The decision came after weeks of numerous European countries also permitting Ukraine to strike inside Russia –without the restriction of keeping the attacks near Kharkov– including France and Germany, which had been publicly lobbying for the US to lift those restrictions.
The decision is part of a string of escalations by NATO countries who are risking a global nuclear holocaust to keep Ukraine on life support for a little while longer. Like previous escalations, this latest change in policy by NATO countries will not change the reality on the battlefield but will move the world closer to a catastrophic confrontation that could end civilization as we know it.
Not unlike his close personal friend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden is growing evermore unpopular at home. According to recent polls, Biden is the most unpopular US President at this point in his first term since the 1940s. It is also conventional political wisdom in the United States that an ongoing war is usually a boon to a President’s approval rating. That was the case for both Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Biden also cannot afford another foreign policy defeat, having been embarrassed in Afghanistan where his withdrawal was horrifically botched and in the Red Sea, where he has proven unable to lift the Houthi blockade of shipping lanes. As long as the war in Ukraine continues, Biden doesn’t have to admit defeat, as political cartoonist and co-host of Sputnik’s The Final Countdown pointed out on Thursday.
“If you say you have a new idea, in this case allowing strikes within Russia, then you can credibly claim that the war is not over yet,” Rall contended.
With Pro-Palestinian protests occurring across the country and large majorities of the country now, Biden finds himself in a perilous position. A recent poll found that 20% of Democratic and Independent voters in swing states said that his handling of Gaza makes them less likely to vote for him, more than enough to swing the election.
“There have been ample opportunities for peace agreements that could end this horrific conflict in Ukraine, but the Biden administration seems adamant on provoking a war with Russia,” managing editor of Covert Action Magazine Jeremy Kuzmarov said on Sputnik’s The Final Countdown. “It’s an election year. The Israel situation is really ugly, there are a lot of huge protests against him. Maybe he thinks he can rally the people against Russia.”
Kuzmarov noted that while it hasn’t been as vehement or quick as in Palestine, US public sentiment has soured on the Ukraine war as well. “So I don’t know if this is a winning strategy politically if that’s what he’s after.”
While other NATO countries led the way in lifting their restrictions on striking inside Russia, they too are facing political unrest at home and possible defeats in EU Parliament elections next month. In France, President Emmanual Macron’s ruling coalition is losing badly to the Rassemblement National party and the Socialist party is nipping at their heels for second place.
Meanwhile in Germany, the Alternative for Germany party, an obscure party not too long ago, has moved into second place in the country.
Leaders in those countries could likewise be trying to keep Ukraine afloat for a little longer and avoid a humiliating defeat before the elections.
“The leadership [in Europe is] adopting aggressive policies against Russia and supporting Ukraine to the hilt and aligning with the United States in this war,” said Kuzmarov, noting that Slovakia is a notable exception “and their leader was targeted in an assassination attempt.”
It has also been reported that some European countries have granted permission to the Ukrainians to use F-16 fighter jets over the territory of Ukraine. The jets are capable of carrying missiles that hold nuclear warheads.
“Therefore, we cannot help but view the supply of these systems to the Kiev regime as a deliberate signaling action by NATO in the nuclear sphere. They are trying to convey that the US and NATO are ready to go to any lengths in Ukraine,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Sputnik, adding that he hopes that the joint military exercises between Belarus and Russia, which included practice with non-strategic nuclear warheads, would serve as “a sobering reminder to our opponents of the catastrophic consequences of further escalation up the nuclear ladder.”
With leaders in the West seemingly hellbent on either provoking World War III or moving as close to the line as possible in a futile attempt to improve their poll numbers, it falls on the people to force their leaders to change course.
“Hopefully these movements grow and I think we may see more protests and we may see protesters who are protesting the Israel-Palestine [conflict], make the connection between rotten policy there and the West and rotten policies in many other regions in the world, including this real danger spot,” Kuzmarov predicted, calling for a broader movement “equivalent to the ‘60s movements or something [even] bigger, which really is needed because the leaders are off the rails.”
“We need, I think, massive civil disobedience against leaders who are not leading in the interest of humanity or the public,” he added later.
Writing in his substack, The Gray Zone journalist Aaron Maté agreed. “[I]t would also be in everyone’s interest to end this proxy war between the world’s two nuclear powers. But as they continue to mount the escalation ladder, Biden and his aides are clearly not thinking about the rest of us down below.”