Comment by nozzlegear | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nozzlegear | Hacker News Reader

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This directly conflicts with numerous firsthand accounts of the Biden administration, as reported by journalist Bob Woodward in his most recent book War. In his reporting, Biden is hands on and directly involved with foreign policy. In one account, Jake Sullivan's own wife listened in on a daily briefing call with the President and came away from it saying she wished the world could "see this version of the president," because he was so sharp and focused.

Regarding Ukraine, Biden was the one who made the decision not to get the US directly involved in the war. Sullivan even had to play devil's advocate in Biden's decision, because he and the CIA chief thought it was a horrible idea to announce to the world that we were committing to zero troops on the ground. One of Biden's biggest beliefs is that "great powers don't bluff," though, so it was important for Biden to clearly communicate the limits of US engagement in the conflict.

He wanted the Ukrainians to know (according to the reporting in the book) that the US would supply and support them, but the cavalry would not be charging over the hill to save the day. If some horrible event happened in Ukraine, he knew that his generals, the media, and the public would look to him and say "well, don't you think now is the time we should get American boots on the ground? Why aren't you acting?"

Delusional.

The Biden administration slow rolled delivering tanks/jets/ATACMS for years. For ATACMS in Russia they delayed over two years. The options were never just doing nothing or put boots on the ground.

Why are the only accounts that support this Trump strong Biden weak narrative are multiple throwaways with no sources.

I have linked sources in this thread.

Edit: I made the mistake of replying to a "throwaway" that isn't saying something that is secret or potentially harmful to a real person. A fully anonymous account just saying stuff can just argue incorrectly forever and then make a new account no matter any amount of fact checking

I don't know what kind of 'fact checking' you expect. You can just ctrl+f and see the sources I have linked.

It's not delusional, and I agree that it wasn't a binary choice of do nothing (which the Biden admin didn't choose anyway) or boots on the ground. There was a litany of actions Biden's administration took after Russia invaded, all with the goal of arming Ukraine, training Ukrainians to fight the Russians, and convincing Europe at large that Russia was a problem for the whole continent.

Should they have given them more arms, and faster? Maybe, but we have the benefit of hindsight. The Biden admin was constantly worried about Russia's threats of nuclear weapons, which the intelligence agencies were reporting as credible.

This is all detailed in Woodward's book.

You think you, anonymous HN rando, know better than Bob Woodward, an award-winning and massively impactful investigative journalist...? Talk about delusional!

We all saw the debate. If some journalist is willing to lie and delude themselves about Bidens cognitive ability it doesn't change the reality.

Who is to say Bob Woodward is not a employed by federal agencies and paid to favor current government.

His cognitive dissonance was on display on live television multiple times where he struggles to speak or even walk. Unless all that was a deliberate act for media, I see no reason to believe Mr. Bob was being truthful

Woodward's reporting is classic investigative journalism. He's one of the two reporters who broke the original Watergate story. From the books I've read, he avoids speculation and he only reports what he can corroborate based on firsthand accounts. Regarding what you call "cognitive dissonance" – I assume you're referring to President Biden and not Woodward – this is discussed multiple times in War and Woodward doesn't shy away from it.

Woodward writes about a time when Biden had taken a friend on a private tour through the residences of the White House, and when they came upon a picture of his son Beau Biden, the President seemed to become "transfixed" on it (my words, I'm paraphrasing from memory) and couldn't stop talking about his son for what seemed like an uncomfortable amount of time.

He also wrote about another time during Biden's reelection campaign where Biden went to a private fundraising event in Silicon Valley and seemed so "out of it" (again, my words, paraphrasing from memory) that one of the SV bigwigs there called Biden's chief of staff with grave concerns about the President's health and ability to run for reelection.

The book is well worth the read, whether you're a Trump supporter, Biden supporter or just interested in politics and foreign policy in general.

Woodward is the intelligence community type of professional who knows not to ask why 4 of 5 Watergate arrested were CIA.

> Delusional.

That sounds more like mild annoyance than actual criticism. It seems, from your description, that Mr. Bob was a friend of Biden family.

Also We are talking about Biden who introduced Zelensky as __President Putin__ in an event organized for Zelensky. I refuse to believe Mr. Biden was able to commandeer or come with any of the plans Mr. Bob described.

> Also We are talking about Biden who introduced Zelensky as __President Putin__ in an event organized for Zelensky.

That's also covered in the book. Again, if you’re interested in this topic, I’d really recommend giving it a read or borrowing it from the library. You might find some new perspectives on Biden’s presidency — just like I did for some aspects of Trump’s while reading War and his more recent books. Or maybe you'll come away from it totally vindicated in your views. Either way, it's an insightful read with enough nuance in there for both outcomes.

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