Joe Biden's weak leadership on the international stage has led to an enormous international crisis.  Not only is he inept, but we need to speak plainly and call him out for what he really is: a disgrace.  Biden is complicit in the despicable crimes being committed against the Ukrainian people by his lack of action.  The United States of America has the military and political power to have already put an end to this, yet he has chosen to do the bare minimum, and as a result, thousands of people are needlessly dying, and mass destruction is being brought to a great and historic nation.

It is made all the worse when you consider that this man has no consistent policies rooted in any sort of logic.  He was the Senate sponsor of the failed Kosovo resolution, which still led to the Clinton administration committing war crimes against the Serbian people and murdering hundreds of civilians in the process.  He passionately insisted that he was in favor of bombing Belgrade, yet he is too afraid to confront Vladimir Putin, who is mercilessly bombarding the innocent people of Ukraine.  This sort of double-standard is unfitting of an American president, and the world is in great peril to have such a man as the de facto leader of the free world.

We must why it is okay to ignore the United States Congress in its refusal to endorse a military campaign against Yugoslavia, but when there is a wide-ranging outcry across the political spectrum to take more action in defense of Ukraine, he remains on the sidelines.  The American people have always been willing to step up and sacrifice in defense of freedom and for a just cause and righteous intent.  This is one of those moments in history.

This was the same supposed leader who made a campaign promise to hold the Saudi crown prince accountable for the murder of a journalist, which he then shamelessly broke.  His rushed, disorganized, and cowardly surrender of Afghanistan to a terrorist organization we had battled for two decades led to the deaths of 13 American service members and to countless friends and allies left behind and showed that the word and commitment of the United States means little in today's world.  Now we stand by as a nation that values and yearns for freedom faces a new evil, and we do relatively little.

While there is near-universal consensus on strong sanctions against Russia, and supplying the Ukrainians with whatever aid is required, this needlessly prolongs bloodshed and raises the real risk that an irrational and frustrated  Putin could use chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons.  How many more people have to die before America does what it has done so many times throughout history and stands strong as a shield of liberty against evil in the world?

In another sign of cowardice, the Biden administration shot down a Polish proposal to give Ukraine much-needed fighter jets for fear, yet again, of upsetting Putin, and that it could be viewed as "escalatory" in nature.  All one has to do is look at the ruins of what was once the city of Mariupol, the schools and shelters with innocents in them that by all accounts have been intentionally targeted, and ask, have things not already escalated to an unacceptable level?  The great cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv are being attacked relentlessly, and the brave Ukrainian defenders holding them at bay deserve more from us.

Highlighting the extraordinary gravity of this situation, the president of Poland, Andrzej Duda, recently said:

My countrymen, Poles, are looking today at Mariupol and are saying, "God" — they say it with tears in their eyes — "Mariupol looks like Warsaw did in 1944 when Nazis, Hitler's Germans, were brutally bombing houses, killing people, killing civilians with no mercy at all."

This is not a matter of liberal or conservative, left or right, hawk or dove.  It is time we do what is right.  The world still waits on the United States to lead.  If we stand up against the murderous despotism of Putin's regime by whatever means are necessary to end it as soon as possible, then Americans can once again call themselves the greatest nation on Earth.  The stakes are truly incredibly high, and we must face this challenge with valor and boldness, not with meekness and uncertainty.  We need real leadership to be shown now.

Ajay Bruno is a media and political strategist who has worked on behalf of a range of clients, including the Indian ambassador to the U.S., the Polish Consulate-General in NYC, FreedomWorks, and The Federalist Society.

Image: SkyNews/MSNBC video screen shot via YouTube.