed to reiterate it all here, or to say if it has any chance at all of working in the current mess, but at least Biden has rebuilt our alliances. Imagine coming to this point with all our traditional international relationships still fractured.

We can let Zelinsky win the PR narrative war against Putin. He's been doing stellar with that, putting his own life on the life to stand with his country. Biden isn't needed as a face and speech maker right now.

Trump was definitely a laughing stock here, it was astonishing how a pathetic idiot like this could have been elected.
Biden is a bit of a poker player to me, hard to read, but so far he's been keeping to his words and agreements so he has my growing respect.
Zelensky is doing the inspiring PR part and he's damn good at it.

Trump wanted to pull the US out of NATO.

Biden has convinced Germany to cancel Nord Stream, send military aid to Ukraine, spend 2% of their GDP on defence, and sanction Russia so hard that the whole country notices the impact upon their daily lives almost immediately.

No question which of them has been better for European security imo.

Yeah, I distinctly remember Trump pressing members to contribute the amount they're required to under the alliance.

Besides, why should the American president be benefitting Europe? That's not why we elect these fools, they work for us!

As for Biden, he's got his own interests, or should I say conflicts of interest? Oh yeah, he's gonna be great for you guys, he's gonna sell you American LNG at double the cost. Not to mention the increased carbon footprint of doing that, the energy spent liquefying it, and fuel spent shipping it across the ocean.

This is a fun read:
https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/HSGAC_Finance_Report_FINAL.pdf
Joe Biden later said he had no idea his son worked for Burisma...

I'm interested and had made a thread about it in the haven.

Obviously, things have changed since the OP started the thread.

He pressed. Did it work?

Biden’s gentler diplomacy has got the second largest economy in NATO, who have historically been shy of militarism for understandable historical reasons, to commit to it. And only a few months after they elected a coalition government including pacifists and budget hawks.


For starters, the question was whether Europeans think Biden is a joke. A few of us answered that. It’s not reasonable to then complain that we answered.

Moreover, European interested and American interests are very strongly aligned. The US benefits from a stable and prosperous Europe.

Well, he lobbied for the US to leave the alliance if other members don't make a fair contribution. Honestly, I don't remember what came of it.

Even if US had left, European powers would have likely still coordinated and cooperated with US.

Dissolving of NATO would have been a great gift to Putin.

To say the least…..

The answer is that between 2014 and 2019, a few NATO members increased defence spending significantly. Bulgaria and Romania were the most significant, but also Lithuania, Latvia, and Slovakia. Estonia and Poland were already close to 2%, but did bump spending a little to get closer.

It’s important that those countries spend on defence. Four border Russia, two more border Ukraine, and Bulgaria borders the Black Sea. Romania does as well, and has a breakaway pro-Russian region.

But ultimately these countries spending 2% of GDP on defence isn’t going to make them defence superpowers because their GDPs are so low. Poland is the largest at nearly $500m.

After the US, the six largest NATO economies are Germany, France, UK, Italy, Canada, and Spain. All are at least double the size of Poland. The UK and France both have substantial militaries which are capable of exerting influence abroad. In 2014 the UK was slightly over 2% and France was slightly under. France has increased spending but not all the way to 2%.

Getting Germany, Italy, Canada and Spain to 2% will have a much bigger impact than a few Eastern European countries with small economies. Spain doesn’t even spend 1%, and the others were still below 1.5% as of 2019. Trump didn’t have an effect upon the other substantial economies.

Biden, though, has negotiated a sanctions package that has brought Russia to its knees, and convinced Germany to make a constitutional commitment to 2%. Germany is worth six Polands. Haven’t run the numbers, but I am pretty sure the Biden administration has seen greater spending commitments than the Trump administration.

Is this entirely down to Biden and his team? Probably not - Putin helped. But the SWIFT sanctions for example did require some very skilful diplomacy and the US team is being credited for convincing the more cautious partners (Germany, Italy and Belgium) to get on board.

Trump wanted the US to be an isolationist state. His goal was to "free" them from all alliances like NATO.