Kiev can’t expect to be treated better than NATO allies since that would irredeemably break the bloc’s trust in its American leader, nor can it expect that anti-Russian alliance’s European members to run through the rest of their already dwindling stockpiles at the expense of their minimum-security needs. Biden probably didn’t intend to, but he inadvertently exposed Zelensky as a delusional beggar who still doesn’t recognize the military-industrial limitations at play in this proxy war that his country is fighting.
Zelensky’s insatiable appetite for Western arms is infamous at this point, with his never-ending begging becoming the subject of mockery all across social media. He’s known for always asking for more despite having already received tens of billions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-provided funds to continue his NATO patrons’ proxy war on Russia. Be that as it is, none other than Biden himself just gave Zelensky a cold reality check after spilling the beans about why the West can never fully satisfy his begging.
Here’s what the American leader told his Ukrainian counterpart during their joint press conference:
- “Now, you say, ‘Why don’t we just give Ukraine everything there is to give?’ Well, for two reasons. One, there’s an entire Alliance that is critical to stay with Ukraine. And the idea that we would give Ukraine material that is fundamentally different than is already going there would have a prospect of breaking up NATO and breaking up the European Union and the rest of the world.
- We’re going to give Ukraine what it needs to be able to defend itself, to be able to succeed, and succeed in the battlefield.
- And the other piece of this is, you may recall, one of the reasons why I have spent - well, I won’t tell you the calculation, but I’ve spent several hundred hours face-to-face with our European allies and the heads of state of those countries, and making the case as to why it was overwhelmingly in their interest that they continue to support Ukraine.
- They understand it fully, but they’re not looking to go to war with Russia. They’re not looking for a third World War. And I think it can all be avoided by making sure that Ukraine is able to succeed in the battlefield.
- So, anyway, there’s more to say, but I probably already said too much. Thank you.”
Basically, Biden revealed that giving Ukraine arms that the US won’t even give its mutual defense allies in NATO would risk breaking up that military bloc and even the EU. Regarding the latter, they’re reluctant to provoke Russia by getting more directly involved in this proxy war via mission creep. These two “politically incorrect” truths were already known by objective observers, but it was still surprising that Biden so blatantly discussed them considering how hard the West has tried to deny this.
The very fact that he told all of this to Zelensky’s face adds credence to the Washington Post’s report from early October claiming that Biden is getting fed up with his counterpart’s ungrateful begging. The American leader might have also had ulterior motives in allegedly making his frustrations known behind the scenes in order to temper Zelensky’s unrealistic expectations that the West’s military-industrial complex can keep up the pace, scale, and scope of its armed assistance to his forces.
Biden didn’t dare touch upon that “politically incorrect” truth since it’s the one that the US-led West’s Golden Billion is most desperate to continue suppressing seeing as how it reveals the structural military limitations of his de facto New Cold War bloc. The reality is that they’ve already expended an unexpected amount of their stockpiles in supplying NATO’s top anti-Russian proxy, yet this still hasn’t been sufficient for obtaining their maximum objectives in the Ukrainian Conflict.
While it’s true that Russia’s special operation has decisively shifted from an offensive campaign to a defensive one in terms of the on-the-ground military-strategic dynamics, Moscow’s forces still remain firmly entrenched behind the present Line of Control (LOC) despite NATO’s unprecedented support of Kiev’s efforts to roll them even further back. This objective observation is leading to the emerging outcome whereby “Russia Can Still Strategically Win Even In The Scenario Of A Stalemate In Ukraine”.
That in turn poses a dilemma for the Golden Billion since it’s gone all in supporting Kiev against Moscow yet this still isn’t enough to successfully reassert their proxy’s writ over the entirety of Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders. If they fail to obtain their maximum objectives after their perception managers reframed this purely geopolitical conflict as supposedly being an existential struggle between so-called “democracies and dictatorships”, then there’ll be no denying the impression that Russia beat the West.
The narrative stakes are therefore higher than they’ve ever been at any time in recent memory, though they never should have even gotten to that point in the first place, yet the fact that they did speaks to the West’s miscalculation in assuming that its proxy support for Kiev would quickly cripple Russia. This de facto New Cold War bloc clearly wasn’t prepared for a prolonged proxy war otherwise they wouldn’t have been in this dilemma where their entire reputation is riding on an increasingly impossible victory.
The New York Times earlier raised awareness about the West’s military-industrial limitations in late November, which were already obvious by spring, yet Biden still refuses to publicly acknowledge them and that’s why he didn’t bring up the “elephant in the room” when telling Zelensky to his face why it’s impossible to fully satisfy his begging. Nevertheless, the other two explanations that he put forth are still damning in and of themselves.
In hindsight, the Ukrainian reporter who asked him “can we make long story short and give Ukraine all capabilities it needs and liberate all territories rather sooner than later” made a major narrative mistake by forcing Biden to reveal those two “politically inconvenient” truths in order to “save face” on the spot. He likely wouldn’t have spilled the beans and inadvertently humiliated Zelensky like he did had he not been asked that loaded question, yet he had no choice since it was a live press conference.
That said, Biden still held back by refusing to bring up the “elephant in the room” that the New York Times raised awareness of late last month since public admission of that most damning of “politically inconvenient” truths by none other than the American President himself would have ruined NATO’s reputation. That’s why he beat around the bush in the way that he did, though Biden still humiliated Zelensky in the process after literally having no choice but to do so and thus spoiled the whole event.
Courtesy Andrew Korybko
https://korybko.substack.com/p/biden-spilled-the-beans-about-why?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=835783&post_id=92243080&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
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