The Worst Of Bad Deals
To the majority of sane minds in the West Biden’s trading Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner was the worst of bad deals. Releasing the world’s most infamous arms dealers – a man dubbed the Merchant of Death – for a minor athlete who was legitimately arrested in Russia for possessing cannabis oil, properly tried in their courts, and sentenced in the normal manner under their anti-drug laws was very bad and uneven exchange no matter how you look at it to most rational and aware people’s minds. Leaving former Marine and probable intelligence asset, Paul Whelan in Russian custody just made it worse – especially if they did actually try to trade for him too as part of the deal.
And then, the senile fool had to open his gaffe-spewer and make it worse:
“This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” said President Biden in a national address, later adding, “Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s, and while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up, we will never give up.”
Making a horrendously lopsided and unfavorable exchange with your purported enemy, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, is bad enough. Declaring afterward that the better – but still very bad – deal was never something that Putin was going to entertain just handed him a significant geopolitical victory on the world’s stage.
But frankly, in my opinion, no deal, not for Griner or Whelan, should have been seriously pursued at all at this time and most certainly not in exchange for Bout. Trading for either a criminal or a spent asset is rarely a good political idea unless it’s a small, unpublicized part of larger negotiations in which you’ll get something close to what you want in the deal.
So, discounting all the personal specifics, Bout for Griner was the worst of bad deals for Biden and Co. to make, especially at this point in history. Even Whelan or Griner and Whelan for Bout would have been a bad deal right now. All Biden did was show Putin and the world that he was weak and to invested in certain domestic, party-based priorities.
And Then There’s Griner
As if the larger issues weren’t enough, there’s Griner herself, though that’s a mixed bag. She a Black and a lesbian. She’s also no patriot or even someone who purports to hold any love for America. Hence, she’s a darling of the sorts that vote Democrat. But, she’s also either someone the rest of us loath or, in a great many of our cases, don’t care at all about except that we’re sickened by those Democrat voters holding her up as some paragon solely because she is a Black, a lesbian, and someone who has repeatedly publicly stated her disdain for America.
So, by bending over for Putin in order to get Griner released, Biden told everyone who he’s the President of and who he isn’t. He made his position quite clear. And that’s why domestically this is a mixed bag for Biden. Garnering some – probably short-term – support from Radfems, Queers, the “Black Community,” and their White Liberal enablers is a plus for him and the Democrats, but going that far might both alienate Independents and other Moderates – not too mention those sorts who are still fixated on “Russian Collusion” – and further motivate and incense those of us who are already in the opposing camp.
And, even a bunch of the Left aren’t exactly happy with this since Griner was arrested for drug possession just as she could have been by any US federal officer and many state and local ones here in the US. And, neither Biden nor the Democrats seem to want to actually move towards decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level, despite it having widespread bipartisan support.
Yeah, the worst of bad deals. It goes way, way, way beyond Biden’s normal incompetence and gaffes.
Tags: America | Biden | Bout | Diplomacy | Foreign Policy | Geopolitics | Negotiations | Politics | Putin | Russia | Stupidity | Weakness | Whelan