President Biden Exhibits Realism in the Ukraine

In the current flurry of anxious articles springing up about the potential for war in the Ukraine, the role of President Biden in lowering tensions has been subtle but powerful. It should be acknowledged.

The Ukraine has been a killing field for decades; Russia poured the blood of millions of men into its fields, liberating it from the Nazis. Both parties, Ukraine and Russia, are intimately familiar with the human cost of its soil. Before the war, the Ukraine was home to the largest group of Jews in Europe; some one-and — a-half million of them died in the Nazi occupation in 1941. A further eight million Ukrainians were killed. Russia lost 14 million people in the struggle. The Red Army’s ranks were swollen with the arrival of six million Ukrainian volunteers, standing shoulder-to-shoulder beside their Russian comrades.

Both Russia and Ukraine know what war is like in that divided land.

The forces involved are close enough to make a conflict very ugly:

In population, Ukraine has some 40-million people, to Russian’s 145-million.

In arms, Ukraine has 1-million soldiers (with reserves) against Russia’s 900,000. Where it gets uneven is in tanks and planes, where the Russians have ten-to-one advantages.

Nevertheless, for a serious and ongoing Russian threat to the Ukraine, we would expect to see their full army mobilized.

President Biden is no doubt well aware of the limitations of Western power in the Ukraine. There is very little chance that American soldiers would carry much weight, so close to Russia’s immense reserves. And tying up America for several years of war would give other theatre threats — like China and Taiwan — time to play out against the West.

Far better at this point to use the presidential pulpit to calm the troubled waters, and work in harmony with Russia’s leaders to dispel the threats of war.

The President is doing something heroic in avoiding talk of direct conflict, and something right. Let’s give him applause. He has had little recognition of this role to-date. He is doing the right things, in spite of the strong headwind against him.