There is clearly some concern over at the NATO outpost known as the Atlantic Council that President Joe Biden isn’t showing enough willingness to sacrifice everything to ensure Ukraine’s total victory in war and is still engaging in “flawed” thinking about what must be done, says Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe in an April 26 article. He reminds Biden that his presidential legacy hangs on what he does to guarantee Ukraine’s future, so he should stop holding back.
Kempe zeroes in on the “three logical flaws” he says are preventing the West from “rising to the historic challenge of Ukraine.” 1) the idea that the West must restrain itself so as not to provoke Putin to escalate, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons — when in reality despots are deterred by a “clear demonstration of determination;” 2) that the U.S. should reduce its commitments in Europe to address the greater global challenge of China — when the issues of Ukraine and China are really “inseparable,” as seen in Putin’s recent meeting with Xi Jinping; and 3) that the prospect of NATO enlargement is what incited Putin to attack Ukraine — when it fact it was the failure to extend “that sort of security guarantee” to Ukraine that provoked Putin.
So, Kempe asks: “Is the West willing to make the necessary sacrifices in the present for the needs of the future?” Not yet. His message to Biden: You’ve tied this presidential legacy to Ukraine’s future, yet “without delivering on Ukraine, that legacy will be lost.”
