Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Biden’s Policies Don’t Match His Rhetoric on Putin’s ‘Genocide’

By Jim Geraghty

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

 

President Biden, speaking to reporters at the Des Moines International Airport before departing on Air Force One yesterday:

 

Q: Mr. President, have you seen enough evidence to declare genocide in Ukraine, sir?

 

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I called it genocide. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being — being able to be Ukrainian.

 

And the amount — the evidence is mounting. It’s different than it was last week. The — more evidence is coming out of the — literally, the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine. And we’re going to only learn more and more about the devastation.

 

This is one of those presidential statements that is so significant, I waited for the White House staff to offer the now-traditional “what the president meant to say was” correction. But as of this writing, the White House is sticking with it.

 

A declaration that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine makes any remaining U.S. cooperation with Russia, or any hesitation in assisting the Ukrainians lest we be too provocative or escalatory, morally abominable. We keep saying “never again” on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and then the “ethnic cleansing” of the Balkans occurs (40,000 civilians killed). And then we see what happens in Rwanda (500,000 dead). And then Darfur, Sudan, (between 178,258 and 461,520 dead, mostly from disease). And then Syria (500,000 to 600,000 dead).

 

Our elected leaders keep saying, “never again,” but the evidence of history is “again and again and again and again, each time in slightly different ways, as long as they’re relatively far away from each other.” (President Obama formed an “Atrocities Prevention Board” that did not have a website, a Twitter account, or even email addresses for its main office or its members.)

 

As my reader James observes, if Russia is committing genocide, “We should at least drop the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action talks with Russia and Iran until the scoreboard for ‘last act of genocide discovered’ hits ‘ten days ago.’”

 

Here was White House press secretary and future MSNBC host Jen Psaki, facing tough questions from Dana Perino on Fox News Sunday this past weekend:

 

PERINO: Speaking of Russia, they are at the table as part of the negotiations with the Iran — Iranians, and working as the Biden administration works on reviving that deal. But President Biden has called Vladimir Putin a war criminal and Russia would stand to gain billions if they were to hold this uranium. Can this continue? Can Russia continue to be at the table for these Iran negotiations?

 

PSAKI: Well, Dana, here’s how we look at it, and you know this from your many past experiences — diplomacy, foreign affairs, it’s complicated. And this is an example of that.

 

We believe, and I think most of the global community believes, that preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is in our national interest and our global interest.

 

The president is only going to agree to a deal if it is a good deal. But we have [been] dealing with the experiment of President Trump pulling out of the deal, and what we’ve seen is a lack of visibility. Iran has made great progress in being able to move towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. That’s not in our interest.

 

Russia has been a member of the P5+1. They have been an implementing — played an implementation role. That’s what we’re talking about and what’s been under discussion in these negotiations.

 

We don’t know that we will come to an agreement, though. It’s ongoing and we’re still considering it.

 

In other words, Russia will continue to be a U.S. partner in the Iran negotiations, even though President Biden just said that the Russians are committing genocide. It is an astounding, jaw-dropping, mind-boggling contradiction that illuminates the wrongheaded thinking of an administration whose primary goal in Iran policy is to never admit that the Obama administration was wrong on Iran policy.

 

In other parts of the administration’s policy decisions that influence Russia and Ukraine . . .

 

·        At this point, it doesn’t make any sense for the U.S. not to assist in the transfer of those MiG-29s. What, stopping genocide isn’t an important enough goal to justify the move? We’re afraid we’re going to escalate the situation from an ongoing genocide?

 

·        As noted earlier, transferring an “Iron Dome” missile-defense system to Ukraine has its own logistical challenges, but clearly the menace of genocide makes it sufficiently worthwhile for the U.S. to assist overcoming those challenges. The good news is that the U.S. is looking at a much bigger package of military aid: “Preliminary plans circulating among government officials and lawmakers in Washington also included Mi-17 helicopters, howitzer cannons, coastal defense drones and protective suits to safeguard personnel in the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack, the officials said, though they cautioned that it was not immediately clear if all of those items would end up in the final aid package.” But no MiGs or Iron Dome systems like the Ukrainians wanted, at least so far.

 

·        If there is ongoing genocide, does the idea of a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over certain parts of Ukraine for humanitarian corridors seem quite so reckless or escalatory? Would we hesitate to take that kind of action against a Hitler or a Pol Pot or a Slobodan Milošević? (I would compare Vladimir Putin to Stalin, but he would probably take that as a compliment.)

 

·        If there is ongoing genocide, doesn’t keeping the the U.S. embassy in Lviv instead of Kyiv look like an act of cowardice? Shouldn’t the embassy, or at least a skeleton staff, move back to Kyiv? (Both cities have come under Russian bombardment.)

 

·        If there is an ongoing genocide, shouldn’t there be a permanent NATO naval presence in the Black Sea? A month before the invasion started, the last NATO vessel, the French naval frigate Auvergneleft the Black Sea. If NATO had had a presence in the Black Sea in February, would the Russians have hesitated at all? Would they have filled up the Black Sea with mines?

