It seems like Biden is among the few domestic leaders with an actual sober assessment of Putin’s capabilities. As NBC News reports, “In remarks at a reception for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said it was the first time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that there has been a ‘direct threat’ of nuclear weapons’ being used, ‘if, in fact, things continue down the path they are going. We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,’ he said, offering his bluntest comments about the use of nuclear weapons since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.”
I hear many pundits acting as armchair generals that claim the nuclear option is remote and unlikely. And again, I will say: Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! I don’t like to use the “backed in a corner” analogy for whatever reason — it’s overused. As I keep writing, I don’t see any other way out for Putin. Despite what Allied leadership says, if Putin goes nuclear, then the world would be paralyzed into inaction, looking for the quickest way to prevent a second bomb from going off. Call me pessimistic. Call me skeptical. Call me a nay-sayer. Call me a contrarian in the face of everything the West and Ukraine have accomplished up to this point, but everything changes once Putin breaks the 70-year taboo.