On Wednesday, a bill authorizing tens of billions of dollars in emergency spending, including aid to Ukraine, faltered in the Senate. Earlier, Biden called on Congress to pass supplemental funding for Kiev before the holiday recess. He claimed that if Moscow wins the war with Kiev, keeps going, and then attacks a NATO ally, “then we’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today – American troops fighting Russian troops.”
As some media in the US points out, this is Biden’s sternest warning regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Biden acts like a cat on a hot tin roof on this issue because his fate in next year’s presidential election is tightly linked to the fate of Ukraine.
Imagine if the US, the largest single donor to Kiev and one of its firmest supporters in the world, reduces its Ukraine aid. Amid the growing war-weariness in the West, this will certainly deflate Europe’s willingness to support Ukraine. In that case, how the war will end is quite obvious.
Russia’s victory in this conflict is what the West does not want to see, and it is the same for the Biden administration since it won’t be able to prove its diplomatic ability to voters during a critical US presidential election year. Therefore, Biden is still going to keep pushing for more Ukraine aid as soon as possible, taking into consideration his desire to boost his votes during the upcoming election cycle and continue to wear Russia down on the battlefield.
Biden’s sensationalist words also show a consistent position from the political elite in Washington – that is, their goal of seeking a lasting containment of Russia remains the same. Right now, Ukraine is an extremely valuable strategic tool for these people to utilize. The US will certainly support Kiev because the cost of not doing so is too high. At the same time, the process of further containing Moscow will never stop.
The confrontational pattern between NATO and the US on one side and Russia on the other has long been formed. The matter now is how deep NATO and the US want to be involved in their confrontation with Russia. At present, they are fighting a proxy war by supporting Kiev in the rear. However, since they seem to be ready to “fight to the last drop of the Ukrainian blood,” whose blood will they use once Ukrainian blood dries?
Washington has repeatedly emphasized that it makes every effort to avoid a head-on conflict with Moscow. The horrible scenario of “American troops fighting Russian troops” in Biden’s remarks aims to remind members of Congress that to fight a proxy war with Moscow is more economical and effective, as well as in line with US’ interests, than to fight a US/NATO-Russia war. However, as another election cycle approaches, the danger is that the senators and representatives are too caught up in the game of partisan struggle to take Biden’s warning very seriously.
Nevertheless, providing more aid to Ukraine is not the solution to avoid the possibility of a war between the countries that have the top two strongest militaries in the world. The US and NATO should understand that with or without the war in Ukraine, it is impossible to eliminate Russia. When they start to give up their agenda to fight Moscow untiringly, the world perhaps will become a place where neither Russia, Ukraine, the US, nor other NATO countries will have to worry if they will have to fight to the last drop of their people’s blood.
