Biden’s last hurrah

OUTGOING President Joe Biden has further embellished his war record with the latest variant of US foreign policy – fighting to the last Ukrainian.

When Biden leaves office, he will leave behind a legacy as president with a record placing him among the most militaristic of American leaders, responsible for inflicting suffering and causing death to what could be the largest number of innocent civilian casualties in the modern era. These casualties stem from the wars that have taken place during his tenure in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere.

This record will become worse if the bleak outcome of his latest foreign policy decision becomes reality. In what independent observers view as a further attempt by Biden to continue and escalate the war in Ukraine, the lame-duck president has authorised Ukraine to use American long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia.

In the US, the following response has received two million views on X and 47,000 likes. “On his way out of office, Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorising Ukraine the use of US long-range missiles into Russia. The American people gave a mandate on Nov 5 against these exact last decisions and do not want to fund or fight foreign wars. We want to fix our own problems.” (Marjorie Taylor Green, Congress representative for Georgia, X post, 14 Nov)

This decision of allowing Kyiv to use the Army Tactical Missile System, with its superior range of up to four times more than the current weapons supplied to Ukraine for attacks inside Russia, has been justified with the most flimsy of excuses provided to and regurgitated by the mainstream media.

Quoting American officials reported to be “knowledgeable” about the matter but obviously designated by the White House to provide justification propaganda, the major policy change is being pitched to the world as a response to North Korean troops reported to be positioned along Ukraine’s northern border.

The explanation rings hollow.

Since the war began, Russia has not called upon or relied on any non-Russian troops to fight its war. At this late stage when victory appears to be in sight, and which Vladimir Putin will want for it to enter into the history books as an exclusive and single-handed Russian victory against the combined forces of the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, the European Union, Japan and other allies of the West, it will be foolish and extremely unlikely for Putin to welcome any participation from Russia’s allies and friends in the current battlefield and military endgame in Ukraine.

As to the presence of North Koreans in Ukraine, it is possible that there is a small number of them at the frontline. However, South Korea, which has the best intelligence on North Korea, has not been able to confirm that North Korean troops are now engaged in combat as reported by some US and Ukraine officials.

Explaining Biden’s last war hurrah

What explains Biden’s last hurrah in US foreign policy is not difficult to fathom. Firstly, he is clearly giving way to the late-ditch-effort by the military-industrial (MIC) and deep state complexes that are key players of US domestic and foreign policy to obstruct the incoming president, Donald Trump, in his plan to end the war.

Such a move, which Trump has promised to take place within 24 hours after his assumption of office, would adversely impact the windfall profits that the war in Ukraine has generated for the MIC complex.

Biden had earlier resisted pressure from Volodymyr Zelensky and Western supporters to allow Ukraine to strike military targets deeper inside Russia for fear that further escalation could draw the US and Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) into direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

His change of mind at this late hour can also be interpreted in other ways besides his finally giving in to the MIC forces working behind the political scene in Washington and Kyiv.

Foremost appears to be his personal animosity towards Trump, who he condemned in an election campaign rally as a threat to democracy and someone that needed to “be locked up”.

Related to that animosity may also be a quest for retaliation against his nemesis, fuelled by Kamala Harris’s election loss, which many Democrat leaders attribute to Biden’s late withdrawal from the presidential race.

Failure by Trump as the new president to stop the war as promised would put Biden’s foreign policy legacy of support for Ukraine in a better light and make Trump the loser in the American history books, which Biden is now focused on influencing and rewriting.

Earlier in his youth, Biden had shown promise of being anti-war in his sentiment. Like earlier presidents – George W. Bush and Bill Clinton – he was successful in avoiding the draft.

According to a report by the US Army Times newspaper which serves active, reserve, national guard and retired US army personnel, and analyses the draft dodging strategies of various presidents: Biden not only received deferments for his undergraduate days at the University of Delaware, but for three years of law school at Syracuse University. When his education deferments expired in 1968, Biden requested a deferment based on the fact he had asthma as a teenager. He did this in spite of the fact that, according to his own book, he was a star athlete in high school and in college played intramural sports and was a lifeguard in the summer. (https://www.armytimes.com/opinion/commentary/2021/01/21/dodging-and-deferring-trump-wasnt-the-only-potus-to-avoid-the-draft/)

The report also noted that as soon as he received his asthma deferment, Biden ran for local office, and within two years after he would have been discharged from the army, assuming he was not wounded or killed, he was elected to the senate.

As president, Biden clearly has embellished his war record with the latest variant of US foreign policy of fighting to the last Ukrainian.

Lim Teck Ghee’s Another Take is aimed at demystifying social orthodoxy. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com