ON SUNDAY, THE NEW YORK TIMES, Washington Post and NPR,
among a handful of other news outlets reported that U.S. President Joe Biden
had given the green light for Ukraine to launch long-range ATACMS (Army Tactical
Missile System) missiles into Russia.* AFAIK, there has yet to be an official
announcement from Joe Biden, the White House or the State Department about this
significant change in policy. Recall the awkward September 13 meeting between President
Biden and British pet poodle Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer during which
a visibly angry Biden told the surprised Starmer that he would not be
given permission to Ukraine to launch British “Storm Shadow” missiles into Russia at that time.1 Starmer had come to Washington to make a joint announcement on the
change in long-range missile policy, but last minute lobbying by the U.S.
military, who were concerned about a dangerous escalation to the conflict, compelled
Biden to change his plans, and the meeting fizzled like a wet squib. That was
then.
👉ON SUNDAY, November 17, “leaks” to the U.S. media about the American missile policy change were
published.
👉On Monday, Zelensky announced that Ukraine would be launching American
ATACMS into Russia.
👉On Tuesday, Russian president Putin formally approved lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons and
inked into law changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine. ALSO on Tuesday, Ukraine launched five ATACMS into Russia. Four were shot
down and a fifth did some damage to a weapons depot in the Bryan border region.
👉On Wednesday, there are reports of Russian missiles hitting the
Ukrainian power gird and the capital, Kiev. ALSO on Wednesday, Ukraine launched its first “Storm
Shadow” British missile.
WHY haven’t we heard anything from the White House or the president? Note
that Joe Biden was in Brazil when the story broke on Sunday. He was there for a
summit meeting of the G20. After the event there was to be a “family photo” of
all the heads of state but JB was AWOL.2 Where did he go on Monday? A
reporter from the Macarena Times followed Biden as he wandered off into the Brazilian
jungle, and filed this report:
BRASILIA—CARLOS CASTANETS: “The U.S. President, Mr. Biden, boarded a
Monkey Plus Tours Ltd. bus at eight-fifteen this morning, surprising passengers
and tour guides. As they drove to their destination, President (“Call me
President Joe”) Joe regaled the mostly Portuguese-speaking passengers with
stories from his youth and about his friendship with an inner-city boy named “Cornpops”
whom he met while working as a lifeguard at a New Jersey swimming pool one
summer. Several times during the trip to the Anaconda Wildlife Sanctuary, some
fifty kilometers outside Brasilia, President Joe reminded his listeners that
America was the “most powerful country on the face..the earth…ever! Oh, you
know the drill”. “Listen up!” He quipped with vigor, “I run the world! I do!”
In his enthusiasm, he tried to grab the steering wheel until he was helped to
his seat by two elderly ladies. (All the passengers were from the Última
Parada Nursing Home.)
ONCE AT THE SANCTUARY, President Joe kept up with the group, visiting
the lion, elephant and giraffe enclosures. But when they reached the monkey
pens, the American president became somber, staring at a group of “Howler”
monkeys as they sat staring at him. The tour moved on, but President Joe
remained. He ordered a “triple-scoop butterscotch” ice cream cone from a
passing vendor and stood licking it. He appeared deep in thought. From time to time, he would softly say: “Cornpops, where
did you go?” and “Why, why?”
Suddenly, and surprisingly for a man of his
advanced years, he hopped over the railing and disappeared around the side of
the pens. After a while, he reappeared inside the cage! By this time a
crowd had gathered, and his Secret Service detail finally arrived. When his bodyguards
attempted to extract the President, he waved them off, as did the monkeys who
threw feces and made obscene gestures at the security detail. “President Joe” sat
beside a large male “Howler” and shared his ice cream with the primate. The two
sat quietly for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to go. For this
reporter, it was a demonstration of how skillful and humane the American leader
could be in making bridges and reaching across divides, in this case between
man and monkey. It was a truly remarkable display. —MT News.
WELL, OLD JOE MAY HAVE FOUND common ground with the monkeys, but he’s
punting big time when it comes to his fellow Americans, not to mention taking the rest of us down with him if he starts playing with the nuclear codes! But reversing such an important policy on the use of ATACMS into Russia without even an official announcement?
Leaking the “Okay” to a few news outlets but no statements from the White
House, State Department, or the Pentagon? Just quietly giving Ukraine’s president
the green light to launch strikes deep into Russia. Why? Did Biden hope a surprise
missile attack would so destabilize Russia that President Putin would sue for peace? Get
real. If three years of missile attacks into Ukraine by Russia failed to
collapse the government in Kiev, do you really think a few dozen missiles3
launched into Russia, a country with a landmass spanning eleven time zones, would somehow succeed?
