A Tale of Two Presidents: Zelenskyy’s brilliant leadership, Biden’s abject failure

"You are the leader of your nation – your great nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world," Zelenskyy said, addressing Biden. "Being leader of the world means to be the leader of peace."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledges a standing ovation from a joint session of the U.S. Congress prior to beginning his speech Wednesday. (Photo: Fox News Screen Capture) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday the world witnessed a seminar defining the differences between a champion of democracy versus a failed, cowardly, ineffective figurehead.

At 10:00 a.m. EST, the hero who has captured the imagination of the free world, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress ― the first head of a foreign government since Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain to address a joint session on December 26, 1941.

In his video address from the Ukrainian presidential palace in downtown Kyiv, Zelenskyy made a speech for the ages.

Zelenskyy’s full speech to Congress WARNING: Content beginning at 11:15 is graphic, unsuitable for young readers. (Courtesy Fox News) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

There were numerous brilliant moments in his address, but perhaps the most striking was Zelenskyy’s diplomatic prodding of Biden to step up and do what he has steadfastly refused to do leading up to the invasion and after it began.

"You are the leader of your nation – your great nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world," Zelenskyy said, addressing Biden directly. "Being leader of the world means to be the leader of peace."

Biden is incapable of being that person, for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is he is a coward, afraid of Vladimir Putin and his extreme saber rattling. Whether Putin can actually back up those threats is questionable. The performance of his army thus far suggests Russia’s military is a hollow shell of the fearsome military machine the West fears.

But Biden ― more likely, the Fascist handlers behind his alleged “presidency” ― persists in an irrational belief that Putin, as well as China’s Xi Jinping, will be partners in his Don Quixotesque tilting at his favorite windmill, “global warming.” Therefore, our demented Fascist tool of a “president” has the misguided, ridiculous belief he cannot afford to offend either man.

Power, resolve and offense is the only thing such men understand, and Biden will not engage them.

Putin and Xi will never join that bogus fight because they believe, as do a slim majority of Americans, that it is a false flag designed to destroy the oil and gas industry the world so desperately needs.

Zelenskyy, of course, had more to say. He brought forth a laundry list of needs in his nation’s war efforts. He echoed Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech,” saying, “I have a need.”

He again asked for a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine ― a need that will not become a reality. That has been the position of all of NATO since before the invasion, until Estonia on Monday became the lone member to endorse the idea. While it hurts Ukraine to deny such air cover, we reluctantly must agree that a NATO no-fly zone would put the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in direct conflict with Russian fighters and bombers.

Biden has claimed that Putin would interpret that as an act of war that would result in World War III.

President Zelenskyy anticipates that his request will not be granted, as he proposed, in lieu of the NATO-enforced no-fly zone, that the treaty organization ― particularly with U.S. endorsement ― instead send old Soviet era S-300 antiaircraft missile systems to defend Ukrainian skies.

He also renewed his request that Polish MiG-29s, also left over from the old Soviet Union, be made available for Ukrainian pilots to fly. Biden denied that request last week at the last minute, just before the transfer was scheduled to occur. He remains adamant against making them available now. This ignorant, ill-advised, injudicious position threatens the tenuous balance Ukraine has maintained throughout the invasion.

Biden signed an executive order releasing $800 million in military aid to Ukraine, following President Zelenskyy’s address to a virtual joint session of Congress Wednesday. It is unclear, due to vague descriptions of the aid by the White House, if it meets Ukraine’s needs. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Scrambling to respond to Zelenskyy’s speech and try to come off in a good light, the White House handlers delayed a Biden media briefing for two and a half hours Wednesday, only to make a mediocre rejoinder that fell far short of giving anything meaningful to President Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

On the conservative news channels today, Zelenskyy has been compared to Churchill while Biden has been vilified as ineffective, incompetent and inconsequential.

To a watching world, Zelenskyy’s message is this, in both his words and his resolute, sometimes haggard appearance: He stands as a mirror to the suffering and spirit of his people.

His baby-faced complexion is now usually puffy and pasty, with a faint growth of beard. Suits and dress shirts have been replaced by olive military-style garb. His raspy voice betrays exhaustion. Together, these help form a narrative of personal courage, of David fighting mighty Goliath and refusing safe passage out of his homeland — embodied by his now-famous response to Biden’s offer of evacuation, “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

It’s all quite a development for a former TV actor and comedian who weeks ago was disdained in some corners as a political novice too eager to seek compromise with Moscow.

“Here’s a guy who was basically considered to be a lightweight, out of his element, about to be crushed by a major superpower next door. And it didn’t happen,” Andrew J. Polsky, a professor of political science at Hunter College in New York and author of a book on wartime U.S. presidents, told America’s Conservative Voice Tuesday. “I think people really expected that he would flee … he surprised people by sharing the danger that they are experiencing.”

That has created a reciprocal relationship between Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian people. They have gotten energy from each other and confidence from each other. That’s an impressive communications accomplishment for a leader, to be that much in touch with his people in the middle of a crisis.

Winston Churchill, who rallied Britons during World War II’s darkest days, is a name frequently invoked — even by Churchill’s biographer. One analyst compared Zelenskyy to Benjamin Franklin and his success in soliciting French support for the American Revolution.

Through interviews and appearances via video link from hidden locations, Zelenskyy has sought to rally the world to Ukraine’s side. When he told the European Parliament “we’re fighting just for our land and for our freedom,” the translator struggled not to cry.

Some of Zelenskyy’s appearances seem designed to deliver that simple assurance. Shortly after Russia invaded, he was seen in what appeared to be mobile phone video from a darkened street in Kyiv, four grim-faced colleagues standing behind him.

