As the man said in "The Hunt for Red October," the last 24 hours have seen some extraordinary activity.
President Biden surprised the world with a visit to Kyiv. He then gave a dramatic speech in Poland, focusing on the threat posed by Vladimir Putin and Russia. After that, in speaking with NATO allies, he singled out what he viewed as the greatest threat to world peace. "Appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased," Biden told the thousands of people gathered at Warsaw's Royal Castle. "They must be opposed. Autocrats only understand one word: No, no, no. No, you will not take my country."
Putin responded by pulling out of the New START nuclear treaty with the U.S. — the last arms control treaty between the two nuclear superpowers — once again indirectly threatening the world with nuclear conflagration while sidling closer to China in a weird lovefest that Fox News reports will lead to Xi Jinping meeting Putin in Moscow. Of course everyone knows just how accurate Fox News reporting can be (more on that in a bit).
Biden responded by saying that NATO stands strong and our Eastern European allies are the front line of response against Putin. "This man cannot remain in charge," Biden said upon his first visit to Poland last year. Now he seems to have implemented a more robust plan, or at least more words, to limit Putin's influence over the world.
While even some of the president's harshest critics (at least those who manage to cling to sentience, however tenuously) give him respect for appearing in Ukraine, they also say he has horribly misjudged the situation and could draw us into World War III at worst, or touch off a new cold war with Russia at best. The facts are not with them. You could argue we're already in World War III and we're playing this game by proxy.
When I was in Ukraine last spring, I witnessed the war between Russia and a stalwart band of Ukrainian citizens intent on maintaining their independence.
I never thought that nearly a year later I would see Joe Biden enter Kyiv instead of Vladimir Putin. I can't remember a time when an American president showed up in a war zone not controlled by U.S. troops. Neither can anyone else.
The closest analogous visit to a war zone came during the Civil War, in July of 1864, when Abraham Lincoln visited Fort Stevens just outside Washington, climbed a parapet and came under fire. "Get down, you damn fool," someone shouted. A nearby surgeon was apparently struck by gunfire.
But a visit to a foreign land, during a war in which no American troops are present? Forget about it. This cannot be overstated. It just doesn't happen. That was a moment in history we should never forget.
The Trumpers among us won't forget it. They'll just say Biden is the most divisive president in history and should stand on our southern border with tanks instead of in the Ukrainian capital with an embattled freedom fighter. Of course, if Donald Trump had made the journey they would cheer him as the second coming of the messiah. But we all know Trump wouldn't have dared go to Kyiv. He wouldn't go out in the rain at a cemetery to honor Americans who died fighting in France in World War I.
Biden not only made the Ukraine trip, but notified the Russians hours before it happened that it was about to take place. The sheer scope of this move has yet to be adequately understood. Kyiv is not a city where life is back to normal. Air raids, Russian missiles, drones, food shortages, lack of electricity, water and other assorted mayhem are a part of daily life in a large city that sits perilously close to major fighting and was up for grabs less than a year ago. The strategic and tactical considerations involved in getting Biden in and out of that country safely were mere theories until the U.S. accomplished the task.
Not only did U.S. intelligence and defense elements have to deal with possible Russian military action, they also had to consider Ukrainian infrastructure problems and the Ukrainian troops who would indirectly support Biden's visit. Planning for presidential trips is never easy. In this case It was a monumental undertaking and the U.S. military was given a near impossible task: How do you keep our president safe in a war zone we don't control?
There are no higher stakes. Understand that. If Biden had died in Ukraine, it would be the for-real beginning of World War III, and suddenly everyone would be trying to corner the market on level 3000 sunscreen. Was it wise? Was Biden a loose cannon on the deck? Was it a cavalier decision made by a president with a slim grasp on reality? Was it pure genius?
Whatever you may think about the decision, in the event Biden got in and out of the country without a scratch. The U.S. military, our intelligence networks and our Ukrainian allies performed beyond admirably. It was, without a doubt, one of the military and intelligence community's finest hours — not because of the shots taken, but because no shots were taken.
If U.S. strategists had any trepidation about planning and executing this trip, they obviously shelved those, because at the end of the day Biden was putting his own life on the line. He made that decision.
