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Joe managed to find his way back to the White House after his first trip abroad. He held meetings with the heads of state and government of the G7 countries together with the heads of state and government of NATO and the European Union (EU). It made the usual good-sounding public statements that probably mean nothing.
Then he held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. I didn’t hear if anyone noticed if their front pants were wet after they got out of the meeting. He then held a press conference where he slapped his chest and boasted of the grave warnings he had given Vladimirovich if the Russian President did not change his behavior.
There is also a photo of Joe shaking hands with Vladimir Vladimirovich. I wonder if Joe counted his fingers after that because this Russian is tricky.
I’m sure Joe didn’t let Vladimir Vladimirovich tremble in his shoes. Indeed, things are going well for the Russian leader and empty rhetoric on Joe’s side will go no further than Barack Obaloney.
Vladimir Vladimirovich gets what he wants in Belarus. He would like to include Belarus into Russian, but would be content to be able to station significant Russian troops there. Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko was able to keep Vladimir Vladimirovich at a distance and play him and the EU off against each other. Now he can no longer do that after his little air piracy in the west made him an outcast. Reactions in the European Union and the UK have pushed him into the bear’s loving embrace.
He is afraid of him almost all of Europe. Russian troops are still standing at the Ukrainian border. Vladimir Vladimirovich has no plans to invade Ukraine – at least the cautious ex-KGB colonel doesn’t want to. He would prefer to intimidate the Ukrainian government into agreeing to an agreement on two separatist oblasts that are favorable to him. The intimidation stems from the fact that if Vladimir Vladimirovich wanted to move Russian troops to the two separatist areas of Ukraine, no one could stop him. Again, he’d rather not invade since war is a risky business, but the fact that he could makes him a believable unspoken threat.
Sweden is terrified of Russia, enough that it has increased its actual military spending and is holding exercises to counter a Russian attempted invasion. It is very unlikely that Russia will invade Sweden, but the Swedes are still scared.
China is in the east. The G7 harshly criticized China’s aggressive behavior, causing the usual hysterical screams in Beijing. China’s government cannot bear to be criticized. In reality, the Chinese government does not feel threatened because the Chinese dictator Xi Jinping knows that everything is empty rhetoric. Most of the G7 countries are whores who don’t want to risk disrupting their economic ties with China to actually do something.
For Vladimir Vladimirovich, something similar is an important reason to be careful with any threatening rhetoric of the G7. Note that Joe didn’t even attempt sanctions to block work on Nord Stream 2, the natural gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea that will bring Russian natural gas to Europe. Germany, which absolutely wants Russian natural gas, has spoken out loudly against sanctions and Joe has participated.
Another reason neither China nor Russia are particularly concerned about Joe’s serious warnings is because America’s ability to go beyond the stern warnings is waning. Our military is in decline. Joe’s multi-trillion dollar budget includes only a 1.6 percent increase in military spending – an increase that is less than the rate of inflation. A Wall Street Journal editorial in the June 16 issue of the journal stated that we need a 3-5 percent increase in military spending to keep up with China and Russia.
America’s lack of defense spending is particularly detrimental to the Navy. It takes a long time to build ships. With 350 ships, China’s navy is already bigger than ours and China is building more. We’re also building more ships, but we’re retiring existing ships faster than we’re building new ones. If we don’t change course now, China could run the risk of provoking war with us in another 20 years.
Of course, Congress will have the final say on the budget, and it may be cheaper for the armed forces than it is now. But I bet it will be way below what is needed.
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