“We are all here,” he said. “Our soldiers are here, the citizens of our country are all here protecting our independence, and we are going to continue to do so. Glory to the defenders of Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy’s insistence on staying, along with his wife and children, was a turning point, says Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow and manager of the Ukraine Forum in the Russia and Eurasia Program at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.

“People see he has courage,” she said.

As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. Congress via video Wednesday, Russia bombardment of the Black Sea port of Mariupol continued, leveling private homes, apartment buildings and businesses. (Photo: Igor Zablotskyy/Kyiv Independent) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In other words, the exact opposite of faux “president” Joe Biden.

Biden has utterly failed in meeting the standards of a wartime leader. No, the U.S. is not at war, but his refusal to become involved in arming Ukraine properly virtually assures that we soon will be. The more Biden fails to act, the more emboldened Putin will become in threatening the rest of NATO.

That becomes more apparent every day. Monday, a Ukrainian training facility that U.S. reserve and national guard units have used to teach modern military tactics to the active-duty personnel in Ukraine was struck by 10 Russian missiles, killing 35 and injuring over 100. There were no U.S. military personnel at the base at that time.

Biden’s steadfast refusal to endorse the transfer of the MiG-29s to Ukraine is baffling. Supposedly, Biden’s Pentagon made a 2:00 a.m. judgment on Thursday of last week that to do so would be “escalatory,” a newly-activated word that has been periodically inserted into official U.S. Defense Department media releases since this war started. Clearly it is meant to provide a softening of the blow of the U.S. not providing adequate military aid to well-deserving Ukrainians and their government.

The question most military experts are asking is, just how is providing the MiG-29s ― flown, maintained and officially owned by Ukraine ― any more “escalatory” than the Javelin antitank missiles, the Patriot antimissile batteries and the more than 100,000 small arms and over one billion bullets provided to Ukraine by the U.S.? It isn’t. But it is Biden’s excuse for not endorsing the idea.

What is truly baffling is, why do the MiGs, owned by Poland, need Biden’s approval to be transferred? It makes no sense. Not much about Biden’s so-called foreign policy makes sense.

After his inauguration January 20 of last year, it took only a few days before foreign tyrants began to test the resolve and determination of the known plagiarist who accomplished little in nearly 50 years in Washington, D.C. ― 38 in the Senate representing Delaware, eight as Vice President.

First out of the gate was Burma ― or Myanmar, if you irrationally prefer ― where the Army overthrew the democratically elected but thoroughly corrupt government a mere 12 days after “Unity Joe” took over. 

The muted, tepid response from Washington would set a trend. Biden demonized Americans for their failure to follow his obsession with getting The Vaccine, allowed our borders to be serially violated every day and frequently divided Americans with his hateful rhetoric of political opponents. But he had little to say about Myanmar and did even less. This set a tragic precedent.

Next came Russia where in March 2021 Vladimir Putin moved 70,000 Russian troops to the border with Ukraine. In stark contrast to the December 2021 to February 2022 saber rattling Joe managed, he did virtually nothing.  He failed to ban Russia from the SWIFT system, and to date still has not done so.

It was only after Ukraine was invaded and hundreds of Ukrainians had already died that Demented Joe decided to ban Russian sales to the U.S. of oil and gas. He refused to enact sweeping efforts to isolate Russia from the world economy. Even after the invasion, he rejected President Zelenskyy’s request for billions in weapons or jet transfers to Ukraine. Had Joe not been so weak in March 2021, we might not be in the mess we find ourselves today

It is an absolute certainty that, were Donald Trump still president, this would not have happened at all.

A series of coup d’états in Africa got even less attention from the man who thinks black folks love him.  First came Chad on April 20th, 2021.  Then Mali on May 24th, Guinea on September 5th, and Sudan on October 25th. Let’s not omit the attempted assassination and coup of president elect Mohamed Bazoum on March 31st in Niger. Biden’s lapdog media said nothing about these violent overthrows. He himself said virtually nothing about any of the unlawful suppressions of democratic norms. He did even less.

Sadly, it appears nothing will improve in 2022 or beyond.

There was a coup in Burkina Faso on January 24th, Justin Trudeau enacted the morally bankrupt invocation of the Emergency Powers Act ― meant for national security and natural disaster threats, not noisy truckers. Now we have Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine on February 24th.

All of these events have ushered in another year where liberty is on the retreat around the globe while the Shining City on a Hill sits silent and does nothing to halt the misery. Joe Biden fiddles while the world burns.

The examples of Biden’s own efforts to undermine liberty at home are too numerous to discuss in this article on his callow foreign policy.  But his weak foreign policy is even worse than the examples mentioned here.  For instance, North Korea, emboldened by weakness in Washington is launching intermediate range missiles once again ― something they gave up while Trump was in office.

China threatens Taiwan, more inspired than ever by Biden’s complete and abject failure to respond to crisis after crisis in the world.

The side-by-side comparison of Biden and President Zelenskyy invites disgust, derision and defiance of our demented fool of a “president.” Zelenskyy is a hero, a larger-than-life figure, a true patriot leading his people as did George Washington, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan.

Let us pray the Ukrainian president does not also become a martyr because of Biden’s stupidity.

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Mike Nichols is an advocate of the counterrevolution with a four-step plan to defeat Leftist Fascism: We Organize. We Stand. We Resist. We Fight.  He is a regular contributor to several conservative news websites and has a regular blog and Facebook presence at Americas Conservative Voice-Facebook.

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