Are there other world leaders who would do the same? Volodymyr Zelenskyy famously did when he remained in Kyiv as the war began and asked the world to help his country, instead of taking a quick Uber to Poland. That was obviously part of the inspiration for Biden's trip to an international capital that is still very much under siege.
But there few other world leaders, particularly those who are authoritarian and fear their own constituents, would decide to show up in such a dicey situation. The criticism from those in Congress sounds even more hollow considering the leadership Biden's actions demonstrate for the rest of the world. He showed true grit.
Are there other world leaders who would dare to enter a war zone their own forces didn't control? Name one, Republicans: Donald Trump wouldn't go out in the rain to honor American war dead.
Who among those members of Congress would have the courage to talk with a foreign leader while air raid sirens warn of a possible attack? Under those conditions, Josh Hawley would do his "Chariots of Fire" impression while Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan would probably run screaming, flapping their hands as if their hair was on fire. Let them go to Ukraine and see the facts — if they dare.
Greene is wailing about the need for a "national divorce" while Biden is rallying Americans to the side of freedom and democracy. George Santos will probably say he led Ukrainian troops at the Battle of Midway, while Jim Jordan would love to conduct hearings on whether Hunter Biden's laptop was used to tip off the Japanese before Pearl Harbor. These people only exist in the shadow-land of innuendo, fear and greed while their antics ruin the ability of others to think critically and understand reality. Unfortunately for us all, this muddying of the waters has occurred at a very precarious time.
The world is on the brink. Biden's trip to Ukraine was a giant thumbing of his nose (or a giant middle finger, if you prefer) to the Republicans, Putin, Russia and even China. His personal courage in showing up in Kyiv can be written off as an 80-year-old who can't think straight — but only if you're ignorant of the facts.
That brings us back to Fox News.
Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox for $1.6 billion for defaming the company during the 2020 presidential election by repeatedly airing claims that Dominion voting machines were hacked or otherwise overcome by a shadowy amalgamation of Democrats, shysters and foreign spies to bring about Trump's demise and install Biden as president. Those machines were central to the fictional narrative weaved by Fox and others to support Trump.
It was all part of the Big Lie.
Thing is, top executives at Fox knew there were no facts behind these ludicrous claims, but that didn't stop them, along with most of the on-air talent, from broadcasting the lies. Millions of Americans believed it all. That disinformation campaign directly led to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the loss of lives and a nation that is now unable to agree on the simplest of facts.
Without a free press, democracy is a joke. Without an honest press, the joke's on us.
Fox News is a joke. Our democracy is on the brink of being little more than a joke, but one thing that isn't a joke is a president willing to visit a war zone our military doesn't control, literally putting his life on the line while cowards back home call for a "national divorce" and undermine our Constitution.
The irony is that the U.S. government's 40-year assault on the First Amendment, free speech and the free press has created the environment that gives us people like Greene, enables Fox News and gives us an administration that correctly tells us we aren't doing our job. Our government was compromised ... wait for it ... by our government.
Yes, we know: The press is dying and government is killing it. Our country has been laid low by 40 years of inadequate, detrimental leadership.
Fox News is a cruel joke and our democracy is on the brink of collapse. But Joe Biden put his life on the line while cowardly Republicans stayed home and whined about it.
Joe Biden, therefore, offers an even more stunning study in personal and political courage. He had the courage to go to Ukraine. He had the courage to walk into a city without the support of the U.S. military during a time of war and palpable danger. He showed himself, with that one move, to have far more courage and resolve than most of the tinhorn dictators across the globe. I mean, he walked out of a war zone unscathed and showed what America was all about: standing by our friends.
But is he the profile in courage we need today, right now, to stand up to the corporations and our own government, filled as it is with those who have conspired to destroy the free press and make real accomplishments hard to see behind the sewage thrown at us for our amusement by Greene, Santos, et al.?
That may ultimately be the question history asks of Joe Biden. When the world needed government to open itself up to the governed, did he rise to that challenge? Will he? Or is he a poser; another failed leader who didn't stand up and act against the rich who are trying to dominate and demoralize the rest of us?
Who knew it would be easier to risk getting shot at on foreign soil than to stand up to the hypocrisies of our own government and big corporations?
There's the real story.
