For the same reason that President Obama did not arm Ukraine. War has a way of changing people’s reputations, even when they look back. It looks bad for Angela Merkel and Barack Obama because of the Ukraine war.
In the past, the German Chancellor made her country a slave to Russian power, misunderstood Vladimir Putin, and did not contribute enough to NATO’s defence. Every week, her successor has thrown out her legacy.
It’s important to remember Obama because he didn’t give Ukraine any weapons to fight back against Vladimir Putin, even when he took the city of Crimea in 2014. He wouldn’t even sell anti-tank weapons like the javelins that are now being used by Ukraine’s army to slow down Russia’s army.
That was bad enough, but his reasoning for doing so shows that he doesn’t understand both Vladimir Putin and world events. Here is an excerpt from a 2016 interview with Mr. Obama in the Atlantic, which was often his Boswell.
As soon as he saw that the state of Ukraine was about to fall out of his hands, Putin took action.” And he came up with a way to keep his management there, too. [Mr. Obama] said that. ‘He’s done the same thing in Syria, but at a huge cost to his own country’s health. I don’t think it’s right to think that Russia is in a better place now than it was before they invaded Ukraine or when he had to send soldiers into Syria. This is a very bad way to think about power in international affairs or the world at large. Real power means that you can get what you want without having to use violence. Vladimir Putin was much more powerful when Ukraine looked like an independent country but was run by crooks that he could control.
He added: “No matter what we do, Ukraine will be able to be taken over by the Russian army, no matter what we do.”
People and leaders in Ukraine have shown that they’re willing and able to defend themselves if they have the weapons. Obama must have thought that they were not capable of defending themselves. Mr. Obama also didn’t know that the “nature of power in international affairs” still might include the use of the military. Mr. Putin seems to think so. In eight years, Mr. Obama did a lot of damage to American energy and interests, and the price is still being paid.
Joe Biden’s “State of the Union” speech offered Ukraine words of support, but the President didn’t call for a rise in defence spending because that would go against his progressive agenda.
