Is Biden Serious about Fighting a War Against Russia in Europe?

Recent statements from officials in the Biden Administration demonstrate their desperation in the face of the collapse of their ability to dominate the globe, as the military force enforcing the “Unipolar Order”. As Congress has thus far blocked passage of a special appropriation package of funds for the war against Russia in Ukraine, and for Israel’s war against Palestinians, President Biden and his spokesmen have turned up the rhetoric against both the Republicans refusing to back him, and against Russia.

The failure of Ukraine’s much-hyped counter-offensive, despite more than $113 billion of U.S. funds spent, combined with a lack of a “Plan B” to end the war, has turned a majority of Americans against the war. And a growing majority of them are also recoiling against Biden’s full backing of Netanyahu’s brutal attack on Gaza. Internationally, the majority of nations are rejecting U.S. leadership, and it is Joe Biden, not Vladimir Putin, who is isolated.

In response, the Administration is relying on the default posture of blaming its failures on Vladimir Putin. The most recent escalation of this rhetoric began with a briefing by Defense Secretary Austin on Oct. 30, who stated that “sooner or later, [Putin] will challenge NATO, and we’ll find ourselves in a shooting match”. He repeated this in testimony before Congress on Dec. 6, when he insisted that if Congress does not pass the supplemental appropriation bill, which included $61 billion for Ukraine, it is “very likely” U.S. troops will soon be fighting Russia in Europe.

President Biden picked up on Austin’s flight forward that same day, saying “history will judge harshly those who turned their backs on freedom’s cause,” adding that Republicans who oppose the funding are willing to “kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield and damage our national security…. If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there…. He’s going to keep going. He’s made that pretty clear.”

When Biden’s warnings did not convince Congressional opponents to pass the bill later that day, National Security spokesman John Kirby chimed in. Helping Ukraine win this war, he said, “is very much in our national security interest and in the national security interest of all our allies in Europe.

“If he [Putin] gets Ukraine”, Kirby continued, “he gets right up against the doorstep of NATO…. if you think the cost of supporting Ukraine is high now, think about how high it’s going to be in national treasure and in American blood if we have to start acting on our Article Five commitments,” i.e., with American troops fighting Russia in Europe.

Biden and his team are now trapped by their refusal to negotiate with Putin in December 2021 on his legitimate security concerns over NATO’s eastward expansion, and by their unwillingness to accept a Russian-Ukrainian agreement reached at the end of March 2022 to allow for a diplomatic settlement. The intent of the neocons running U.S./NATO policy was never to secure peace for Ukraine, but to use Ukraine as a sacrificial battering ram to “weaken Russia”, the goal enunciated by Austin at the first NATO-Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Ramstein Air Base in Germany in April 2022.

With no positive results to present to the U.S. voters at less than one year away from the presidential election, and holding an unwinnable hand in Ukraine and Gaza, Biden is indeed in a trap of his own making. Threatening to go to war with Russia is not a viable option.