Munich then and now

Nothing better exhibits the seriousness of the Biden administration in connection with Russia’s threatened invasion of Ukraine than sending Kamala Harris to the Munich Security Conference to chime in with prepared remarks. “Let us remember,” Harris solemnly intoned, “[f]rom the wreckage of two world wars, a consensus emerged in Europe and the United States. A consensus in favor of order, not chaos; security, not conflict.”

Emergency! Call the speech doctor!

The conference was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, situated in the heart of Munich’s historic center. Munich is of course well-known as the site of the Führerbau, where Chamberlain and Daladier treated with Hitler in 1938. In Munich: The Price of Peace, Telford Taylor called it “the Nazi sanctum sanctorum.” It would be most fitting for the parties to use in the event that the United States resumes its apparently imminent agreement with Iran.

Caroline Glick takes up the Biden administration and Ukraine in her JNS column today:

This brings us to the direct losses the United States has suffered due to Biden’s handling of the Ukraine crisis. Rather than undo the damage he caused to U.S. credibility with his abject surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Biden exacerbated the damage. By threatening war one moment and pledging not to go to war the next, Biden turned himself—and through him, the United States of America—into a joke on the world stage.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky felt compelled to tell Biden to tone down his rhetoric about an imminent Russian invasion twice in under a week, and insist Biden’s warnings did not correspond with the situation on the ground, it became clear that U.S. support is not what it once was. Biden’s “support” for Ukraine has arguably done Ukraine more harm than good in the present emergency.

When seen in the context of Biden’s wider foreign policy, his decision to adopt a saber-rattling posture while declaring he has no saber is even more disturbing. While making entirely empty threats at Russia, Biden is genuflecting to Iran and China. Taken together, it becomes impossible to claim that Biden’s handling of the Russian threat to Ukraine has strengthened him either domestically or internationally.

Glick closes with a question: Given its destructive effect on both the United States and NATO, what stands behind Biden’s strategically indefensible position on Ukraine?”

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