By Bob Brigham
Former Trump-era Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out at President Joe Biden in a Fox News column following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“This invasion was by no means inevitable. We in the Trump administration knew that it was Putin’s aim to establish Russian dominance and influence over all the old Soviet bloc countries, including in Ukraine. We were able to keep an invasion like this one from occurring by establishing a model of deterrence not just with respect to Russia, but with anyone who threatened to harm or undermine our interests,” Pompeo wrote. “Make no mistake, Putin is about the business of trying to bring back the Soviet Union. We must not allow that to happen.”
Pompeo argued that the sanctions instituted by the Biden administration have failed to deter Putin.
“These sanctions, and their threat weakened by the administration’s announcement that they would not include Russia’s access to the SWIFT banking system or their oil and gas industry, failed as a deterrent to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he wrote.
Pompeo argued the Biden administration should have continued Trump’s approach to Russia.
“In the Trump administration, we incorporated all these factors into our strategy of diplomacy and deterrence, yet the Biden administration has allowed each to slowly erode with feckless, muddled responses to Russian aggression that have neither projected strength nor imposed costs on our adversaries. They have stopped speaking in the one language that Putin understands: strength,” he wrote. “Team Biden wasted grand summit gatherings in Europe attacking the Trump administration and celebrating a ‘return to normalcy,’ all while failing to lead and prepare for Russian aggression toward Ukraine.”
Read the full column.
Source: Mike Pompeo attacks Biden — and says Putin wants to bring back the USSR