 

·        We still have tariffs on Ukrainian steel! (Not that the steel mills in Ukraine are all that productive these days.)

 

·        Why is Russia still the third-largest supplier of uranium to the U.S.? In 2021, the U.S. spent $1 billion on Russian uranium. Wyoming Republican senator John Barrasso notes that “Congress appropriated $75 million to the Energy Department to establish a strategic uranium reserve in 2020, yet the department hasn’t purchased a single ounce of U.S. uranium.” According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, “At the end of 2008, U.S. uranium reserves totaled 1.2 billion pounds” — and then the U.S. stopped tracking it because domestic U.S. uranium production supplies only about 10 percent, on average, of U.S. requirements for nuclear fuel.

 

·        I can understand the argument that the U.S. and Russia should always keep some line of communication open to avert any potentially disastrous miscommunication or confusion between nuclear powers. But it seems a little odd for the U.S. to have a regular diplomatic relationship with a government that we have declared is committing genocide.

 

·        As I mentioned on The Editors podcast, seeing U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson demonstrate real courage by walking the streets of Kyiv alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made me wish we had a non-geriatric president. But over in The Atlantic, Eliot Cohen points out there’s no reason Secretary of State Antony Blinken or Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t emulate Johnson’s move. Harris has had a particularly rough start to her term as vice president; if she genuinely wants to reset public perceptions of her, she and her team should head to Kyiv and demonstrate that U.S. leaders aren’t afraid to at least briefly step into a city under siege and dare the Russians to start a war by attacking during her visit.

 

Cohen argues that what happens in Ukraine will have far-reaching consequences for years to come:

 

For those of us born after World War II, this is the most consequential war of our lifetime. Upon its outcome rests the future of European stability and prosperity. If Ukraine succeeds in preserving its freedom and territorial integrity, a diminished Russia will be contained; if it fails, the chances of war between NATO and Russia go up, as does the prospect of Russian intervention in other areas on its western and southern peripheries. A Russian win would encourage a China coolly observing and assessing Western mettle and military capacity; a Russian defeat would induce a salutary caution in Beijing. Russia’s sheer brutality and utterly unwarranted aggression, compounded by lies at once sinister and ludicrous, have endangered what remains of the global order and the norms of interstate conduct. If such behavior leads to humiliation on the battlefield and economic chaos at home, those norms may be rebuilt to some degree; if Vladimir Putin’s government gets away with it, restoring them will take a generation or longer.

 

Put Corn in Hungry Bellies, Not in Our Cars

 

Because the war is continuing into spring, Ukrainian farmers in “the breadbasket of Europe” are not going out into the fields and planting their crops. Even if they could, the odds of successfully exporting their usually abundant wheat crop to their traditional markets is unlikely because of all of those mines in the Black Sea and the Russian Navy parked off shore. Right now, Ukrainian ports are closed, and nothing is going in or out. The end result is that a lot of people in places far from Ukraine are going to pay way more to feed themselves, or starve:

 

“It’s a big issue,” Mercogliano said. “We’ve been talking about the issue of potential food shortages because Ukraine is responsible for 10 percent of the world’s grain exports, and that’s a combination of wheat, corn, barley and everything else. Other countries are going to have to either pick up that slack, but that’s going to be very difficult to do. And then you’re going to have to get shipping to relocate to do it.”

 

The large percentage of grain exports is why Ukraine’s flag is half yellow, Mercogliano noted.

 

It provides the wheat to countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Asia. In 2020, Ukraine was the fifth largest wheat exporter, with $4.16 billion in exports, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

 

Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Lebanon were the top five importers of Ukrainian wheat in 2020, according to OEC.

 

So what is President Biden doing?

 

The Biden administration said that increasing use of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, known as E15, over the summer months would help lower consumers’ fuel costs, which have climbed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The decision is seen as a win for corn growers and ethanol-producing companies, though some groups said they fear it could further inflate food prices by making grain more expensive:

 

Oil-industry officials have questioned whether such moves would lower gasoline prices for consumers.

 

Increased demand for corn could push up prices for the grain if the use of E-15 throughout the year continues, analysts said. Corn prices have already jumped this year because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

 

Increased ethanol use could contribute to cost inflation for food companies and meat processors, because producers rely heavily on grains, such as corn, to feed livestock and poultry, according to the National Chicken Council.

 

“Further and artificial demand for corn created by this administration will likely increase the cost of corn and all food products dependent on corn and corn oil inputs,” said Mike Brown, president of the group, which represents poultry companies. Feed, made of corn and soybean meal, is the top cost in raising chickens, the NCC said. “At the end of the day — ethanol manufacturers win and consumers lose,” Mr. Brown said.

 

At a time when the world is facing a greater risk of severe famine, President Biden wants to put more corn into our automobiles. This is a stupid policy announced by a stupid man who is surrounded by stupid advisers.

 

Meanwhile, under the sea at Coal Oil Point off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif., an estimated 6,500-7,000 gallons of oil per day seep out naturally from the ground.

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