“US President Joe Biden does not follow a clear and decisive course towards Ukraine, he condemned Ukraine to a long war of attrition”: Joseph Bosco

US President Joe Biden is often criticized for not being decisive enough in foreign policy. His actions on many international crises have sparked debate among experts and politicians, who accuse him of procrastination and fear of possible consequences. In particular, his approach to the war in Ukraine causes a lot of complaints among both American and Ukrainian experts. Many believe that Biden could have acted more decisively and provided aid to Kyiv sooner, which could have changed the course of the war.

US President Joe Biden does not follow a clear and decisive course towards Ukraine. Instead, he condemned Ukraine to a long war of attrition, slowly providing American weapons and permission to use them. This conclusion was drawn by Joseph Bosco, former director of China affairs at the US Department of Defense from 2005 to 2006, in an article for The Hill. Joseph Bosco served as China Director under the Secretary of Defense from 2005 to 2006 and Director of the Asia-Pacific Division of Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief from 2009 to 2010. He is a non-resident fellow at the Institute of Korean American Studies and a member of the advisory board of the Global Taiwan Institute.

Bosco’s critique of Biden’s policies is based on the recognition that the US strategy for helping Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion has been ineffective and cautious in the extreme.

“This impasse came at a huge cost to the lives of Ukrainians (and Russians who were called up for military service), the destruction of historic Ukrainian cities and life-supporting infrastructure, as well as the loss of the sovereignty of its territory – something that the USA, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation solemnly guaranteed in Budapest memorandum of 2004.

The US decision-making pattern has been consistent since the beginning of the Russian invasion. First, it was the refusal or indefinite delay in the supply of essential defense and deterrence systems. Then, even when the weapons were finally delivered, Biden unconscionably restricted their use by Ukraine, despite what he called a “horrific reminder of Russia’s brutality” of attacks on children’s hospitals and other civilian targets — adding to Russia’s long list of war crimes and crimes against humanity. “, – believes Joseph Bosco.

The American approach, according to Bosco, was distinguished by consistent uncertainty and constant delay in the supply of vital defense weapons to Ukraine. He emphasizes that Kyiv’s repeated requests were met with either refusal or long delays. This tendency was clearly manifested in the restrictions imposed on the use of these weapons after their arrival in Ukraine. According to the expert, such caution only strengthened Russian rhetoric about possible escalation, including threats to use nuclear weapons.

In his article, Bosco also draws attention to the words of People’s Deputy of Ukraine Oleksandra Ustinova, who last week expressed her disappointment at the delays on the part of Washington. She drew attention to the problem that has been bothering Ukrainian politicians and the military for a long time, stressing that US support comes late, when the situation has already radically changed on the battlefield. Ustinova clearly indicated the feeling that Ukrainians are constantly trying to “catch up with the train”. Those weapons systems that were needed months earlier are finally arriving, but are no longer critical in the context of the changed combat situation.

This raises Bosco’s question: is such a policy effective in the long run? He is sure that Biden, panickingly fearing the escalation of the conflict, does not give Ukraine complete freedom of action in the use of the received weapons systems.

According to Bosco, aware of the limitations of his strategy, Joe Biden should change course in the final phase of his presidency.

“During his remaining months in office, Biden must abandon his tendency to follow Barack Obama’s ‘lead from behind’ policy. As Harris’ mother said, ‘never do anything half-hearted.’ – believes Bosco.

So, Bosco is sure that the traditional policy inherited from the administration of Barack Obama, where the role of the US was to lead “from behind the scenes”, no longer meets the challenges of the modern global conflict, where the decisive factor is the speed and decisiveness of actions. In this case, delays and fears of threats from Russia can have fatal consequences for Ukraine itself, which is fighting every day for its survival on the international stage.