It looks like the hour has gained another fool, metaphorically speaking. I’m referring, of course, to one of our recent blog posts castigating Senator Graham for his intemperate suggestion on March 4 that the Russian people should rise up and remove President Vladimir Putin from power.
In the history of dangerously provocative statements, Senator Graham’s suggestion deserved special mention – and shame – given the atomic-tinged situation the U.S. and Russia now find themselves in. It was a reckless utterance repeated severally on Twitter and in person by South Carolina’s senior senator.
But Greymantle is an equal opportunity castigator. If I stoop to criticize a conservative Republican senator for making a famously dumb statement, I can’t very well let our liberal Democratic president, Joe Biden, off the hook for making essentially the same statement.
BIDEN’S AUDIENCE IS THE WORLD
President Biden’s suggestion at the end of a speech made in Poland on Saturday that Vladimir Putin “should be removed from power” was far more incendiary than Senator Graham’s comments three weeks prior. Why? Because people actually listen to Biden.
Graham’s comments were made more or less to the conservative Republican base that tunes into his Twitter feed. It’s possible that the Russians never became aware of them.
But President Biden’s words shot around the world this weekend like…well, like a nuclear-armed ballistic missile.
That’s because Biden is the President of the United States. His every utterance is listened to and monitored by billions of people around the globe. By foreign governments, must especially.
A SHREWD, ALBEIT GAFFE-PRONE LEADER
What could have prompted the president to drop this word-bomb is unknown, but Greymantle has his suspicions. They are rooted in the character of the president and his long history of verbal gaffes. Even by Joe Biden’s gaffe-prone track record, though, this one was a real doozy. I mean, why jab at a cornered rat armed with the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal? That old Irish temper…
President Biden is smart enough to know that. And we’d wager that he got an earful from Mrs. Biden not long after making that speech. “Joe! Think of our grandchildren.” Something like that.
But let’s be fair to him for a moment: Biden’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine Crisis has so far been adroit. Far more adroit than any of his many domestic critics could have expected.
America’s release of classified intelligence to signal Russia’s moves in advance was a game-changer, particularly with our allies. The CIA and Pentagon were unsure about this course of action. But “the decider” in the Oval Office made the decision, and it was the right one.
The Russian campaign in Ukraine is faltering and Putin and his coterie have been thrown off balance. NATO has been unified in a way not seen since the early 1990s. In many respects, the crisis so far has been a victory not only for the Ukrainians, but for the U.S.
Why risk, uhm…blowing it all up over a few unwise words?
SYMPATHY FOR THE UNDERDOG
President Biden is known to his U.S. audience has an empathizer. Like his predecessor, Bill Clinton, he is able to “feel your pain” particularly if you are a likely Democratic voter. And in Biden’s case, it’s not all an act. The President really is a very emotional guy, and he does empathize with the plight of the underdog and downtrodden.
But whereas Biden’s empathy is usually an asset, it has sometimes served as his Achilles Heel. When Biden’s empathy is mixed together with his Irish temper – which he is most assuredly known to have – the admixture has been known to be quite combustible.
The Irish, having long been downtrodden underdogs themselves, have a tendency to sympathize with the “little guy” in spades. Joe Biden is a self-identified Irish-American politician. He glories in this stuff.
What Greymantle believes happened on Saturday was that the President had met with groups of Ukrainian refugees sheltering in Poland and had listened to their harrowing tales of escape from the fighting. He listened and was moved. And then, he allowed himself to get angry.
An angry and enthusiastic Joe Biden is a sight to behold. It was a sight on public display on Saturday in Poland. My guess is that the comment that “Putin should be removed from power” was not part of the original speech. It probably wasn’t even in the text Biden was reading from. It was most likely an improvised addition. A flourish made spontaneously and in a moment of passion.
But it was the wrong flourish.
POP GOES THE WORLD?
The greatest danger for the U.S. and its allies at this moment is uncontrolled military escalation culminating in nuclear conflict. We would have more to lose than Mr. Putin in any such exchange. Chiefly, what we’d lose is the lives of millions of our citizens. How would that serve the refugees?
The President, the Congress, media talking heads, and Western Twitter mobs need to take a deep breath. It’s been a nightmarish month. Only four weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine – can it be that short a time? In that short a time we’ve seen sights out of Europe that we’d never believed we’d see again. People are understandably upset.
It’s easy to let anger take control. We can’t let that happen. The past four weeks have had an eerie resemblance to August 1914 in terms of the emotional tenor of Western populations (more on that next month). This is troubling. Ukraine is winning, not losing. The West can help them win by keeping cool heads and supplying them what they need.
Let’s not risk something 100 times worse than what’s happening in Ukraine because of a few ill-placed words.
Until next time, I remain –
Greymantle
