Editorial -- The US Superman Complex

On July 18th, Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace outlined Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objectives in the New York Times. First, to seize control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Russia, which have a lot more Russian speakers. Secondly, to force Ukraine to capitulate, followed by what Mr. Putin calls “denazification.” Third, in Mr. Putin’s thinking, fundamental political shifts in Western countries will bring about a much friendlier environment with leaders such as Viktor Orban (Hungary), Marine Le Pen (France), and Donald Trump at the helm. 

I would add that Mr. Putin has a fourth objective – that of not allowing nuclear weapons that would only take five minutes to reach Moscow. This is an objective that has been shared by most other Russian leaders. In 1979, when a pro-US government took control in Afghanistan, it raised alarm bells in the Kremlin, which feared that the US was planning to station nuclear missiles there. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 was prompted in part by the US stationing nuclear missiles in Turkey. And the final straw for Mr. Putin was when Ukraine talked openly about withdrawing from the 1994 treaty which saw it give up its nukes in return for security guarantees from the US and UK.

So how should the US respond? There was a Superman movie in which he decided to take it on himself to stop nuclear war by flying all over the world and intercept any missiles that were launched. But at the end, even Superman realized the limits of his powers and said that it was up to the peoples of the world to find out ways to live together without fear of nuclear annihilation.

This is the problem with the Biden Administration. Mr. Biden is under the delusion that he can somehow be everywhere at once. Let’s say that everything Official US Sources ™ say about Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are true and their leaders are all bad people bent on world domination. The question is, how do we prioritize? Maybe, instead of playing world policeman and driving up gas and food prices, destroying our supply chains, and taking us to the brink of nuclear war, the US should sanction the people and companies egging on Mr. Putin, focus on protecting its NATO allies, and leave the rest up to the people of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.