Taking inventory of the bloody Ukraine War, 79-year-old President Joe Biden used his time at the U.N. General Assembly to slam 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin. It’s all Putin’s fault, according to Biden, in the most un-statesmanship behavior imaginable for a U.S. president. No matter whose side you’re on, and most in the West are against Putin, what does that have to do with working feverishly to resolve the conflict? Seven months of war has left Ukraine in ruins, no matter how many gains Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky claims. Biden should know better having been in the U.S. Senate for most of his career. Spending U.S. taxpayer dollars on a proxy war against the Russian Federation only digs Ukraine and the U.S. into a deeper hole. Biden prefers to spend his time echoing the belligerent views of Zelensky that demand all of Ukraine’s sovereign territory back.
Biden told the U.N. General Assembly that he’ll supply Ukraine another $1,9 billion in military aid to keep the war going indefinitely. Without U.S. funding, the war would have concluded long ago. Biden fantasizes that he can outlast the Russian military, continuing to supply Ukraine with unlimited arms and cash. Most U.S. citizens don’t know that Biden pays the salaries of Zelensky and his staff and all other government workers, including funding the war effort. So when Putin announced Sept. 21 that he would call up 300,000 reservists, Biden doubled down on spending more U.S. tax dollar to fight his proxy war against Putin. Biden lost to Putin, while serving as Obama’s Vice President, in Syria, where the Obama White House spent billions trying to support Syiran rebel groups to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When Putin joined the war to protect al-Assad, Obama and Biden lost.
Today’s plan to keep a proxy war going with the Russian Federation is equally unrealistic and reckless, placating Zelensky, who’s lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, especially around the Black Sea coast and all Ukraine’s strategic ports. Whoever the winners and losers, Biden can’t topple the Russian Federation, something he and his 69-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised to do April 26. Austin told an audience in Ramstein, Germany the aim of the U.S. military was to degrade the Russian army to the point it could no longer wage war. If that’s not a declaration of war, then what is? Biden has operated on the foolhardy belief that he could defeat the Russian military and topple Putin’s government. Putin’s announcement of a call up of 300,000 more Russia troops counters Biden’s moves to supply Ukraine with more cash and offensive weapons.
Biden’s message at the U.N. was that the U.S. is fully prepared to take on the Russian Federation as long as it takes to defend Ukraine. How does that shift the conflict to a ceasefire and peace talks? Biden acts like the U.S., currently in recession, has the financial resources to subsidize Ukraine indefinitely. All of Biden’s claptrap about Putin trying to destroy all Western democracies is preposterous. If Biden really felt so strongly about Ukraine, you’d think he’d offer Kiev as much protection as he promised Taiwan, if it goes to war with China. Biden offered Ukraine no U.S. or NATO troops but claims Ukraine meets all the requirements of NATO membership. So, why would Biden tell China that the U.S. would go to war to defend Taiwan, when he won’t commit any troops to push Russia back inside their borders? Ukraine’s war is already at loggerheads, now a war of attrition.
Calling up an additional 300,000 troops, Putin signals to Biden that he’s in it for the long haul. Where’s the statesmen at the U.N. like 68-year-old Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who’s offered Istanbul as a neutral place from the start for a ceasefire and peace talks. No, Biden insists Ukraine must spend the next several years fighting to reclaim its lost Black Sea coast and other sovereign territory. How long that’s supposed to take is anyone’s guess. What’s known now is that Putin will not back down from Biden’s insults and threats, telling the world March 26 in Warsaw, Poland that Putin should no longer remain as Russian president. Members of Congress in their wish to support Ukraine have extended the U.S. proxy war into the indefinite future. Statesmen at the U.N. and EU should help Biden to see that the Ukraine War does no help Ukraine’s interests for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Whatever the details of Putin’s 300,000 troop call-up, it doesn’t really matter why he decided to do it other that letting Biden know that he’s not going away. If Biden wants to send a delegation to Istanbul to end the conflict, Putin’s all ears, ready, willing and able to discuss and negotiate and end to the Ukraine War. Whether Zelensky wants to keep the war going until he returns every inch of Ukraine’s sovereign territory or not, Biden could decide tomorrow it’s time to go to the peace table. As long as Biden keeps announcing billions more in U.S. weapons, the war has no end in sight. Biden and Zelensky think they can beat Putin down enough where he orders all his troops out of Ukraine. There’s nothing feasible or realistic about that. When it comes to ceasefire and peace talks, Ukraine must make its best case for making peace, not continue to make unilateral demands before agreeing to talk.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
