Joe Biden's diplomacy doesn't work with Vladimir Putin

Joe Biden hasn't figured out that diplomacy without a legitimate looming military threat doesn't work with Vladimir Putin. Each step of the way, Congress has pushed Biden to tighten U.S. sanctions and push Biden to send more armaments to Ukraine.

Thus far, Biden has worried far too much that Biden's actions might provoke Putin. That isn't projecting strength. Biden hasn't figured out that getting a bully's attention like Putin requires a legitimate threat of giving Putin a bloody nose or a fat lip.

Far too often, Biden has hidden under his desk when strength was required. Newt Gingrich summed things up perfectly in this op-ed:

We have, again, seen that deterrence based on words and diplomacy is unreliable when dealing with dictators. Only strength matters. President Biden first talked about Putin’s threat to Ukraine in April 2021. He had 10 months to strengthen Ukraine’s military, provide the necessary equipment and provide training when Putin could not have effectively objected. Whether with North Korea, Iran, Russia, China, or other dictatorships, strength matters more than words. If they think they can’t win, they turn to diplomacy. If they think they can win, diplomacy is replaced with war.

This is the price of timidity. What's required in that situation is President Reagan's strategy towards the Soviet Union:

Reagan, unlike most of his Cold War predecessors, stated the objective clearly and simply: "Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win; they lose."

When dealing with civilized people, diplomats can proceed without breaking a few eggs. When dealing with a 21st Century Hitler, which Putin is, being the bigger bully is required.

Endangered countries need to be turned into porcupines so well equipped, trained, and mobilized that they cannot be invaded except at enormous cost. This is the lesson of Swiss and Swedish armed neutrality. They survive because they are simply too well prepared to be invaded except with enormous losses to the invader.

So, the Biden administration should be rushing equipment to Taiwan now. The time to prepare is before a potential invasion. Talking with Xi Jinping is a much less reliable strategy than preparing people to defend themselves and make the cost of an invasion prohibitive. The people of Hong Kong, Tibet, and eastern China can educate the Biden administration about the risks of relying on Xi’s word.

The lesson is simple -- trusting lying dictators is foolish. It's better to factor in them lying. It's also prudent to tell them that they'll run into a well-armed, highly motivated nation when they invade. Check this out:

Joe Biden's ego is only surpassed by his stupidity. I tried saying that more diplomatically but that's the unvarnished truth. The other dominant character trait Biden has is stubbornness, which comes from his stupidity. A wise man once said "Stupidity is what gets you in trouble. Pride is what keeps you there." Joe Biden is living proof of that.