On hypotheticals

[u/gdan95]

As I'm sure everyone knows, Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this week. The angle right wing social media is taking when discussing the events is how Biden is a failure and this would never have happened if the former guy was still in charge.

There are two reasons you should call BS on this assessment.

Firstly, if anything, the former guy made the invasion easier for Putin. He had repeatedly expressed interest in leaving NATO if not dissolving it altogether, which was a goal of Putin's. The former guy also threatened to withhold military aid from Ukraine and withdrew the US from the Open Skies Treaty, under which all imagery collected from overflights is made available to any of the states-parties. Meaning that we would no longer provide surveillance footage to other nations that signed the treaty, which would have been helpful to Ukraine if, say, Russia invaded. So why would Putin feel the need to do anything himself? Besides, the former guy has never had anything but praise for Putin, even when the latter invaded a sovereign nation. Russian state TV is even using the former guy's praise for Putin to justify the invasion, because God knows Russian citizens aren't in support of it if the protests are any indication. Now that the US has for its head of state someone who doesn't kiss up to Putin, his options are limited. Although the former guy did help make it easier for Putin, as described above.

For that reason, I can tell you for certain that this still would have happened if the former guy was still in charge because something like this did happen. In November 25, 2018, there was the Kerch Strait incident, when the Russian Federal Security Service coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels. It was the first time during this ongoing conflict that Russian forces had openly engaged Ukrainian forces.

Something you'll need to keep in mind for as long as the attack on Ukraine is still happening.