President Biden blows off Putin
Now that Vladimir Putin is vaguely threatening to use nuclear weapons, President Biden was asked today if he believes we’re heading for nuclear war. His one word answer: “No.” This was absolutely the correct strategic answer for the President of the United States to give.
The cold hard reality is that even in the highly unlikely scenario where Putin has become incoherently suicidal enough to use nuclear weapons, there’s nothing Biden could say that would prevent Putin from doing so. So in such a scenario, Biden would gain nothing by trying to appease Putin. Instead all he’d be doing is giving oxygen to Putin’s desire for the world conversation to be about his threat to use nuclear weapons.
Biden has done the right thing here by blowing off Putin’s nuclear threats. Regardless of what Biden might think the odds are of any given scenario, it’s the only response that Biden can give. If Biden were to give any other answer, he would merely be playing into Putin’s hands.
