by WorldTribune Staff, February 25, 2022
Joe Biden’s disastrous decisions on Ukraine include "military aid that is inadequate, intelligence that is imprecise, and sanctions that are ineffective," an analyst wrote.
By comparison, President Donald Trump engaged in a reality-based plan for central Europe featuring a "long-term strategy oriented on investment in the economic, military, and strategic potential to empower Central Europe, including the Baltic states," Ben Solis wrote for Amac on Feb. 25.
"The same rationale was a core of Reagan’s victorious Cold War strategy, which used Poland as a wedge against Moscow to break up the Soviet bloc. This strategy should be undertaken once more."
The Biden administration’s strategy for dealing with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, in the weeks leading up to the invasion of Ukraine and in the days since it began, "has proven woefully ineffective at even forcing the Russian leader to flinch in his ruthless quest for power. It is time for a return to the strong and effective deterrent strategies undertaken by President Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, which went well beyond sanctions," Solis wrote.
Europe "must immediately recognize" Biden’s failed strategy and "the need for a new security posture on the continent," Solis added. "Putin has exposed the West’s unwillingness to defend Western Civilization and uncovered the fundamental weakness of Biden’s diplomacy."
In his historic speech in Warsaw in 2017, Trump "correctly recognized and emphasized that the will to defend Western Civilization is crucial," Solis wrote. "This will can be found in Central Europe, or 'New Europe,' as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld called Poland, the Baltic states, and Romania, whose soldiers served arm-in-arm with Americans in Iraq."
The United States, Solis continued, "should limit its presence in Europe to the absolute minimum. The U.S. Army should invest more in skills of the New Europe’s officers, training them in the United States to create a deterrent to Putin’s recruits. With investment loans, New Europe should finance a build-up of its armies and create a pan-regional, combined force that would outnumber the Russians."
"Unlike Old Europe, New Europe has a determination and is ready to face Putin’s regime. For instance, Poland – anticipating an energy crisis – has already taken steps to diversify its gas supplies and filled up its underground storage basins. That was an example of Poland First policies – while Old Europe’s confidence in its decision to rely on Russian energy now leaves them at the mercy of Putin," Solis wrote.
Trump’s America First agenda, Solis concluded, "was a call for others to reformulate their bureaucratically fogged goals to fit their countries’ obvious interests and urgent priorities, and then work together on that basis: Ukraine First, Romania First, France First, Poland First and UK First. This approach was vindicated this week, and we have no time to lose in implementing it in every country to defend Western Civilization from further attack."
