More recently, he flipped his posture and went all-in, sending an unending flow of billions of dollars and top-line military equipment. And although he promised there would never be American boots on the ground, there is now talk he will send special forces to guard the reopened embassy in Kyiv, a duty normally assigned to Marines.

If those troops come under fire, Americans forces could quickly be fighting Russian forces — the very situation Biden said for months had to be avoided.

The president is following a similarly hawkish evolution on China. Campaigning in 2019, he scoffed at Donald Trump’s tough stance, saying, “China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks.”

Yet now we’re seemingly ready to go to war over Taiwan. I say seemingly because Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s major address on China last Thursday was more mush than muscular.

So perhaps our China policy is to speak loudly and carry a small stick.

The growing global tensions and doubts about the president’s ability to manage them recall Robert Gates’ infamous assertion that Biden “has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national-security issue over the past four decades.”