The U.S. Government’s Embarrassingly Unserious Response to Russia

By Mark Antonio Wright

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

 

Is the U.S. government capable of seriousness in a crisis? Is Vice President Kamala Harris capable of speaking in something other than empty platitudes? Is President Biden or his administration capable of not fumbling the ball at the 5-yard line? Are the American people prepared to demand seriousness from their government?

 

This tweet from the U.S. embassy in Kyiv should cost people their jobs:

Leave aside the truth of the historical argument or point or what have you (the U.S. government is, apparently, trying to make the point that Russian or Eastern Slavic civilization originated with the Kievan Rus’ in the ninth century before it appeared in the Russian heartland around Moscow), the fact that our government is focused on sh** posting memes while Russian tanks are massing for a major invasion of European country and while Russian troops are currently engaged in a deadly serious occupation of several parts of eastern Ukraine is, frankly, embarrassing.

 

Combined with President Biden’s ridiculous “It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion” own goal a few weeks ago, last night’s initial fumbling confusion from the Biden administration about whether the Russian “peacekeeping” operation in the Donbas constituted an “actual” invasion of Ukraine, and the spectacle of the U.S. embassy in Kyiv’s retreat to Poland during a crisis (along with the assurance that “they may return tomorrow” if the Russians don’t invade), the U.S. government’s emphasis on winning the meme war with Russia is nothing less than pathetic.

 

Compare the fumbling, bumbling U.S. response to British prime minister Boris Johnson’s 10-minute speech to the House of Commons this morning. Whatever you may think of Johnson, his scandals, and his failures, his speech was one that rose to the moment. It was morally serious, it contained a coherent policy, and it laid out why the British people should be so alarmed by Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. Americans deserve nothing less from our leaders.