Is Biden Getting Sucked Into Putin’s War?

Besieged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a powerful plea to the U.S. Congress by video on Wednesday, echoing former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s wartime address to the same chamber and appealing to Americans to recall their own past traumas, from Pearl Harbor to Sept. 11, 2001. He challenged U.S. President Joe Biden to show more leadership as Ukraine faces an existential fight against an enemy bent on its annihilation.

“You are the leader of the nation. … I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace,” Zelensky told Biden after showing a wrenching video that featured images of bloodied children and bodies thrown into ditches. Zelensky received a standing ovation from a packed auditorium of U.S. lawmakers, many of whom are also demanding that Biden do more. Many of those same individuals also voted to acquit former U.S. President Donald Trump in his first impeachment hearing for short-changing Ukraine of that very same support.

Zelensky’s address followed similarly personal, well-tailored appeals to Britain and Canada, in which he invoked Churchill’s famous “we shall never surrender” speech and pleaded with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “imagine you and your children hearing all these severe explosions” if the Ottawa International Airport were bombed.