How Biden sparked a global uproar with nine ad-libbed words about Putin
I have excerpted virtually the entire article so that you can read what different xperts think. But with shameful hubris I ask respectfully that you read what I, a flamboyant non-expert, think first:
The president ad-libbed, which is contraindicated in a major speech in the middle of a war, but he ad-libbed his true feelings. The admin should not try to walk them back. Their first attempt is the definition of "lame" if you look it up in your Webster's. Biden believes down to the depths of his soul that we are in a clash of civilizations, or as he said repeatedly during the campaign, a global fight for democracy versus autocracy and dictatorship. It is a very Manichean world view:
“We must remain unified today and tomorrow and the day after, and for the years and decades to come. It will not be easy. There will be costs, but the price we have to pay, because the darkness that drives autocracy is ultimately no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.”
As are, by the by, the words of the Internationale, ("This is the final struggle") the anthem of world communism that Putin sung along as a Soviet spy. And the president may be correct to have a Manichean world view, but Manichean world views sometimes (often?) result in apocalyptic worlds.
As some point out below there is a logic to Biden's heart ad-libbing away from the TelePrompter script: sanction their economy back to the fax machine and teletype age--> "War criminal"-->"butcher"-->"this man cannot remain in power."
I have wondered if you can even legally negotiate with a war criminal. "War criminal" was also ad libbed, Sec. Blinken also said POTUS was speaking from the heart then. A couple days later Blinken said, "Well yeah, we now have the evidence and Putin is a war criminal.” It has seemed to me, if not to the xperts, that in fact there is no going back from Russia's tenth-century bludgeoning of a civilian population, the killing of children, the raping of women. It is my opinion that the West should segregate Russia (and probably China). Integration in the global economy that nudges integrated states toward democratic government has been disproved flamboyantly. I am for reimposition of apartheid between the West and Russia (and maybe China).
In sum, we don't have to live with Russia, I don't want to live with Russia, I would be so happy I would have to change my underwear hourly if I never had to think of Russia and her dumbass security paranoia. And more to the point, regime change is what the American president truly believes. He has cogent reasons for his beliefs. Russia can dig in its heels all it wants but you know what? They are on their back heels with all these attacks. They are shamed. This stuff really has the Kremlin reeling. They thought at some level in their Russian pea brains that America would still want to work with them after Ukraine. "Give them time, those decadent Americans are also irresolute." President Biden, NATO, and the EU could hardly be more clear that "Putin badly miscalculated" in his bedrock worldview. It is this simple: The president is fucking D-O-N-E with Russia. "Have a nice day Rooski, write often from 1998." Or as Tom Friedman said, "I hope Putin likes North Vietnamese and Chinese food." As long as we can prevent WW III you cannot drive Russia too far out of mind or too far back in time.
WARSAW — During his presidential campaign, President Biden often reminded his audience about the heavy weight that the words of a president can carry.
“The words of a president matter,” he said more than once. “They can move markets. They can send our brave men and women to war. They can bring peace.”
OWWEEE!
They can also, as Biden discovered on Saturday, spark a global uproar in the middle of a war.
With nine ad-libbed words at the end of a 27-minute speech, Biden created an unwanted distraction to his otherwise forceful remarks by calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be pushed out of office.
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said.
It…immediately reverberated around the world as world leaders, diplomats, and foreign policy experts sought to determine what Biden said, what it meant — and, if he didn’t mean it, why he said it.
“I guess you can call this a gaffe from the heart,” Miller said. “If Biden could close his eyes tomorrow and have 10 wishes, one would be there’s a leadership change in Russia.”
…
“What it tells me, and worries me, is that the top team is not thinking about plausible war termination. If they were, Biden’s head wouldn’t be in a place where he’s saying, ‘Putin must go.’ When you say this guy must go you’ve essentially declared you’re not going to do business with him. However appealing at an emotional level, it’s not going to happen. We can’t control it, and it probably won’t take place anytime soon.” said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution…
Over the past few weeks, Biden’s rhetoric on Putin — a man he once recounted telling to his face, “I don’t think you have a soul” — has become increasingly pointed. He has called him a “butcher” “pure thug” and a “murderous dictator.” So saying that he should be removed from power could viewed as the logical next step.
It also is in line with Biden at times articulating policy before his aides are ready. Last week, he called Putin a “war criminal,” which White House aides quickly said was simply him “speaking from the heart.” But within a few days, U.S. policy changed as Blinken also called Putin a war criminal and released a formal assessment on war crimes committed by Russia.
…
Some officials, both in the U.S. and abroad, said Biden’s comment was an honest acknowledgment of reality — the U.S. will likely never have a normal relationship with Putin after the invasion. But the bigger worry may be that, in the short term, Biden’s rhetoric could escalate tensions and make any diplomatic off-ramp harder to find.
“There ought to be two priorities right now: ending the war on terms Ukraine can accept, and discouraging any escalation by Putin. And this comment was inconsistent with both of those goals… it confirms [Putin’s] worst fears, which is that this is what the United States seeks. His ouster and systemic change. What’s frustrating about this is, up to now, the Biden administration has conducted itself with significant discipline. … This goes against the grain of their handling of this crisis. The problem is, from Putin’s point of view the president revealed his and our true intentions.” said Richard Haas, a veteran diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
David Rothkopf, a foreign-policy analyst and CEO of the Rothkopf Group, compared Biden’s speech to President John F. Kennedy’s speech in Berlin expressing solidarity with German citizens in 1963.
“There is within Biden’s comment a kernel of truth. Vladimir Putin can’t lay waste to a country, kill tens of thousands of civilians, commit serial war crimes and expect to be welcomed back into the community of nations. If Russia wants to be part of the community of nations, then they are going to have to produce change.”
“The statement I think is naturally going to be a bit of lightning rod as it has already been. It shouldn’t distract from the much more important speech, but it also wasn’t wrong.”