THESE MISSILES will serve no useful purpose because, as we've seen over the past three years, it takes more than missiles to win a war, unless they're nuclear. Then all bets are off. Ukraine is losing the war and no last-ditch supply of "ATACMS" or "Storm Shadow" missilery will change that outcome.
“’Ukraine's supply of long-range
missiles is small, so it will need to choose its targets carefully, Shashank
Joshi, the Economist's defense editor, says.
‘Ukraine has to pick every
target with extreme care,’ he tells the Verify Live program on the BBC news
channel.” (BBC)
OR THEY MAY JUST WANT to fuck with Trump and hand him a warm turd (or “hot
potato”, if you prefer) when he takes office in January, with a war in Ukraine simmering near the boiling point. Or maybe the old standbys of graft and
corruption are behind the latest Washington machinations. That wouldn’t
be at all surprising.
JUST TO END, it is important to understand that Russia has legitimate
security concerns. NATO, over the last thirty years has recklessly moved ever
closer to Russia’s border, scooping up members into an alliance that increasingly
threatens Russian strategic (i.e., nuclear) and national interests. To add “fuel
to the fire” as President Putin says, by deliberately provoking Russia, now with
long-range missiles that will do nothing to change the outcome (Russian victory)
in Ukraine, is folly of the highest order. And instead of looking for ways to deescalate and find common ground
for negotiating a peace to this bloody and entirely avoidable conflict, Ukraine's Western enablers instead flooded it with weapons and stoked the flames of proxy combat.
And because Donald Trump says he wants to end the Ukraine gravy train
war, that cranky opa in the White House, Joe Biden, during the tail end of his time in office, throws a spanner into the works and reverses his policy on the use of American missiles by Ukraine,
hoping the intensified conflict will continue under a Trump presidency. Biden may also be hedging his bets, legacy-wise, by being able to say: "Look. We gave Ukraine everything we could and Trump cancelled it, and Ukraine fell on his watch." Maybe that's the kind of self-glorifying muck swirling around inside Biden's addled and fevered brain these days. So, ignore all the
lives that have been lost and the destruction that's been wrought throughout Ukraine, all because of the selfish actions by a
few holding the levers of power in Washington. It's truly shameful.
AND WHAT WILL RUSSIA DO to respond to the missile attacks? That's the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, kemosabe.4 And here's another consideration: The Russians may be waiting for a Trump administration to open a dialogue between the two countries (President Joe has not spoken with his Russian counterpart in two years!), perhaps leading to peace negotiations, as Trump has said he wants to end the conflict. We may have dodged a bullet with Trump's win in November, because the Russians may decide to wait out any attacks orchestrated by the dying Biden administration, knowing there are just six weeks or so left until Trump is inaugurated. (Though as British PM Harold Wilson is said to have quipped: "A week in politics is a very long time.")
On the other hand, a Harris administration would continue the failed and dangerous Rusophobic policies that have gotten us to this bat-shit-crazy place where two nuclear superpowers play a game of chicken. With Harris and the ghouls controlling advising her, the Russians might have been compelled to climb that escalatory ladder, and who knows where we would be if that happened.😱
Cheers, Jake.______________________________________
* The ATACMS have a range of about 190 miles which is more like a
medium-range missile, if you want to get picky. Far short of Moscow, BTW.
1. The British missiles require American satellite telemetry for
targeting purposes.
2. Justin Trudeau and Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni💕were also absent from the
scheduled Monday photo op. Fortunately, all three made it for Tuesday’s re-take.
( I hope Justin’s fly was zipped!)
3. On Wednesday, the Starmer government gave the go-ahead for
Ukraine to launch “Storm Shadow” missiles into Russia. Several were launched. Though this too was also reported unofficially through “leaks” given to the press. Why?
Perhaps the Americans and Brits want to have what’s called “plausible deniability” to be able to lie say the
strikes were Ukraine’s doing and not “officially” sanctioned? Who knows? Perhaps they want
to see how far they can push Russia, to goad it into making a rash move and they can then say Russia is the aggressor?
4. One thing we may count on is the fact that Russia has an adult as its head of state. Western leaders, and especially American ones, are hopelessly wet behind the ears and act more like children having temper tantrums. For the most part, they are emotional and irrational and do a great disservice to their respective populations.
THAT SAID, I think Putin will hold fire on any drastic retaliations UNLESS something major is hit by incoming missiles or enough Russian are killed. After that, he may be compelled by domestic considerations and hard-liners in his government to launch a more deadly response. So, baring a major strike damaging critical infrastructure (e.g. long range radar sites, nuclear facilities) he may decide to escalate "horizontally" rather than "vertically" by, for example, arming the Houthis in Yemen with anti-missile batteries, or give advanced weaponry to Cuba. Thus, he avoids climbing the dangerous vertical escalatory ladder which could very well end with the use of nuclear weapons. Time will tell.
