The Washington Post reports that “after months of U.S. insistence that Ukraine did not need F-16s to fight its war with Russia, Washington finally relented to pressure, agreeing not to stop allied nations from sending Kyiv the advanced Western fighter jets it has long desired.”
This sentence is damning at two levels, at least. First, the notion that Team Biden knows more about what Ukraine needs to defend itself than the Ukrainians do is laughable. I discuss the need for F-16s below.
Second, if Team Biden is somehow correct in its assessment about Ukraine’s needs or if it legitimately fears that allowing our allies to send F-16s to the Ukrainians risks widening the war, it should stick to its position. According to the Post, Biden’s change of heart has nothing to do with changed circumstances in the war. Instead, he’s just giving in to “pressure” from Ukraine’s European allies.
In other words, Biden is “leading from behind,” just like the U.S. did during the Obama-Biden years. How pathetic!
As a result of Biden’s dithering, Ukraine won’t have F-16s in the air until late September or October, at the earliest. That’s more than a year later than would have been the case had Biden not delayed.
Moreover, the late September-October timetable may be too optimistic. According to the Post, the allies expected to supply the F-16s they obtained from the U.S. — the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland — need time to review their arsenals. And Ukraine’s pilots will need training — probably at least six months of it.
Once the F-16s are deployed, their main purpose will be to fire missiles at Russian command posts, supply lines, and ammunition depots. The Post explains that Ukraine can’t accomplish this vital task effectively with its Soviet-era planes because the radar on them can only see about 60 kilometers and must use rockets with only 30 kilometers of range. By contrast, modern Russian fighter planes can see 200 kilometers and hit targets with a range of more than 150.
Other Western fighter planes, such as the French-made Mirage, are superior, of course, to Ukraine’s Soviet-era fighter planes. However, F-16s are considered the most desirable planes because of their versatility, the payloads they are able to carry, the range of their radars, and the range of their missiles.
Accordingly, it would have been great if Biden had relented earlier and allowed our allies to provide F-16s in time for Ukraine’s expected Spring or early-Summer offensive.
Doing so wouldn’t just have helped Ukraine in its quest to win this war. It would also have lessened the perception that Biden ‘s foreign policy is rudderless.
There was plenty of basis for that perception. The U.S. had already reversed its position against sending Ukraine Patriot missile batteries, longer-range missiles, and Abrams tanks. Now, it has reversed its position on F-16s.
One of Obama’s advisers called this kind of fecklessness “leading from behind.” To me, it seems more like being led around by the nose.
Embarrassing as this is, in a Biden administration, it’s probably better that Europe do the leading.
The reason Biden’s foreign policy looks like Obama’s is because IT IS Obama’s foreign policy. This is Obama’s 3rd term.
In other news, I hear that apparently, the Biden WH is considering replacing their Biblically awful ambassador to Israel, with a Levi-Strauss heiress who has participated in BDS activities and who refers to Israel's founding as a catastrophe. That is apparently how bad things are at this WH, which obscenely continues to receive the support of many Jewish former "neo-Cons," and apparently does not remotely have any sense of decency or propriety when it comes to the subject of Israel. Someone should teach the administration how to show at least a modicum of respect to an American allied nation, and the erstwhile neo-Cons who have cowardly aligned themselves with these people should be the first to say something, or forever hang their heads in shame, and ideally not be accepted to polite company. I have frequently seen complaints from the likes of Bill Kristol about the admin's hesitancy in providing certain offensive weapons systems to Ukraine. Very well. Unlike the author here, however, I've yet to see Kristol register a hint of complaint at the admin's Iran policy, or this recurrence of the Obama administration's abominable habit, of treating the State of Israel like an enemy.