Scary times after fallout from Biden’s careless ‘Armageddon’ talk
JOE Biden’s warning that the risk of nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest since the Cuban missile crisis was, by anyone’s standards, a truly worrying, if not astonishing, statement.
As those who looked on struggled to come to grips with what he’d just said, the US leader went further, saying Vladimir Putin was “not joking” about using his arsenal of bombs.
Following a series of devastating setbacks in Russia’s war with Ukraine, Putin has made a series of thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons as he feels he has run out of options.
As the threats become seemingly more deranged, Biden felt it was his duty to warn of the seriousness of such menace, saying the risk of atomic war had not been as high since 1962.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden told a crowd of supporters at a Democratic Party fundraiser in
New York.
“We are trying to figure out: What is Putin’s off-ramp?” he said, adding: “Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself where he does not only lose face but significant power?”
Biden’s references to a doomsday threat were extremely unusual for any American president, sparking understandable alarm among US allies.
Since the Cuban Missile Crisis 60 years ago this month, the White House has rarely spoken with such dark tones about the possible use of nuclear weapons.
Biden’s warning the world is at risk of Armageddon was designed to send an unvarnished message that no one should underestimate the extraordinary danger posed if
Russia deploys tactical nuclear weapons.
His grim assessment, delivered during a Democratic fundraiser, rippled around the globe and appeared to edge far beyond the boundaries of current US intelligence assessments.
It was an odd move on his part but wasn’t the first troublesome opinion Biden expressed that caused unnecessary instability in Putin’s war.
In March, as he wrapped up a speech in Warsaw, Biden seemed to call for his ousting, saying, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power”, with people interpreting his words as the Russian leader needed taking out permanently.
Before Biden could even board Air Force One to begin the flight back to Washington, aides were rightly scrambling to clarify he wasn’t calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.
But with Putin now backed into a corner by Ukraine’s battlefield successes and seemingly emotionally unstable, the entire conflict does not need to become more precarious with careless words.
Such use of nuclear weapons to protect illegally annexed portions of eastern Ukraine and deter direct Western military intervention is unthinkable.
The death and destruction from any such deployment would be widespread and undoubtedly lead to a much greater escalation.
But the very existence of nuclear weapons has extended the war in Ukraine indefinitely.
The only way to eliminate such a risk is to get rid of nuclear weapons.
The 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons provides a safe, verifiable way for all nations to achieve this goal. But rather than fuel the fire, Biden should lead by example by joining the treaty to avoid more Ukraines in the future.
At present, the world seems one misunderstanding or miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.
Words have consequences. Biden would do better to watch his.
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VIRAL video of Madonna appearing to suggest she is gay has taken the internet by storm.
In a video posted on the singer’s TikTok account at the weekend, she holds up a pair of pink knickers next to the caption, “If I miss, I’m Gay.”
The Material Girl, 64, tries to throw the underwear in a rubbish bin – and misses – before the video cuts to her turning away from the camera.
It smacked of the latest stunt Madge, 64, has carried out in recent years to get people talking about her. I couldn’t help but feel the attention-seeking trick feels like a new low for Madonna.
She is single-handedly ruining her legacy as one of pop’s most influential icons.
At present, the world seems one misunderstanding or miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation.