Putin is a war criminal President Joe Biden
With those 5 simple words, in response to a question by NBC’s Kristen Welker, Biden changed the trajectory of everything that is to come. Basically, in five simple words, only 19 letters, Biden just turned Vladimir Putin into Kim Jong Un without the funny haircut. And may well have changed the way the end of the war and the aftermath goes.
As all things Joe, he broke the mold. Up until yesterday, every US official you could collar went out of his or her way to weigh in on the question as to whether or not Putin was a war criminal. The standing escape hatch was That’s for the International Crimes Commission to decide. Biden cut through the bullshit, the way only Joe can, and said Of course he’s a fucking war criminal! And while White House Press Secretary explained it with a simple President Biden did what he always does, and spoke from the heart, But neither Psaki nor any other official has tried to soften or walk back the statement. Biden’s words are the administration’s position.
Which changes everything. Because the US has a standing policy. As does France, Italy, Israel and a lot of other countries. We don’t negotiate with terrorists. France has run special forces rescues, not always successful to try to rescue French citizens from Somali pirates. And Israel raided the airport at Entebbe to rescue Israeli citizens in a Palestinian hijacking. And if they don’t negotiate with terrorists, they sure as hell won’t deal with war criminals.
Which changes everything. Starting with the messaging you’re going to start hearing coming from State Department and White House sources, maybe even from Biden himself. Because up until yesterday, both SoS Tony Blinken as well as Biden himself have repeatedly addressed Russian citizens directly, telling them that the suffering that they were going through could stop tomorrow if Putin simply stopped shelling Ukraine cities, and pulled his troops back inside Russian borders.
But not anymore. Not since yesterday. Because even if Putin withdrew his forces and stopped his shelling tomorrow, Russia would still have to negotiate with the west in order to officially end the conflict, and engineer a lifting of sanctions. And by not only directly calling Putin a war criminal, but also by the US government sanctioning Putin directly, the US diplomatically signaled that they no longer consider Putin a legitimate leader, or an honest broker. And as such, they have no interest in talking to him in the future.
So, who does the west deal with to get out of this mess? They can’t deal with Foreign Minister Lavrov, he’s a Putin flunky, and Putin is still the one who would have to sign on the bottom line. Due to Putin’s propaganda machinery, it may take a while to sink in, but eventually the Russian people will realize that their lives will not improve as long as Putin is still President of Russia.
But they aren’t the only ones who will learn it, and some of the more important ones probably already have. Because Putin is the last of a dying breed. He is the last of the post cold war Soviet warriors who dream of restoring the glories of the Soviet Union. He surrounded himself with kindred spirits, but in his hour of need paranoia, he is now starting to purge them as unreliable. And in his paranoia, he has no one left to replace them with.
But you have a whole new breed under tham that are smarter, younger, and with realpolitik world experience. They were raised, schooled, and worked in todays’ politics, and they know how to read the tea leaves. And the tea leaves say that Russia can’t even begin to come back as long as Putin is in power. And they have the Kremlin political experience to know how to engineer it. And with Putin now publicly threatening to exterminate his beloved oligarchs, they should have all the support they need.
When Joe Biden told Kristen Welker Putin is a war criminal, without the usual nod-and-a-wink Biden purposefully left something verbally unsaid, but the implication was clear. The only way out for Russia is Regime Change. Just don’t expect the US or NATO to engineer it.
Five words you never heard from traitor Trump, nor will you ever hear them from the Maga crowd.
Can you imagine what the person who got stuck with the task of taking that video to Putin and playing felt like during that long, lonely walk? Trump aides have surely feared HIS wrath at having to deliver really bad news but the worst Trump would ever do is have an epic tantrum and throw shit at the bearer of bad news. Putin might well have pulled a gun out of the desk drawer and shot that person dead on the spot. Or if his rage was so great his hands were shaking order one of his Praetorian Guards to do it.
I’ve tried to take a bit of a break from TV news but have scanned online stuff for cool things like the Artemis rollout yet I haven’t seen a story about our allies’ leaders doing much (if anything) to distance themselves. And that’s huge. Putin is so used to getting away with shit he never dreamed someone more powerful than him would call him out so directly. He can bluster all he wants with bullshit accusations but he damn well knows the truth. That he’s been slinging bullshit, and that HE has engineered this strategy of reducing Ukrainian cities to rubble and targeting residential areas and civilians including both blocking humanitarian aid AND attacking civilians trying to evacuate those cities he’s reducing to rubble. He knows damn well HE has ordered his army to commit war crimes, and worse he’s getting glimpses that outside of his own country the rest of the world is seeing the reality of what he’s ordered and in real time. Even the few friends he has know the truth and might be facing some hard choices of their own – and soon.
You know, I’ve always wondered if aides to former guy were afraid of his silly 4 yr. old-type tantrums. Maybe they were thinking that if they were the bearers of bad tidings they might be fired but actually afraid of some man baby having a hissy? Seems…off kilter. I’ve yet to see one instance where former guy looked like anything other than a brainless doofus and I’m unaware of too many people who would actually be frightened by such a thing.
I continue to be amazed at how many people forget that Uncle Joe has been at this politics thing for a really, REALLY long time. My joke with my mother is that he helped Ben Franklin figure out the Post Office back in the day. But to my point…everything he has done for the last year on Ukraine has been analyzed and calculated within an nth of a degree beforehand. So yes, he absolutely means it when he says Putin is a war criminal. But he’s only saying that NOW because the time has come to say it.
And there remains the question of how many current Republican officeholders are part of this mess as well…and being secretly probed by the DOJ as an extension of the J6 committee investigations.
Yes, and I think the Jan.6 committee is going to spill the beans !