Mr. President: It’s Time to Speak to the American People
Reflections on World Politics: March 9, 2024
Our country is facing one of the most serious threats in recent history – attacks by a group of autocrats who are attempting to undermine democracy and causing violence and chaos in different regions of the world. The current battles in Ukraine and the Middle East are devastating examples of this chaos and violence, and these conflicts – along with others that are taking place or brewing around the globe – are linked together because of the support of the “Axis of Evil”: the four autocratic regimes of Russia, Iran, North Korea and China.
I have been studying international politics for decades and have often thought that serving as president of the United States is one of the most difficult jobs in the world. President Biden’s considerable achievement in building a partnership of more than 50 countries, including the United States, NATO’s 32 members, the European Union’s 27 members, and other countries was surely a surprise for Putin, who thought the U.S. was weak and leaderless. But more leadership is needed now.
Why is President Biden not directly addressing the American people on national television and clearly explaining the importance of this threat, offering a strategy to secure victory for the Ukrainians, and describing what will happen if Russia wins the war in Ukraine because the West failed to support “David” vs. “Goliath”? This critical information about the threat we face, its imminence, and the stakes for our country and the world is desperately important for Biden to share with the American people, especially considering our polarized political life and all of the distractions and tensions that come with an election year.
The blockage in the House of Representatives that is preventing further U.S. funding for ammunition and weapons for Ukraine’s struggle against Russia’s continuing brutal attacks is one of the strategic issues at stake. Even if funding is eventually approved by Congress, there are many related issues that need to be thoughtfully addressed and shared with the American people. This is not an unprecedented thing to do. Franklin D. Roosevelt talked to the American people about what our country needed to do to defeat Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, and Ronald Reagan used his presidency to declare the Soviet Union an “evil empire” and highlight the threat it posed to our country and the world.
President Biden’s talk about supporting Ukraine “as long as it takes” is not a strategy, and I think most Americans need to hear the president offer a specific plan with clear objectives about what the allies want to achieve in this conflict and why it is of critical importance. Biden should tell the American people what is really at stake in this struggle with Putin’s regime, and make it clear that the United States wants Ukraine to win this war. Put another way, the President needs to articulate not only that Russia’s defeat is the goal we must achieve, but also why we must achieve it.
Our leaders in Congress need to come to agreement without linking Ukrainian support to other complex issues, even important ones like border security. Most Americans see the war between Russia and Ukraine as “somewhat” or “very” important to U.S. national interests (74% according to Pew Research Center), so why are we tolerating a small number of right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats who are blocking support for additional aid to Ukraine at this critical time?
As I have repeatedly stressed in these Reflections, the president needs to discuss Vladimir Putin’s long history of engaging in war that he and other autocrats seek to secure their political power and suppress domestic opposition. War also shields the assets that autocrats have stolen from their people and parked in overseas accounts, mostly in the West. The president needs to remind the American people of all the wars that Putin has engaged in since he became president of Russia: the war with Georgia (2008), the intervention in Ukraine involving the seizure of Crimea and two regions of southern Ukraine (2014-present), military intervention in the Syrian civil war (2015-present), and three engagements in African conflicts (2018-present). These have been labeled Putin’s “Forever Wars.”
President Biden’s speech writers need to learn from the gifted democratic leaders in Europe about how to deal with threats from Russia. One remarkable example is Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s Foreign Minister, who confronted the Russian Ambassador at the United Nations by exposing the lies the Ambassador had just offered. Here are excerpts from his rebuttal:
Russians call Kyiv ‘clients’ of the West. “Actually, Kyiv is fighting to be independent of anybody.”
Russians call Ukrainians Nazis. “Actually, the president is Jewish, the defense minister is Muslim, and they have no political prisoners.”
Russians blame the war on U.S. neo-colonialism. “In fact, it is Russia that tried to exterminate Ukraine in the 19th century, again under the Bolsheviks, and this is the third attempt.”
Finally, in response to the Russian Ambassador’s claim that Russia can never be beaten, Sikorski said: “Russia didn’t win the Crimean War, it didn’t win the Russo-Japanese War, it didn’t win World War One, it didn’t win the Battle of Warsaw, it didn’t win in Afghanistan, and it didn’t win the Cold War. But there is good news! After each failure there were reforms.”
In another presentation, Sikorski noted that the United States has contributed about 5% of its annual military budget to support Ukraine’s defense and “Ukraine has already managed to destroy Putin’s combat capacity by 50 percent. Without any American troops firing a single shot. A truly stunning return on investment. And most of this money is spent here in the United States.” He concluded his talk by declaring that helping Ukraine defeat Putin is the right thing to do. “It is morally sound, strategically wise, militarily justified, and economically beneficial. It outweighs politics. It transcends partisanship.”
Another powerful message was offered by Robert M. Gates, based on his distinguished career as U. S. Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011 and his extensive work in foreign intelligence. Here are his insights: “American global leadership has provided 75 years of great-power peace – the longest stretch in centuries . . . And nothing makes war likelier than putting one’s head in the sand and pretending that the United States is not affected by events elsewhere . . . It is naïve to believe that Russian success in Ukraine will not lead to further aggression in Europe and possibly even a war between NATO and Russia . . . A world without reliable U. S. leadership would be a world of authoritarian predators, with all countries potential prey.”
President Biden needs to fearlessly share insights like these with the American people. When our country faces a serious threat like this, Americans need to understand the consequences of our country’s foreign policy decisions. Russia’s threatened attacks on any NATO country mean U. S. troops will be on the battlefield in Europe, and the cost of these expanded conflicts will be much more than the $60 billion currently under debate in the Congress.
This is also a challenge for us to share what we have learned about the war in Ukraine, Gaza/Israel, and other conflicts started by autocrats and their terrorist organizations. Let’s use the freedom we have in our democracy to talk with others who are indifferent or self-centered, because the price for ignoring these threats is far too great.
Helpful Resource:
Robert M. Gates, “The Dysfunctional Superpower,” Foreign Affairs (September 29, 2023).