A Plausible Explanation for Biden's Nuclear Brinkmanship re Ukraine & Russia
It's criminally reckless!
In this video near the end of it Alexander Mercouris, who is very knowledgeable about foreign affairs, provides a plausible explanation for Biden’s escalation of the war against Russia in Ukraine, an escalation that brings us frighteningly closer to thermonuclear war.
Biden’s escalation at the moment is to publicly declare that Ukraine has U.S. permission to target sites inside pre-2014 Russia with drones and artillery. This declaration was made in a way to imply that this was a new policy, but in fact such attacks by Ukraine on targets inside Russia have been ongoing for months. The escalation was thus rhetorical rather than substantive. Nonetheless, it was an escalation.
Russia has a very clearly stated red line: if NATO uses cruise or any other such missiles (which are far more destructive than drones or artillery, and which—this is key!—unlike drones and artillery can only, for technical reasons, be operated with direct NATO control) against targets inside pre-2014 Russia, Russia will consider this an existential threat by NATO and will retaliate against the NATO countries involved anywhere on their soil it chooses.
If such retaliation takes place, then that is World War III, between two nuclear armed powers, with the very real possibility of it becoming thermonuclear war.
So far, the Biden administration (and NATO, which the U.S. controls) has an unbroken pattern of escalation that takes the form of first announcing that it will not escalate in some specific way (using a new weapon in Ukraine) and then subsequently escalating in that way.
Therefore, there is no reason to be optimistic that Biden will not continue his pattern of escalation and soon cross Russia’s red line by using NATO-controlled missiles against pre-2014 Russia targets.
What is the plausible explanation for Biden’s escalatory actions?
Alexander Mercouris offers the following explanation.
Mercouris notes—truthfully—that Russia is winning the war in Ukraine. This fact is now apparent to all who are paying attention. The Russian strategy has been from the start not mainly about capturing territory but rather about destroying Ukraine’s military force. Russia has been extremely successful in destroying Ukraine’s military force, which now lacks manpower and weapons and even infrastructure to carry on for much longer.
Biden wants to avoid an ignominious defeat that would destroy the credibility of the West as a super-power.
Biden wants to create a situation in which Russia, despite the fact that it is overwhelmingly winning the war, will agree to negotiate an end to the conflict that will enable the West to save face, and even to declare victory.
Biden aims to create a situation like that of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis during which the possibility of thermonuclear war seemed—and was!—very real. At that time both president Kennedy and Soviet Union premier Khrushchev wanted very much to avoid thermonuclear war. This is why these two leaders were able to fend off such a war with a negotiated settlement. The settlement was in fact that the U.S. would remove its offensive weapons (aimed at the Soviet Union) from Turkey and the Soviet Union would remove its nuclear weapons from Cuba. Also, the agreement entailed keeping secret that the U.S. removed its weapons from Turkey. This enabled the U.S. to claim a victory—the removal of Soviet weapons from Cuba, period.
Biden is counting on getting all the world’s leaders—including leaders of Russia’s main allies such as China—so frightened at the possibility of nuclear war breaking out that they will telephone Putin and demand that he agree to some settlement with Biden regarding Ukraine that will enable Biden to save face and even declare a victory, as JFK was able to do at the conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There is every reason in the world to be frightened—very frightened!—by Biden’s strategy. Here’s why:
