(Image found here)
President Biden gave an excellent speech today in Warsaw. Here’s the video:
For those that would rather read it, here’s a link to the transcript.
Everyone, of course, decided to see and hear something else in the speech. Largely around the President’s off the cuff remark: “For God’s sake this man cannot remain in power.” The White House quickly walked the ad lib back.
A White House official said Biden’s remarks did not represent a shift in Washington’s policy.
“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbours or the region,” the official said. “He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change.”
The Kremlin was not thrilled with the speech, which should come as no surprise to anyone.
The Kremlin dismissed a remark by U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday that Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power,” saying it was up to Russians to choose their own president.
Asked about Biden’s comment, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters: “That’s not for Biden to decide. The president of Russia is elected by Russians.”
The Kremlin was not the only audience that had issues with either this specific ad lib or the speech as a whole. A considerable amount of the US foreign and nat-sec commentariat on social media is not amused and/or concerned (not a representative sample at the links).
Responses from Ukrainians were also mixed.
Biden's speech in Warsaw doesn't seem to have instilled much confidence in Ukrainians. I've seen and heard several comments similar to this one from Inna, who is a member of Ukraine's parliament. https://t.co/2tLka5tHXH
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) March 26, 2022
Daria is one of Ukraine’s most prominent anti-corruption activists and researchers. https://t.co/1JqGiXaOWg
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) March 26, 2022
I think it was an excellent speech even with or despite the ad lib. President Biden is Joe Biden. What you see is what you get. And part of what you get is a man who has survived tragedies that would have broken many other people and, as a result, has an internal store of empathy and righteous rage that, like a Tardis, is clearly bigger on the inside. And today’s speech was a demonstration of both of those sentiments direct from the Biden Private Reserve. However, at the end of the day Ukrainians are the ones doing the fighting and the dying. Ukrainians are the ones watching their cities and their towns be bombarded into dust. Ukrainians are the ones wondering what is happening to their relatives and friends in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine that are besieged or occupied by the Russians, who are cut off, starving, and facing forced deportation and relocation.
It is from this reality that President Zelenskyy’s very clear frustration is coming from:
Zelensky: If Ukraine doesn’t receive planes, Russia could threaten neighbors. President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a video conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, stated that he was disappointed that Ukraine had not received Polish MiG-29 jets.
Zelensky: Impossible to save Mariupol without additional tanks, planes. “Ukraine cannot shoot down Russian missiles with shotguns and machine guns,” the president said during his latest address. 1/2
He added that Ukraine is waiting too long for the required weapons. “Who is leading the Euro-Atlantic community? Is it still Moscow through intimidation?” Zelensky added. 2/2
As well as the current member of the Ukrainian parliament, the former minister, and the head of a Ukrainian anti-corruption NGO that Christopher Miller spotlighted above.
As I keep writing, this is a war, not a trade negotiation. And for the Ukrainians it is an existential war. Ukraine gets to define its needs, not the US or NATO. All the US and NATO get to do is determine which of those needs it will fill and which it won’t. Hopefully with a very good explanation justifying the decision. Ukraine gets to define what terms it will seek in negotiations, whether immediate ones to achieve humanitarian cease fires or the ones that will eventually come when the war is over, not the US and NATO. If we’re not going to assume the risk and actually join the fight, then we don’t get the privilege of dictating terms to the Ukrainians.
More after the jump.