For all his warmth and folksy appeal, President Joe Biden's leadership technique falls woefully short when it comes to military strategy. His disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan continues to have humanitarian reverberations. He was notoriously flip-floppy when it came to Iraq, voting against the first war in 1991 after dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait yet supporting the unnecessary 2003 invasion. Biden dissented when President Barack Obama launched the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. Militarily, he seems to call it wrong more often than he calls it right.

Here's Biden's own self-assessment in 1993 regarding the first Gulf war: "I think I was proven to be wrong" in voting against it. After the 2011 bin Laden raid, he made it sound like it was his idea all along: "We delivered justice to Osama bin Laden and we degraded the terrorist threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan."

Biden declared on Feb. 10 that under no circumstances would he send U.S. troops to fight in Ukraine. "That's a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another," he told NBC News.

No one wants to risk a U.S.-Russian confrontation that could result in a nuclear exchange, presumably including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Russian leader, however, is clearly testing how far he can go without prompting a U.S. military response, having witnessed U.S. fecklessness in Afghanistan and the tepid U.S. response when Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine and annexed it. It was under a Democratic administration that Russia was able to invade Afghanistan in 1979 without challenge. And now the Democratic U.S. president has ruled out a U.S. military response as a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine looms.

What possible strategic advantage did Biden see in broadcasting this, aside from reassuring his domestic audience? Biden is known for his tendency to let words fumble out of his mouth at inopportune, high-stakes moments. He should have learned from his predecessor about the dangers of riffing. Much as former President Donald Trump talked about never broadcasting his military intentions, he did exactly that with the commitment that tied Biden's hands to withdraw from Afghanistan as part of a peace deal with the Taliban. The result in Afghanistan was to give the Taliban a green light to seize control, knowing no U.S. military repercussions would follow.

Biden actually has done a remarkable job uniting the disparate political forces across Europe to speak with one voice when it comes to the harsh economic sanctions that Putin would face if he proceeds with the Ukraine invasion. That unity might be the single factor deterring Putin so far from attacking. But Putin's recent talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping may have assured him that China would come to his economic rescue. Knowing that a U.S. military response won't be coming, what is there left to hold Putin back?

REPRINTED FROM THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Photo credit: klimkin at Pixabay