iden


WARNING President Joe Biden, giving his State of the Union speech on March 1, deviated from his prepared remarks, saying of Putin: “He has no idea what’s coming.”


nalized away by the media and progressives, Afghanistan was an entirely different matter. As I write in my new book,


April 1945: The Hinge of History, in 1945, America was a nation emboldened by victory. In 2022, we are a nation humbled by de- feat.


The euphoria of defeating


the Nazis, Italian Fascists, and the Empire of Japan provided America with the gravitas and largesse necessary to take com- mand on the global stage. This strength is what permit-


ted us to repel the subsequent encroachment of the Iron Cur- tain and eventually defeat the Evil Empire. Yet, in 2022, the loss of


America’s longest war still looms heavily in the hearts of millions of Americans. Seeing America “cut and


run,” leaving allies and Ameri- can citizens behind, was a hu- miliating loss. One that our al- lies rightfully chastised us for. Our most prominent friends


— Germany, France, and the U.K. — broke with America and criticized President Biden for his failure. For Biden’s part, he did his best to oscillate between taking the credit for making the “tough decision” to end the war and absolving himself for how it ended by claiming Trump’s treaty forced his hand with the Taliban, a laughably false excuse. But let’s set those failures


aside and focus squarely on Ukraine. To their credit, the U.S.


intelligence community was incredibly accurate in assess- ing the satiation and Vladimir Putin’s intention. This means that Biden had more time to prepare than any of our allies. With that advantage, he


planned out a series of incre- mental sanctions that would escalate in severity as Putin’s war plans escalated. He intended to do this in


union with the EU and NATO, projecting the image of a uni- fied West. Critically, he refused to pass any of the more severe sanctions until Putin explicitly launched the invasion. The justification was a re-


fusal to give Putin a “pretense” for invasion. This, of course, raises another question: If he knew Putin was going to in- vade without a pretense, why was Biden so fixated on not giving Putin a pretense? This approach was a re-


sounding failure. NATO, the EU, and the U.S. disagreed on a strategic approach before Pu- tin launched his invasion. The primary reason for


this failure was straightfor- ward: energy. Europe’s liberal- backed strategy to end climate change is simple. Invest heav- ily in renewable technology, eliminate all unwanted domes- tic fuels (oil, natural gas, and nuclear), and rely on imports in the short term to offset their energy needs until they can go 100% renewable. And just who are they pri-


The euphoria of defeating the Nazis, Italian Fascists, and the Empire of Japan provided America with the gravitas and largesse necessary to take command on the global stage.


marily relying upon to fill these “short-term” needs? That’s right, Russia. As much as 60% of the EU’s en- ergy needs come from imports. It turns out conservatives were right all along; Energy inde- pendence is a national security issue. You can’t run cars on


windmills and solar panels. Now, the global community


has rushed to sanction Russia as comprehensively as possi- ble. Biden’s incremental sanc- tions were scrapped, and he is doing his best to keep up. Yet, Biden shows no sign of


employing his greatest weap- on.


If Biden met with gas pro-


ducers and rescinded some of his aggressive anti-energy executive orders, we would fill the energy needs of Europe and ensure Putin’s isolation in- definitely. The energy is needed, and Americans produce it cleaner than Russia does. There is lit- erally no reason to oppose the move other than partisan poli- tics: Biden’s base would hate it. Biden is trapped in his own ideology. In the last 50 years, only one


president has taken on the Iron Curtain and won. That man is Ronald Reagan. The 40th president under-


stood better than any other American leader that Russian leaders only respect action and strength. As Reagan said, “No one


ever pushed Jack Dempsey around.” Putin will take exactly as


much as he can get. When Biden let Afghanistan col- lapse, when he let our inter- national coalition falter, and when he let Russia build up over 200,000 soldiers on the border of Ukraine without sub- stantive sanctions, he signaled the weakness of the West. Thankfully, where he failed,


Zelenskyy succeeded. He did more to rally the West than Biden ever dreamed of. People are already calling him the Winston Churchill of this war. If only America had an FDR. Or a Reagan.


APRIL 2022 | NEWSMAX 65


SARAHBETH MANEY-POOL/GETTY IMAGES


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