(Article by Brian C. Joondeph republished from AmericanThinker.com)
Several days ago, the pin was pulled. Reuters reported,
Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday in response to the U.S. and UK's allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons, in a further escalation of the 33-month-old war.
This was a shorter-range weapon, “U.S. officials and NATO echoed Putin's description of the weapon as an intermediate-range ballistic missile, which has a shorter range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,860-3,415 miles).”
Moscow to New York is about 4,600 miles, meaning that this missile does not threaten the continental U.S., but the rest of Europe and NATO are at risk. This explains why Sweden and Finland are preparing for possible war.
Major EU capital cities could be minutes from obliteration by this Russian missile. With its hypersonic speed, the missile could reach Berlin in 15 minutes and London and Paris in 20 minutes.
Is Russian President Vladimir Putin the instigator, or did the U.S. and NATO poke the bear one too many times? Signs at the zoo warn visitors not to tease or provoke the animals. Those who disregard such advice often learn of their folly the hard way.
How many such missiles does Russia have? Our intel community may or may not know. Government intelligence is often used to create a narrative rather than reflect reality, so we may be in for a future surprise.
Is the Russian missile launch a gambit toward a negotiated peace with a future President Trump? Perhaps. Remember that chess is a national pastime in Russia. Moves and countermoves.
Chess, however, is played with wooden pieces on a small board, not with nuclear weapons capable of destroying civilization. In Dirty Harry fashion, Russia and the U.S. may ask each other, “Do you feel lucky today?”
Unfortunately, Trump cannot negotiate anything until January 20. All communications from Trump and his entire team are likely being monitored by the same agencies that spied on his 2016 transition, looking for any opportunity to invoke the Logan Act as an excuse not to certify his election. Remember that the president-elect is not simply “any citizen” corresponding with a foreign government.
Biden is considered a lame-duck president.
In politics, a lame duck or outgoing politician is an elected official whose successor has already been elected or will be soon.
A lame duck is free to make decisions that exercise the standard powers with little fear of consequence, such as issuing executive orders, pardons, or other controversial edicts
Does this include starting a war? Let’s look at the U.S. Constitution.
The Constitution’s Article I, Section 8 specifically lists as a power of Congress the power “to declare War,” which unquestionably gives the legislature the power to initiate hostilities. The extent to which this clause limits the President’s ability to use military force without Congress’s affirmative approval remains highly contested.
Most people agree, at minimum, that the Declare War Clause grants Congress exclusive power. Presidents cannot, on their own authority, declare war.
But that is just what Biden did, not by name but by deed. As the NY Times reported,
Ukraine’s military used American-made ballistic missiles on Tuesday to strike into Russia for the first time, according to senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials, just days after President Biden gave permission to do so in a major shift of American policy.
These are highly complex missiles. It’s not like handing Ukraine a handgun to shoot at Russia. These missiles require sophisticated guidance and launch procedures beyond the capability of the Ukrainian military.
As the Washington Post acknowledges, “Ukraine’s rocket campaign is reliant on US precision targeting.” In other words, Ukraine is nothing but a launching pad used by the Biden warmongers to attack Russia, a sovereign country not threatening the U.S. and which also happens to have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world.
Back to the Russian response. It was entirely expected, and the West had better pay attention. As CNN reported,
Although Russia’s strike was non-nuclear, the missile appeared to carry a “MIRV” payload, meaning it used multiple warheads to strike separate targets.
MIRVS, or Multiple independently targetable Reentry Vehicles, were developed during the Cold War to permit a missile to deliver multiple nuclear warheads to different targets.
Although the nuclear payload appeared to have been replaced with a non-nuclear one in this case, the use of the MIRV technology was intended to send a message.
Is Putin sending a message or simply reacting with his available weaponry? Putin claims that the launched missile was a “combat test” of a new missile system. Was the launched missile one of a handful of prototypes or part of a larger arsenal? We are playing Russian roulette with the Russians.
Is anyone hearing this message? Congress? Bueller? Bueller?
Has WW III begun? Ukraine’s ex-top general says it has. North Korean troops and Chinese weapons are helping Russia. US and NATO militaries are assisting Ukraine.
How did we get here? Promises made and not kept. From decades ago.
As the LA Times reported,
The United States has failed to uphold a promise that NATO would not expand into Eastern Europe, a deal made during the 1990 negotiations between the West and the Soviet Union over German unification.
American foreign policy hubris is on display once again, spreading democracy and American values to countries that don’t share the same views as American progressives, who want to be left alone to select their own leaders and live their lives in peace.
America promised not to expand NATO closer to Russia, yet we did. Putin warned about red lines that America continuously crossed. Then Russia said nyet.
But American politicians on both sides of the political aisle know better and have left a wake of bloodshed and misery across the globe as their gift to the world.
After all, President Trump was impeached over a phone call with the Ukrainian president asking about corruption. Asking a legitimate question is an impeachable offense, but starting an undeclared war with Russia is not? It’s an upside-down world we now live in.
Consider this scenario. Russia organizes a color revolution in Canada, replacing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a pro-Russian puppet. Russia’s stated goal is to place nuclear weapons in Canada aimed at the U.S. How would the U.S. react? Would they react like Russia is acting today toward Ukraine? Are any of today’s actions surprising, or was this entirely predictable?
What is Congress, a supposedly co-equal branch of government to the warmongering executive branch, doing? Do they have more pressing matters than World War III? It seems so.
A newly elected Congress-“man” from Delaware, who chooses to dress like a woman, is causing bathroom-gate in the halls of Congress. A video of Rep. Nancy Mace bitchslapping an ABC News crank is more newsworthy.
Then there is the question of whether Mat Gaetz dated a 17-year-old girl. Never mind that the highly partisan and politicized Wray FBI and Garland DOJ investigated allegations against Gaetz and found nothing, dropping the investigation.
The world is on the brink of a nuclear holocaust, depending on how much the U.S. and NATO want to continue poking the well-armed Russian bear. Congress is consumed by frivolities, in Hunger Games fashion, over which bathroom a transgender member should use or accusations of whom a former member dated.
Maybe Elon and Vivek, through their DOGE commission, will find that the 535 members of Congress and thousands of staffers are wasteful and irrelevant, recommending replacement with, as William F. Buckley suggested, the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book.
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