War in Ukraine | Biden on FDR’s footsteps?

By refusing to engage the armed forces in the conflict, the president uses the same strategy as the one who occupied his post when the Second World War broke out.

Richard Hetu
special collaboration

(New York) “In my opinion, it’s the equivalent of 1^er September 1939, the start of World War II,” Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia under Barack Obama, told US television on Thursday morning.

It remains to be seen whether Joe Biden will have to resolve to follow in the footsteps of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Two days after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, on the 32^and President had renewed his commitment not to send American soldiers into the European fray. His promise was only to last for a time.

Hours after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Joe Biden repeated a similar promise: “Let me say it again: our forces are not – and will not be – engaged in the conflict with the Russia in Ukraine. »

But by announcing the deployment of 7,000 additional soldiers in Germany, he wanted to send a message to Russia and to NATO countries that border Ukraine, Belarus or Russia.

“As I have made very clear, the United States will defend every inch of NATO territory with all American might,” he said.

According to him, this promise could have serious consequences, given the intentions he attributes to Vladimir Putin.

If he is right, February 24, 2022 may end up marking the start of World War III.

An international pariah

In the meantime, Joe Biden continues to bet on “tough” economic sanctions as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During his Thursday address at the White House, he announced new ones, which will target Russian banks, elites and exports.

“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war. And now he and his country will suffer the consequences,” he said after denouncing a “premeditated” attack that will cause widespread human suffering.

“Putin’s aggression against Ukraine will end up costing Russia dearly – economically and strategically. We will make Putin a pariah on the international stage,” he added.

The new sanctions will deprive major Russian banks and companies of their access to Western financial markets and limit technology exports to Russia. They will also freeze trillions of dollars in Russian assets, including funds controlled by members of the Russian elite and their families.

VTB, one of the four banks targeted by the new sanctions, is the second largest in Russia. It has $250 billion in assets.

In a tweet published after his intervention, the 46^and President welcomed “the impact [des] actions on the Russian currency – the ruble – which at the beginning of the day reached its new weakest on record”.

“The Russian stock market plunged today. And the Russian government’s borrowing rate has exceeded 15%,” he added.

“A long game of patience”

But Joe Biden has not exhausted the arsenal of sanctions at his disposal. He did not personally target Vladimir Putin, an option that remains “on the table”, he said.

Nor did he choose to cut Russia off from the Swift interbank network, an essential cog in international finance, or to sanction the Russian central bank, as demanded by Democratic and Republican parliamentarians.

“We should have imposed sanctions sooner – strict, crippling sanctions,” Republican New York State Representative Claudia Tenney said on Fox News, in turn deploring Joe Biden’s “diplomatic weakness”.

Some experts believe that this kind of reasoning betrays a misunderstanding of what sanctions can accomplish.

“If Vladimir Putin is determined to annex part of Ukraine or all of Ukraine, there is nothing to be done to stop him except to use military force,” said Garret Martin, a specialist in transatlantic relations. and NATO at American University. “Penalties are part of a long game of patience, where you try to increase the cost of a given action. »

This standoff could also be costly for Americans, especially at the pumps. Joe Biden acknowledged this on Thursday by promising to tap into the strategic oil reserves of the United States in order to curb rising gasoline prices. But the game is worth the candle, he says.

“America stands up to the bullies,” he declared, appealing to the conscience of his compatriots.

After the invasion of Poland, Franklin Roosevelt had also tried to vibrate the moral fiber of the Americans in the face of the aggressions of Nazi Germany during one of his radio talks by the fireside: “This nation will remain a neutral nation , but I can’t ask every American to remain neutral in thought at the same time. »

We know the rest.