In her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Kamala Harris cited her mother’s memorable advice: “A direct quote — never do anything half-assed.” If she passed on that maternal wisdom to President Biden, it obviously fell on deaf ears when it came to helping Ukraine defend itself against Vladimir Putin’s invasion and multiple war crimes.

Harris repeated her mother’s words joyfully, but there is nothing happy about Biden’s failure to follow a clear and decisive course on Ukraine. Instead, he has condemned Ukraine to a long war of attrition and possibly a slow national death, by slow-walking U.S. weapons support and permission for its use.

This stalemate has come at a tremendous cost in Ukrainian (and conscript Russian) lives, destruction of historic Ukrainian cities and life-supporting infrastructure, and loss of sovereignty over its territory — something the United States, the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation solemnly guaranteed in the 2004 Budapest Memo.

The pattern of U.S. decision-making has been consistent since........

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