Has the United States Reached it's Upper Limit in Ukrainian War Escalations?

Biden Apparently Has Stood Down in the Latest Round of Escalations

After Ukraine was used as a pawn in a failed attempt to weaken Russia economically, and after numerous escalations that have brought us to the brink of World War III, there may be a glimmer of sanity. However, with the US security state’s obsessive policy towards Russia, nothing is ever a sure thing.

Anthony Blinken and Kier Starmer met with Zelensky in Kyiv to discuss a plan to authorize Ukraine to fire US missiles “deep into Russia.” The United States had sent signals that they would approve the plan, but something happened from the time they left Kyiv and landed in Washington. It seems, at least right now, that it is a no-go. Someone or some group within the security state talked Biden out of it. This de-escalation is much needed since Putin said that such a strike would constitute a declaration of war by the US on Russia.

Two international experts,

John J. Mearsheimer

and

Aaron Maté

, reported this standdown but differed on the details of how it played out. Whether this included conversations between higher-ups from Russia and the United States is unknown. Who exactly talked to Biden is also unknown.

Blinken, the bloodthirsty Neocon Secretary of State, has not made any announcement about approving these missile strikes in the ten days since the Washington conference. He has taken to X (formally Twitter) about additional funding for Ukraine and other issues but nothing about missile strike approval. He must be badly depressed that he didn’t get his way and won’t (at least for now) drag us into direct conflict with Russia.

Mate reported that Biden appeared agitated before the meeting with Starmer. It shows that Biden is still active in the war arena. No matter how much his mental state is compromised, he is still the Commander and Chief and gets to make decisions. If what has been reported is accurate, it’s frightening that an active president was angry about not getting us into a hot war with a nuclear-armed country.

There have been consistent United States escalations during this war. The approval of cluster bombs, F16 fighter planes, supplying long-range missiles, striking Russia on their border with missiles. These were all hard limits the US had initially set, but they were all eventually lifted. But striking Russia with US missiles is a different story. Ukraine would be firing US missiles launched from within Ukraine with the help of US technology, such as satellites and US personnel. Putin is not wrong to say it would be a declaration of war.

Russia sees this war as a serious existential threat. The threat of NATO troops on Russian borders has been going on for a long time, way before Putin was in power. It was an initial promise from George HW Bush, after the fall of the USSR, that NATO troops would never be placed east of Germany. That promise has been broken many times as NATO continues to push further towards the east. This is why Russia has set a redline against NATO in Ukraine.

Russia will not back down. To them, having Ukraine armed with hostile forces is something that they will continue to fight over. Russia has a lot more to lose than the US does. Russia sees this as a desperate situation. Desperate countries take desperate actions. If pushed far enough, Russia would use nuclear weapons to defend itself.

Biden is an old-time establishment politician. He is a loyalist to the US security state. He has bought into the “perpetual war state” concept. He was a cheerleader for the Second Iraqi War, and his own presidency has been steeped in war. With his complicity in the unspeakable horrors of the Gaza war and his pushing for NATO troops on Russia’s most vulnerable border, the US is in a dangerous position to get drawn into a regional war or worse. It is not hyperbole to say that the US is nearing the brink of World War III.

Biden hates Putin, but not because of his love or even concern for the people of Ukraine. Biden is an imperialist. Imperialists care little about their own citizens as they abandon the needs of the country to fund overseas adventures. They have nothing but contempt for the victims of their actions.

Biden sees any country not under the US thumb as the enemy. He has refused to engage with Putin in peace talks. That’s because Biden wants the war to continue, still fantasizing that Russia will be weakened economically. The opposite is true. Russia has found many new markets, and its GDP is growing.

Despite the Ukrainian front line being close to falling to a much larger and more powerful Russian army, the Biden administration continues to claim otherwise. They neglect to tell us the Ukrainian front is breaking. They make it appear that Ukraine only needs one more round of shipments to win the war. It’s always just one more round. The administration also failed to acknowledge that they sabotaged a Ukraine-Russia peace treaty.

Instead, we are fed a false narrative about the danger of Putin marching through Europe. Biden also claims Putin is too bad of an actor to negotiate with. How could it be possible for the US to be able to negotiate with Khrushchev and Stalin but not Putin?

That narrative that Russia wants to march through Europe does not hold water. There are many holes in that theory. “Marching through Europe” would involve attacking NATO countries. If one NATO country is attacked, the others must respond. That certainly would be the onset of WWIII. As Mearsheimer said, “It’s just not a serious argument”.

It’s a sobering thought to think how we have gone from HW Bush’s promise to have NATO keep its distance from Russia to Biden’s begrudging stand-down.

We must remember that this is an election year, and the Democratic Party wants to keep a delicate balance between several factors. A cease-fire would make them look weak, and so would the impending collapse of the Ukrainian Eastern Front. They want to keep the war going and avoid a hot war with Russia while avoiding a cease-fire and preventing a complete collapse by Ukraine. It’s a slippery slope and a precarious balance to try and keep up.

Russophobia is omnipresent throughout the government and probably always will be. Some of it goes back to the Cold War thinking. Combine this with Putin’s unwillingness to bow to the West, and Russia now gets treated like Iraq, Libya, and a host of other countries that refused to bend to the US. This time, however, the US is playing with fire: a nuclear-armed Russia that sees this war as a threat to its existence.

Don’t exhale with relief yet. On the surface, this seems like a positive move, but only time will tell. It’s possible that the Biden administration and security state realized they had pushed this war as far as possible. But this is still an election season, and anything could happen. Imagine if the Ukrainian line breaks a few weeks before the election. Anything would be on the table then. There is always the possibility that other voices can win out in the security state, and Ukraine ends up striking deep inside Russia. It’s a fragile situation. Let’s hope this can be de-escalated for our children and all humankind.

Remember, this war can be ended by a call from the US to declare Ukraine a NATO-neutral country.