If you’re not familiar with Washington Post columnist Max Boot, you will be by the end of this article, trust me. Moreover, you’ll also form an opinion or two about this guy, how he thinks, and how truly delusional he is. Meanwhile, here are a couple of tidbits from Boot’s biography to ponder as we proceed.
Max Boot is a historian, best-selling author, and foreign-policy analyst who has been called one of the “world’s leading authorities on armed conflict” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist for The Washington Post.
Now, on with the show.
In a Monday op-ed titled The West is finally giving Ukraine the weapons it needs to win, Boot waxed pathetically about how, while he first criticized Joe Biden and his hollow threats of sanctions against Putin’s invasion of Ukraine (until it was too late), he now not only credits Biden for “shedding some of his inhibitions” of confronting Putin head-on with more than hollow threats; he also believes the most inept president in modern history is “once again turning America into the arsenal of democracy.”
I’ll give you a minute to stop laughing before we continue.
Boot’s op-ed is, like all left-wing op-eds, replete with revisionist history, truth-bending, and incorrect conclusions. His tweet pimping the op-ed is a perfect example of things to come in the column:
I have been critical of Biden for not doing enough to aid Ukraine, especially for not facilitating the transfer of MiG-29s. But I have to give credit where it’s due. Biden is rising to the occasion. This would never have happened if Trump were president.
Wait —two months into the brutal invasion, cities are flattened, untold thousands of Ukrainian men, women, and children have been brutally killed — many of them allegedly executed and buried in mass graves, and Max Boot “gives credit where it’s due”? Because, in his opinion, Biden is (just now) rising to the occasion”?
Not to nitpick, Mr. “One of the world’s leading authorities on armed conflict,” but the so-called “Leader of the Free World” should have already risen to the occasion as Putin continued to make threats and mass troops and equipment on the Ukrainian border, and before he ultimately made good on that threat.
And correct me if I’m wrong, Mr. “Foreign policy analyst,” but the consensus is Putin would not have invaded — and did not invade — Ukraine on Trump’s watch.
Here’s more, via WaPo:
President Biden’s rhetoric on the Russo-Ukraine War has undergone a telling metamorphosis that reflects the conflict’s shifting fortunes.
When the unprovoked Russian invasion began, Biden backed Ukraine with weapons and sanctions but implicitly accepted that Russia might occupy the country. […] In his State of the Union address on March 1, he again acknowledged the possibility of Russian victory, saying that while […] Putin “may make gains on the battlefield, he will pay a continuing high price over the long run.” [And the people of Ukraine? What price did Biden think they should pay?]
By contrast, on Thursday, in announcing another aid package to Ukraine, Biden vowed that Putin “will never succeed in dominating and occupying all of Ukraine.” That still left open the possibility that Putin will succeed in occupying some of Ukraine […] but it was a far more optimistic assessment of Ukraine’s prospects after two months of fighting.
Boot then ran through a list of weapons included in Biden’s latest aid package.
For the second straight week, Biden announced on Thursday an $800 million aid package to Ukraine. That brings to $3.4 billion the total military aid that the United States has pledged to Ukraine since the invasion began.
The new package includes 72 155mm howitzers (towed guns that can hurl a 90-pound shell 25 miles) along with 144,000 artillery rounds. Also included are 121 new Phoenix Ghost drones that can track targets for six hours and explode on contact.
The previous week’s aid package included 300 Switchblade drones, 200 M113 armored personnel carriers, 18 155mm howitzers, and 11 Mi-17 helicopters.
Finally, as I paraphrased at the top, this:
I have been critical of the Biden administration for not doing enough to aid Ukraine, especially for not facilitating the transfer of Polish MiG-29 jets. But I have to give credit where it’s due. The president is rising to the occasion. He is shedding some of his inhibitions about provoking the Kremlin and once again turning America into the arsenal of democracy.
Joe Biden. Of all presidents. “Turning America into the arsenal of democracy.” Where to begin?
First, even if Biden had “risen to the occasion,” as I suggested, when it might have made a difference, that difference would have had zero to do with fostering democracy in America. On the contrary, Biden has done his damnedest to suppress democracy in America.
For example, Biden’s executive-overreach attempts to order nationwide mask mandates were struck down in court. Even worse, his executive order to establish the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, to study, debate, and make recommendations on issues drummed up based solely on Democrat calls to pack the court, including:
(i) An account of the contemporary commentary and debate about the role and operation of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system and about the functioning of the constitutional process by which the President nominates and, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoints Justices to the Supreme Court;
(ii) The historical background of other periods in the Nation’s history when the Supreme Court’s role and the nominations and advice-and-consent process were subject to critical assessment and prompted proposals for reform; and
(iii) An analysis of the principal arguments in the contemporary public debate for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals.
I could continue, but suffice it to say Max Boot’s assertion that Joe Biden of all presidents is “turning America into the arsenal of democracy” is laugh-out-loud ridiculous. Then again, this is the same Max Boot who, in reaction to the possibility of Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, tweeted the following (emphasis, mine).
I am frightened by the impact on society and politics if Elon Musk acquires Twitter. He seems to believe that on social media anything goes. For democracy to survive, we need more content moderation, not less.
Yeah, he really said that.
Between Biden’s “arsenal of democracy” in America, and the insane belief that democracy can only survive with more censorship, not less, Max Boot’s definition of “democracy” is twisted as hell.
You know; it’s the same definition held by the entire Democrat Party.