Joe Biden – one foot in the grave and he wants to take the rest of us with him

This evening's edition of 'News of the Week' on Russian state television carried the 'breaking news' that President Biden has just given permission to Ukraine to use American ATACMS medium range ground launched missiles to attack deep within the Russian Federation. The same news also appears on the latest online edition of The New York Times, and so we may assume that the report is correct.

Host Dmitry Kiselyov did not go beyond the bare statement of fact. Surely the Kremlin will require a bit of time to react, but react it will.

The fate of the world does not hang on my every word and so I do not have to be so circumspect.

Regrettably, we are witnessing a replay of what occurred the first time Donald Trump was elected, back in November 2016. The reaction of the Obama administration was to use the couple of months before handover of power to sabotage the most salient aspect of his intended foreign policy initiative, to normalize relations with Russia. I say 'salient' not because it was Trump's first priority but because in Hillary Clinton's vicious campaign to portray Trump as a Russian asset all that we heard for months was Russia, Russia, Russia. In any case, it was during the transition period that the United States illegally seized Russian consular properties with the intention to create a scandal that would poison relations with Moscow.

That dirty trick was child's play compared to what Biden & Company are intent on doing now.

Just over two months ago, this very question of allowing Kiev to fire missiles using US technology on strikes deep inside the Russian Federation had been vetoed by Biden when it was proposed to him by visiting UK Prime Minister Starmer. That refusal followed by a day a direct threat from Vladimir Putin that the use by Kiev of medium range missiles supplied by nuclear powers in the West for such attacks on Russia would make the providers of those missiles co-belligerents. We said then that the Pentagon had prevailed upon the President to take the threat seriously and to decline to give his permission to the British, so that Starmer went home empty-handed.

What has happened to change the thinking in the Oval Office? There can be no doubt that Donald Trump's victory on 5 November and the clear indications that he will cut American aid to Ukraine and push for a negotiated settlement of the war on terms acceptable to Moscow has enraged the Neocons who hold the Collective Biden in their thrall. The flip-flop on use of such missiles is a testament to the utter irresponsibility of this administration. It calls for an urgent move in Congress to stop an action that is tantamount to a declaration of war on Russia.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2024