Before Reaching the Point of No Return, Reversing Course Is Still Possible

We have repeatedly warned here that the weeks leading into the U.S. elections and thereafter will be crucial for the question of war and peace in the world, a period during which tectonic shifts can be expected, regardless of the outcomes of specific events. The second assassination attempt against candidate Donald Trump, had it not been foiled by the Secret Service on Sept. 15, could have become such a shift, as tensions over war with Russia rise, threatening social explosions.

The main question on the table now is whether the United States and the United Kingdom will effectively allow Ukraine to use their long-range precision-guided missiles to strike deep into Russian territory. That would de facto make NATO an open party to the war against Russia, as Russian officials have made clear. U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Lammy had indicated that a decision to that effect would be taken during the visit of UK Prime Minister Starmer to the White House on Sept. 13, with Blinken claiming that the risk incurred “is not necessarily a dispositive factor”, i.e. a relevant factor!

As it turned out, the Biden-Starmer meeting was very short, with no press conference, and a White House readout of only one paragraph. The two leaders, it states, reaffirmed their “unwavering” support for Ukraine, their “iron-clad” backing of Israel, and their “serious concern” about and antagonism to Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, but it says nothing about the use of missiles. That, however, does not mean that the danger is lifted, as the decision, or at least the announcement of it, may well have just been postponed.

As for the White House, one also has to ask who is actually running the presidency at this point, given the acknowledged mental deficiency of Joe Biden. For Russia, on the other hand, the issue of allowing Ukraine to use advanced weapons against Russian targets is a bogus one. To avoid any ambiguity in interpretation on this point, we will quote Vladimir Putin directly on the consequences it would have (see next item). His warning should suffice to bring hundreds of thousands of citizens in the trans-Atlantic world to demand of their governments that they stop the escalation now.