On Tuesday, May 31st, Joe Biden took to the New York Times opinion pages to defend our country’s escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Most notable is what he didn’t talk about – the continued squeezing of Rural America and the continued rise of gas prices and a lot of other goods. Also on May 31st, gas prices in Worth County went up to $4.29, a new all-time high.
His defense seems awfully familiar – it is very much like George Bush’s “Stay the Course” mantra in Iraq that not only failed to achieve any meaningful gains, but that laid the groundwork for future terrorist organizations such as ISIS. Joe Biden does not speak for the “free world.” He can speak for himself.
The President talks about providing Ukraine with rocket systems that he says will allow them to strike key targets on the battlefield. This is what the US and their allies have been saying all along. Even if these efforts are ultimately successful, like they were following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, what is to stop these weapons systems from being used against us? As late as 1993, Osama Bin Laden was portrayed as a freedom fighter by the New York Times.
Meanwhile, what about the millions of people here in the US who are hurting from pain at the pump? Joe Biden did not offer one thing in his NYT piece offering relief. Yes, we realize that the US does not directly control the price of oil markets and the price of gas. But the more that the US ramps up war hysteria against Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, or anyone else that the Very Important People in Washington say we are supposed to hate, oil prices go through the roof, followed by gas prices.
Our conservative friends would argue that Joe Biden should return to the policies of Donald Trump and engage in more drilling and more fracking, increasing supply and reducing pain at the pump. Our more liberal friends would argue that we should do a whole of government approach to saturate the country with wind, solar, and electric vehicles, freeing us from dependence on Russian oil. However, Joe Biden is doing none of the above. His plan is to stick it to the Russians, expect us to pay the price, and then blame it on the Russians when inflation and gas prices keep going through the roof.
The President’s reassurances in his op-ed are all hollow. He reassures us that Ukraine has promised us that they will not hit Russian territory with the new batch of weapons he is sending them. But Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, ran on a platform of peace with Russia and on stopping the civil war in Ukraine. Instead, he has done nothing but escalate. And what is to prevent a future President from telling Ukraine they can?
The President reassures us that he does not seek a war between Russia and NATO. But what is to prevent a future president from doing so? Mitt Romney, who is a potential candidate for 2024, has been spoiling for a fight with Russia ever since 2012.
Biden writes, “Unprovoked aggression, the bombing of maternity hospitals and centers of culture, and the forced displacement of millions of people make the war in Ukraine a profound moral issue.” True. But two wrongs do not make a right. Joe Biden’s escalatory policies risk turning our hostile relations into a shooting war, or even a nuclear war, which could get us all killed.
And if might does not make right, as the President rightly says, then when can we expect Joe Biden to admit that he was wrong to support our war of choice in Iraq, the biggest foreign policy disaster in US history? This is not a matter of “apologizing” for the US. Admitting that one was wrong is a moral virtue in any competent philosophical or religious system.
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