Send in the Clowns – Opinion

As Russia’s incursion into Ukraine continues along with the threat of further action on the horizon, America’s foreign policy establishment has once again been pushed to the forefront. As part of this group, President Joe Biden gave an alarmingly weak speech Tuesday in which he used insults to Vladimir Putin as a response.

The national conversation had shifted to talking about Donald Trump, who is not relevant to current events, and the House GOP’s assertion that Biden was weak. As evening approached, hand-wringing over Tucker Carlson as being supposedly “pro-Putin” commenced.

Soon, those same people who were wrong on almost all major foreign policy issues over the past half century became more interested in tone-policing the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine.

Why do Trump and Pompeo both use precise word “savvy” to describe Putin?

— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) February 22, 2022

Good morning. It is important to remind you that Vladimir Putin has been a brutal thug. Ukraine also has the right to its own sovereignty.

— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) February 23, 2022

I can’t think of something Putin cares less about than how American commentators and former government officials describe him. As has been so many times in history, we value virtue-signaling more than the development of an effective strategy. Calling Putin a thug or suggesting he’s dumb is not a solution to the situation unfolding. In fact, it’s counter-productive to so misunderstand and underestimate one’s adversary.

Let’s put this in context: While Putin was busy planning his grand move, these were the activities of the top State Department minds. This is the American ineptness at foreign policy.

Each day the chorus becomes louder. We call on the Russian government not to escalate and instead choose diplomacy. Leaders who have shown leadership are my support. #UnitedWithUkraine. pic.twitter.com/aoM2UfMAdm

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) February 20, 2022

That video was essentially the extent of the West’s plan to counter Russia’s aggression, and it’s the epitome of the pathetic hashtag diplomacy we’ve seen so much of during the Obama and Biden administrations. Putin may have been playing chess while his most ardent critics were content to play checkers. To discuss this reality, and to understand what it means for U.S. security in practice, is to accept accusations of treason.

While many were spouting about Trump’s genius plan, Putin was actually busy executing his genius plan. It is possible to continue virtue signaling and understand the person you’re dealing with, so that you can effectively counter him. https://t.co/OBzThfdYMY

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 23, 2022

That’s not going to happen, though. No lessons have been learned by our foreign policy superiors from the utter failures they made in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They continue to think that Putin and other despots care little about them or their condemnations. Yet, they continue to ignore the actions that can actually improve the status quo. How much more efficient would it be to increase Western energy production in order to hurt Russian leverage than calling Putin a doo-head on Twitter.

Does anyone think that our foreign policy experts are capable of suggesting such a thing? It is not. Instead, Trump and Tucker Carlson should be the priority. It is as though international events can only be solved by domestic wrong-think. Never mind that it is an authoritarian notion that one can’t speak with nuance about geopolitical issues without being called a traitor.

These facts should remind us all of Washington’s mediocre, unqualified smart set. Never has a group of people been given more for producing less, and that’s a fact not lost on the average American. They see the same people who have cost them so dearly for decades once again trying to dictate what they can say and what the country must do, and they aren’t ready to take that same ride again.

In the end, that was the core of Tucker Carlson’s critique that drew so much consternation. He invited people to think for themselves WhyIt was not an invitation to hate Vladimir Putin. Instead, it was a suggestion that you shouldn’t just blindly follow whatever the over-credentialed class demands. What did they do to achieve such power?