If you have not done so yet, go read Jazz’s post about the Russian attack on an unmanned American drone over the Black Sea. Then come back here. What has been frustrating to me is the weak response put forth by the Biden administration. The Wall Street Journal today reports that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin offered a response during prepared remarks for a meeting of nations providing arms to Ukraine.

Better late than never, I suppose. The Biden administration is always in reactive mode, never proactive mode, so I’m not surprised. Austin’s statement is only a smidge stronger than what was said yesterday by the US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, as reported in Jazz’s post. The Russian attack was described as “reckless, environmentally unsound, and unprofessional.” My first reaction was as Jazz asked – climate change? Really?

Anyway, Austin said it will be business as usual for the U.S. operating within international law.

In prepared remarks for a meeting of nations providing arms to Ukraine, Mr. Austin said the MQ-9 drone was “conducting routine operations” in international airspace Tuesday, when a pair of Russian jets “engaged in dangerous, reckless, and unprofessional practices.”

“This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace,” he said. “Make no mistake: The United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate its military aircraft in a safe and professional manner.”

See what I mean? It’s a lukewarm response. I don’t have much respect for Secretary Austin to begin with and “a pattern of aggressive, risky, and unsafe actions” doesn’t do much for me. Show some spine, man. Tell Russia in no uncertain terms to knock it off. The whole reason Putin did this is that he is testing Biden, who he knows is a weak leader. Ever since the horrific bug-out from Afghanistan, the world knows the leader of the free world is inept and incompetent in world affairs.

Russia denies responsibility, as we knew they would. Was Joe Biden immediately on the phone with Putin to demand answers? No. He was out in California trashing “MAGA Republicans” at an exclusive fundraiser for his millionaire donors.

Russia has disputed the Pentagon’s account of the mishap, saying the drone had been flying near Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula occupied since 2014 by Russian-backed forces. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow had no additional response to the drone incident a day earlier and said Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Biden had no contact on the issue. While U.S.-Russian relations are in a lamentable state, he told reporters, “Russia has never refused a constructive dialogue, and does not refuse now.”

Anatoly Antonov, Russian Ambassador to the United States, said the pilots acted “professionally” and there was no contact with the unmanned drone.

Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, provided a statement. He claims that the United States was performing reconnaissance operations in the Black Sea. It was for the benefit of state television viewers.

“We know and understand in detail what goals the Americans have in connection with intelligence activities and how they go about it technically, and we are trying to identify those objects, territories that are of greatest interest to them,” he said in brief remarks on state television.

So far it is not known if the U.S. will try to retrieve the wreckage of the drone from the bottom of the Black Sea. The United States Navy no longer sails ships in the Black Sea, following a Trukish prohibition on warships that was imposed after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago.

This leads me to some remarks Senator Tom Cotton made on Fox News Channel this morning. He has three suggestions of actions the Biden administration should take in response to the downing of the drone.

1. Put up another drone today in the same flight pattern, same air space.
2. Return the U.S. Navy back to the Black Sea. Some of our NATO allies are on the Black Sea, Cotton pointed out.
3. Make clear the U.S. will provide Ukraine with the weapons they need to strike Russian artillery and weapons systems across the border that are shooting into Ukraine.

Joe Biden can begin to do all of that today if he so chooses. He won’t, though, because as Cotton said, Joe Biden is scared of his own shadow. Perhaps there are deals with Biden, Inc. in Russia that we don’t yet know about. Who knows? Meanwhile, when provocative attacks like this one by Russia happen and there is no firm response that comes immediately afterward, it emboldens China and Iran, besides Russia, to shoot down American manned aircraft or attack U.S. Navy vessels.

We’ll see what happens next, if anything.