The West watches and waits to see what is happening, and prepares for the next steps as Russia and Ukraine get closer to war.
That is, everyone in the West, except for the Biden administration. Instead, the Biden state department is returning to Obama’s tactic of “hashtag diplomacy”
Yesterday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry posted a tweet remembrance of an event that occurred 32 years ago.
Ned Price, the spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, retweeted the hashtag and the waving Emoji.
Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, also contributed.
Although Price and Blinken were able to fulfill the Foreign Ministry’s requests, it is not clear that people didn’t notice. Price’s tweet reminds me of the 2014 tweets by his Obama-era predecessor. Remember Jen Psaki, who was Price’s predecessor in 2014, tweeted her support of Ukraine using a hashtag.
The Obama team loved hashtags. Michelle Obama, pouty and smug, held up a sign with #BringBackOurGirls to refer to the young Nigerian girls kidnapped in Boko Haram terrorists’ hands.
This phenomenon was something I wrote about at PJ Media back in the day. I wrote: “No one at Bokoharam is saying, ‘Look at their photographs. They must be serious. “We should let the girls go.
While some girls managed to escape, others were freed. But the hashtag did not save any of them. Boko Haram mocked it as a symbolic gesture.
Ann Coulter parodied Michelle Obama.
It remains to be seen what else the Biden administration is doing beyond spreading #hashtag-based support. We all know of Biden’s statement at Wednesday’s press conference that he made when he stated, “It is one thing if there’s a minor invasion and then we end up fighting about what to do or not do, etcetera.” If they do the right thing with the troops at the border, it will be a disaster if Russia invades Ukraine.
The “minor incursion” comment caused outrage among Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zilenskyy. He tweeted: “We want to remind all great powers that there are no minor invasions or small nations.” The U.S. also evacuated our Ukrainian embassy because of Biden’s comment.
Biden warned Russia that it will pay a “heavy price” for invading Russia after these comments. The next step seems to be a strongly written letter.
Only those sanctions that Putin invades Ukraine pose a threat to the country are the ones that they will activate. All other threats are just talked, about and meaningless hashtags.
In 2014, I wrote that hashtags only demonstrate the “real behavior of Left”: sincere intentions over decisive action. As the old red AIDS ribbons, a photo that includes a hashtag and the right facial expression demonstrates that you care about the cause, no matter how little you do.
Blinken and Price, Psaki, as well as the rest of the left, don’t want anything to help Ukraine. They want you to know they care.
