Biden on ‘Safari’

The folks in charge apprised the White House press corps that President Biden had authorized American long range (ATACMS) missile strikes deep inside Russian territory. Go ahead, just ask Joe, he'll tell you.

But apparently Joe had other ideas, choosing instead to saunter off into the Amazon jungle. He seized the moment to be unavailable when several media sources had the temerity to ask about the missiles during his trip to the G-20 Summit in Brazil.

The president’s response was to ignore a reporter's pleas to speak to the press as she literally “screamed questions at him” while he turned his back, boarded Air Force One and headed for quieter, friendlier surroundings.

One can readily see, of course, the lure of the Amazon; there are so many botanicals there that might help any remaining functional brain cells to forget about his stumbling headlong into a potential third world war.

OK. So, exactly how far inside Russia can these missiles reach? That's difficult to say; as there are conflicting data on this. Maybe Biden will know. Unfortunately, Joe’s still on “safari,” at least psychologically.

Alas, there is one who knows – enter “Jungle” Jo Borrell, EU diplomacy chief, who once with a straight face stood center stage at a gathering of European diplomatic students and compared Europe as a “garden” to the developing world’s “jungle.” 

It was Borrell who finally had to clarify the missile issue for the planet: What Joe really intends is to give Ukraine the go ahead to strike 300 km or 190 mi into Russian territory.

Seems as though we will just have to take his word for it, since America doesn’t have a “full-time office manager at the moment.”

Ah! Finally, the Western press mines its cabal of “reliable sources,” further specifying that the missiles were really only supposed to apply to the Kursk border region of Russia. The source for this piece of wisdom was the “always available for leaks” – New York Times.

These same media sources relayed that the missiles were authorized only because Biden didn’t like North Koreans being in Ukraine on Russia’s side. Well, the critics argue, we certainly can’t have Russia internationalizing this conflict. Pay no attention to the fact that the West’s strategy was one of dragging the entire planet into it – either by coercion via sanctions or recruiting foreign mercenaries for Ukraine’s army.

When asked about the long-range missiles, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky responded in his quintessential “actor persona” – he gave a superb impression of some junior manager left in charge of a business while all the mature folks were unavailable. “Strikes,” he said, “are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves,” How does one spell bravado?

Should these missiles ever reach deep inside Russian territory, they likely will carry these markings: “Courtesy of the USA.” You see, Ukrainian military is not allowed to do any serious “driving” which doesn’t involve “one of their handlers sitting in the back seat giving instructions.”

And there is good reason for that. Ukraine wasted no time crashing one of the few F-16 fighter jets sent by the West. Moreover, earlier this year, a member of the Bundestag told Der Spiegel that the country’s Leopard 2 battle tanks have all been either blown up or are sidelined in a repair facility with no one qualified to fix them.

Undoubtedly, Russia knows that Western long-range missiles, which only Western military personnel can operate, aren’t being launched by Kiev. For Biden to even suggest otherwise would be like the driver of a car trying to deflect responsibility for an accident on the kid in the backseat with a toy “steering wheel.”

What was Russian President Vladimir Putin's response to the whole charade? He amended Moscow’s nuclear doctrine to hold co-responsible a nuclear state that assists a non-nuclear state, like Ukraine, in targeting Russian territory. He then launched Russia’s state of the art hypersonic missile in an attack in Ukraine on a major military production complex – destroying much of it.

The Western establishment has taken the nuclear amendment as a mere “political” move. Their rather shortsighted view is that it is unlikely Putin would actually go nuclear. The approach appears to be “let's find out how far we can push the “Russian Bear” before it responds – with a mushroom cloud in front of them”? To encroach upon Shakespeare: “tis a consummation Devoutly [not] to be wish'd.”

It isn't like Putin (at the inception of this debacle) didn’t make NATO’s militarization and Nazification of Ukraine clear and distinct “red lines,” and then reacted when they were crossed.

I am confused – I thought the West was insistent on stopping Putin in Ukraine – remember – so he doesn’t rampage through Europe like Genghis Khan? And how about NATO saying just last year that Putin wanted a full-blown war with the alliance? Did I miss something here?

Now remarkably, they’re risking global peace (or destruction) entirely on their new absolute confidence in Putin’s aversion to war. How does that logic work, when they are striking Russian territory directly with their own weapons while they pretend that Zelensky isn’t relegated to just making “soup for the guys”?

What amazes me is that all this occurs in a liberal democracy like America, without a single debate or vote in Congress regarding any potential war with Russia? Perhaps they just don't have the time – I mean, they are moving with haste to get what they want before the “new sheriff” arrives. And I can see why – President-elect Donald Trump is already on record that he only needs 24 hours to stop what should never have happened in the first place.

At least the Washington backroom “perma-staff” responsible for concocting policy should have the patience (decency is too much to ask for) to wait until someone takes over who actually can be held accountable by voters, history, and the rest of the planet.

Instead, they seem intent on alibiing for someone who potentially is striving ineluctably towards a direct engagement with Russia – with only history to hold him accountable.

I say this because given Joe's current status, he could hardly be held accountable for anything – much less the contempt he has displayed towards the American people by continuing a political agenda they soundly rejected just a few days ago. History will remember you, Joe.