It is not a surprise that Ukraine is under siege.  After all, the O-Biden administration has been saying for some time that Russia would invade.  So are we surprised?  Should we be surprised?  We should not.

We should not be surprised that Putin has the stones to take "Russian territory" back.  We should not be surprised that our climate change bona fides have done nothing to affect sea levels or carbon loads, but we did, in fact, line the pockets of regimes that hate us.  We trashed thousands of Keystone Pipeline–related jobs, touched off the biggest increase in inflation since Jimmy Carter, and hurt the little guy more than the big bankers and tech giants.

Energy independence achieved under Donald Trump did more than prime our economy, allow jobs to flourish for every stratum of Americans, and allow affluence to grow more in lower-income strata than in the top earner echelons.  Perhaps an equally important outcome of our energy effort was the effect the price of oil had on our enemies.  

Fracking was the key to taking money from the oil exporters we classify as enemies of our American way.  Russia, Iran, and Venezuela come to mind.  The price of a barrel of oil during Trump's stewardship hovered between $40 and $60 per.  It is now about $100 and it is likely going to go up some more.  Russia alone has profited by approximately $50 billion in the time the O-Biden administration has been "in charge."  That will buy a lot of military hardware.

Was it known that American energy independence was causing hardship to our enemies?  Certainly "the smartest people in the room" were aware.  While disparaging Trump for being soft on Russia, the current clowns in charge decided to bless NordStream 2, give Putin's Russia a big-time payday with record oil prices, and kick our signature on the Budapest Memorandum into the toilet. 

What is the Budapest Memorandum?  You should look it up; you'll learn that when Clinton was prez, we (among other countries) guaranteed Ukraine's sovereignty if it would give up the nuclear weapons the failed Soviet Union had placed there behind the Iron Curtain.  It was December of 1994 when we "stood up" for Ukraine's sovereignty.  So much for what we "guarantee" — our words and deeds are not worth the paper we sign the dotted line on.  In my youth, it was popularly regarded as speaking with a forked tongue by our thespians portraying American Indians.

The news media appear to be in fine form, bringing us the lowdown on what's going down in Ukraine.  They have glommed on to the "crisis" that we won't lift a finger for so that they can be journalists!  What could be more opportune to lift the disapproval of the media than a real honest-to-goodness war?  The reporters now on the street are reminiscent of the reporters blowing in the wind at hurricanes, tilting in the horizontal rain, and trying to be relevant.

Will we be surprised if China decides now is the time to harvest Taiwan?  Hardly.  We will be surprised if China does not leverage O-Biden fecklessness while the iron is tepid?  Is Iran encouraged by American weakness?  It may be that we are seeing the germination of a new world order, allowed and encouraged by the O-Biden elite.  What shoe will drop next?

Once again, Democrat foreign policy is instructive, as in: this is how not to do it.  World War I went down when Woodrow Wilson decided isolationism was the hot ticket.  Ditto for World War II, when Franklin Roosevelt did his Woodrow Wilson impression.  Democrats did an about-face with John Kennedy's State of the Union address when he suggested we would pay any cost, bear any burden, to promote freedom and to avoid being surprised when the world blew up in war yet again.  I wonder what they'll do if they are sitting on their hands again if we get World War III!

Democrat foreign policy has been the gift that keeps on giving, like an unwelcome rash.  Obama piled out of Iraq exactly when we could have claimed victory and started treating Iraq exactly as we treated Germany and Japan, who are now considered friends (at least Japan is).  An opportunity missed, by a mile.  Instead, we got ISIS. 

What have we got now?  A hot mess that we have no control over.  And we have Democrat foreign policy reminding us that they are large and in charge.  We should all be worried.  I know I am.

Graphic credit: YouTube screen grab.