The Biden administration’s rejection of Poland’s offer to send its fighter jets to Ukraine via a U.S. airbase in Germany is disheartening. It’s a nearly textbook appeasement of the Russian butcher Vladimir Putin that allows him to set the terms of engagement and suggests to both Russia and China that a little nuclear saber-rattling is all they need to get the West to back off.
The transfer of Poland’s Mig-29 fighters through NATO is a reasonable way to provide Ukraine with weaponry it needs to defend itself while allowing Poland not to get too directly involved in the conflict. The Poles, who have provided a heroic level of support for their war-torn neighbors, clearly heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleas for military support.
Yet the U.S. flatly rejected the transfer, saying it would present a “high risk” of escalating the war. In other words, President Joe Biden and American military officials let fear of Putin deter our nation from providing Ukraine with support it desperately needs.
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula, who planned the air campaign in the 1991 Gulf War, told Politico that blocking the transfer amounts to “pure deterrence of the U.S. military by the Russians.”
“If we transfer a pocketknife to Ukraine, Putin’s going to object to that,” Deptula said. “A weapons system is a weapons system, and NATO is giving Ukraine rifles and missiles, so it’s time to give them airplanes.”
Surely Putin is smirking — he knows the implied threat of him using nuclear weapons or dialing up his aggression in some other way is enough to make the U.S. blink. He didn’t even have to make any threats specific to the fighter transfer in order to send the U.S. into its shell. Instead, Biden and the military brass voluntarily opted not to cross an invisible line.
“The transfer of combat aircraft could be mistaken for an escalatory step,” John F. Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters.
What this means is that Putin has successfully learned his brutish tactics will work, and the U.S. will cave. That will only encourage even worse outrages in the future. America has told Putin that his brutality, when taken to the extreme, works. It’s a horrible lesson for the future and deadly for Ukrainians today.
Putin will describe anything as an escalatory step — he whined that the new and perfectly justified sanctions against Russia were an act of war. That shouldn’t stop the U.S. from providing reasonable aid to Ukraine. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, got it right in noting that the Biden administration had given Ukraine antitank and antiaircraft weapons already, “So why exactly does President Biden think that Ukrainian MIGs, flown by Ukrainian pilots, would be shot down over NATO territory while they’re on their way to defend Ukrainian airspace?”
It’s a valid question.
Meanwhile, Ukraine suffers. On the same day the Biden administration was appeasing Putin, the Russian president was committing the unspeakable war crime of bombing a maternity hospital.
This is the kind of brutality that appeasement begets. Wednesday ended with Putin settling in for what was no doubt a contented sleep after bombing pregnant women and newborns, comfortable in knowing that he can back America down.
This conciliation must stop. It’s only making Putin more dangerous, and it’s putting other nations in danger. Think China is watching this? Of course: It’s a playbook for how they could carry out an invasion of Taiwan. Just maintain a threat of launching nuclear weapons, and the West will go running.
The Biden administration says it thinks other weapons are better for Ukraine, but that’s not what Ukraine asked for and what Poland was prepared to provide. In this matter, Biden allowed U.S. policy to be dictated by the mere anticipation of threat.
This isn’t how America operates.
Americans assert the world order. Americans fight for freedom. Americans don’t let tyrants slaughter innocents, then push us or our allies into a corner and return to their brutal business.
That’s not to say the U.S. needs to attack Putin or needlessly provoke him, but we can’t give him free rein like we’ve done in this case.
Where, we ask, are the red lines that Washington and NATO allies are prepared to draw? For instance, Washington could say if civilians continue to be targeted, jets will be sent to Poland immediately.
Reportedly, the Biden administration is discussing alternative ways to send the planes to Ukraine, but it should be drawing firmer lines. Earlier in the crisis, the president’s vagueness about sanctions might have led Putin to believe he had an opening to invade Ukraine in the first place. With the Kremlin now claiming to be shocked by the severity of the sanctions, wouldn’t it have been better if Biden and NATO had stood firm and explained the consequences before the invasion and destruction?
A show of backbone is required to stop this madness, end Ukraine’s appalling suffering and prevent a future world war caused by emboldened tyrants. Ukraine’s brave defenders and their people deserve as much.
After a meeting between Vice President Kamala Harris and Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday, Harris said the two nations were united — “full stop” — on helping Ukraine.
“The United States is prepared to defend every inch of NATO territory. The United States takes seriously that an attack against one is an attack against all,” Harris said.
One wonders how comforting those words are to allies watching the administration back off from providing aircraft. Apparently, getting Polish MIGs into Ukrainian hands is more than what “full stop” means.
The administration’s actions Wednesday demonstrated weakness, not resolve to contain an aggressor. In dealing with Putin or any other aggressor, the U.S. must act from a position of strength and superiority, not let these bad actors set the agenda.