You have to wonder what great disconnect happened in the minds of conservatives who are agitating for war with Russia.  Given their rhetoric, war is what they’re flirting with.  Putin, per the invective, is a butcher, war criminal, Hitler clone, and madman.  They want Putin exiled to Siberia or dead.  They want a no-fly zone and Russian convoys bombed.  Regime change in Russia is a must.  Ukrainians alone aren’t going to make that happen.  We must do more, they insist. 

Sounds like war talk, doesn’t it?    

We get that the military-industrial complex (hat tip: Dwight Eisenhower) and D.C.’s foreign policy and defense establishment are self-interested and appear to want war, but shouldn’t conservatives know better? 

A war with Russia -- even if somehow justified -- requires a leader, a capable, sensible leader, to name two basic qualities.  How does Joe Biden measure up? 

We wonder what pro-war conservatives are thinking.  Prior to Putin’s invasion, these conservative stalwarts routinely excoriated Biden for his total incompetence, habitual lying, corruption, and pushing a leftist agenda that has only begun hurting Americans.      

What alchemy changed their perceptions of Biden?  How have they concluded that he’s fit to lead this nation in a major war against nuclear-armed Russia (tactically armed to the teeth, no less)? 

Wasn’t it just last August when our commander-in-chief insisted on an ignominious retreat from Afghanistan, abandoning billions of dollars in weapons and equipment to the Taliban and, worse, heartlessly leaving behind Americans and Afghan allies by the score?  During the rush for the exit, didn’t thirteen American soldiers needlessly die in a terrorist attack on Karzai International Airport?  Never forget those brave Americans.    

In the aftermath, wasn’t there a huge outcry about Biden’s complete failure and crass motives from the conservative chattering class and just about every congressional Republican who could find a podium, mic, and camera?     

Why did Biden make decisions that led to disaster?  For headlines.  With 9/11 approaching, Biden wanted to hurry up.  9/11 was to be a publicity hook, not a solemn remembrance.  Damn a gradual withdrawal, which Biden was advised would have been better -- that is, if you believe the media, whose sources were rear-covering military brass and intelligence lifers.  

What happened to war hawks’ indignation over Biden’s Afghanistan folly?  Lessons forgotten?  How did Biden suddenly transform from a gross incompetent and headline-grabbing hack politician into a possible war leader?

There’s no escaping that Joe Biden is The Man in the event of major conflict with Russia.  That’s Joe Biden, who shuffles instead of walks, and who with every syllable uttered makes it abundantly clear that his mind wobbles.  Something of a surprise that the 82^nd Airborne was to be deployed in Ukraine, no?  Biden said so late last week in Poland to troops, but it proved another gaffe.  Then Biden called for Putin’s ouster.  The White House later walked back Biden’s remark.     

Mind you, Biden is prix fixe; there’s no Column A or Column B to choose from.  If you want to fight Russia, he’s the guy leading from behind… the guy who works short days at the White House and spends weekends at Camp David or one of his Delaware properties.    

Consider this.  If Biden falters, who leads the nation in the midst of war?  Folks, there’s no Harry Truman waiting in the wings.  There’s Kamala Harris -- lightweight, cackling Kamala.  In public appearance after public appearance, Kamala indicts herself as embarrassingly unfit to serve as Veep, never mind president.  Kamala’s Poland trip was pure buffoonery on display. 

In peace or war, should Biden be incapacitated or die, constitutionally, tag, Harris is it… she’s president, with all the “Buck Stops Here” authority of the office. 

How in the name of Lincoln or FDR does “President Harris” inspire confidence among gung-ho, warpath conservatives?  Not that President Biden compels us to grab our guns and march to Ukraine. 

There’s no replacing Kamala, the way some writers speculate.  Why would Harris surrender the vice presidency?  She wouldn’t fight a plot to remove her?  She’s a heartbeat away from a progressive box checker’s dream: being the first black female president.  And short of incapacitation, Biden isn’t resigning.  Invoke the 25^th Amendment?  That should have happened on Inauguration Day.  So, the country is stuck with the “Bad and Worse” tandem.         

For a moment, set aside your laundry list of Biden’s failures.  Focus on one, instead, because it had significant bearing on Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine.  

Biden gutted America’s energy independence.  He didn’t blunder in doing so, it was done with intent.  Biden’s decision has crimped our ability to export oil and gas.  American exports helped reduce global energy costs.  Higher costs for conventional energy have benefitted Putin, fattening Russia’s treasury.  As Vladimir Lenin might have said, Biden gave Putin the rope that he’s using to try to hang Ukraine.       

Biden wasted critical leverage.  His disregard for the strategic advantages of robust energy production happened because his myopic goal was to please his party’s green energy radicals.  They’re money and muscle for Democrats. 

How did Biden’s seeming corruption factor in Putin’s calculus to attack Ukraine? 

The FBI is investigating Hunter Biden’s dealings.  Hunter wasn’t acting on his behalf only, but his family’s, per reports.  The Bidens, it’s alleged, made millions off influence peddling schemes, notably with America’s two principal adversaries, China and Russia.  For instance, why did Hunter accept $ 3.5 million from Elena Baturina, the widow of Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov?

Putin, an old KGB hand, doubtlessly has a dossier on the Bidens’ questionable dealings in Russia.  Call it a blackmail file.  How that factored into Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine is unknown, but it’s an intriguing consideration.     

And Biden’s frailty and bumbling?  If we see it, Putin surely does, too, and accounted for it in his decision to make war.          

Biden’s poor leadership is bad enough, but his supporting cast is no better. 

Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin is a milquetoast whose principal assignment is building a woke military.  Secretary of State Tony Blinken is a namby-pamby, which is precisely what radical feminists and wokesters want from a man.  Why?  Because real men threaten them.  Blinken and his team took a browbeating from their Chinese opposites at the now infamous 2021 Anchorage, Alaska summit.        

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security advisor, actually stated publicly that Kabul would stand as Afghan government forces crumbled in the teeth of the Taliban onslaught.  If he didn’t know better, shame on him, the military, and U.S. intelligence agencies for being so completely clueless.  Shame on them anyway.  Nonetheless, Sullivan still has his job.   

Which brings us to Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Milley skirted sedition by communicating with his Chinese counterpart after Biden’s suspicious 2020 election victory.  Trump, Milley fretted, might have been so distraught by his defeat that he’d nuke the PRC.  Milley appears to have been atoning for General Buck Turgidson’s sins.  Life mimics art.  Russian generals show Milley no respect; they’re refusing to return his calls.  The Chinese surely alerted them about Milley’s prank.  Milley, a consummate D.C. toady, eagerly pushes the Democrats’ woke agenda.                            

Finally, there are White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain and Obama shill Susan Rice.  They have day-to-day control of executive branch affairs.  If you think that Biden’s incredible track record of serial failures is his alone, think again.    

If Biden and his crew are bad enough without war, imagine them manning the helm with a major war underway.  We pray we never find out. 

J. Robert Smith can be found regularly at Gab @JRobertSmith.  He also blogs at Flyover.  

Image: Gage Skidmore