The lack of extreme hawkishness of Biden is overstated by the author when he writes Biden does not favor regime change when the President is on record saying Putin must go and has the cabal of Nuland, Rice et al setting the agenda and pushing Biden one step at a time toward a doomsday scenario. Mr. Larison rightly acknowledges the politics of foreign policy in the Republican Primary and the lack of precision and clarity in DeSantis's remarks, but that has always been de rigueur in politics, n'est ce pas? Not to trust a politician is as certain of an assertion as the earth is not flat. Russophobia will remain bipartisan among the governing elite in Washington regardless who's President. I'm not holding my breath, at the risk of turning blue, for Cruz, Lindsey, Pompeo, Haley, McConnell, etc., to criticize Zelensky for kicking out the Orthodox monks from Pechersk Lavra only to have them pivot and start lecturing that there is no daylight between Israel and us. After all, we know those prayerful monks are really Putin agents intent on destroying American democracy!
DeSantis may be slippery, but that means that he may *possibly* be amenable to taking a less hawkish stance if convenient at the moment. Lord knows I don't want to oversell DeSantis.
That said, Biden is a known quantity, and has painted himself into a corner where he can only ratchet aggression up.
The lack of extreme hawkishness of Biden is overstated by the author when he writes Biden does not favor regime change when the President is on record saying Putin must go and has the cabal of Nuland, Rice et al setting the agenda and pushing Biden one step at a time toward a doomsday scenario. Mr. Larison rightly acknowledges the politics of foreign policy in the Republican Primary and the lack of precision and clarity in DeSantis's remarks, but that has always been de rigueur in politics, n'est ce pas? Not to trust a politician is as certain of an assertion as the earth is not flat. Russophobia will remain bipartisan among the governing elite in Washington regardless who's President. I'm not holding my breath, at the risk of turning blue, for Cruz, Lindsey, Pompeo, Haley, McConnell, etc., to criticize Zelensky for kicking out the Orthodox monks from Pechersk Lavra only to have them pivot and start lecturing that there is no daylight between Israel and us. After all, we know those prayerful monks are really Putin agents intent on destroying American democracy!
DeSantis may be slippery, but that means that he may *possibly* be amenable to taking a less hawkish stance if convenient at the moment. Lord knows I don't want to oversell DeSantis.
That said, Biden is a known quantity, and has painted himself into a corner where he can only ratchet aggression up.
Has Larison written a post explaining what he thinks Biden's Ukraine goals are and what he thinks about them?
"The pure, evanescent moral clarity of my position justifies any lie!"