Biden’s ATACMS Gambit on Ukraine Could Blow up in America’s Face

The U.S. embassy in Kyiv closed its doors on Wednesday, warning all its employees to “shelter in place” in the event of an air raid siren. The embassy shut down over fears a Russian attack against the American building could be imminent after Biden’s inexplicable escalation of the war by authorizing long-range American weapons to be used deep inside Russia.

It is unclear why, this late in the war and in the eleventh hour of his presidency, Biden chose to take action that carries a significant war escalation risk. That this decision represents a serious and unnecessary danger to the United States—while simultaneously raising the chances of a Ukrainian defeat—is very clear.

It is clear to those willing to see through the lens of reality. There are those in America that, on the surface, appear to have great credentials and have hailed Biden’s decision to allow the ATACMS missiles to be used by Ukraine to attack targets deep in Russia. Former generals Jack Keane, Barry McCaffrey, and Wesley Clark all came out in support of the president’s decision.  Keane actually complained that there were still too many restrictions on the use of the missiles.

These “war-first” generals have given disastrous advice on television throughout this war. Recall that in September 2023, when the Ukrainian summer offensive had been exposed as a total failure, David Petraeus declared that Ukraine could still cause the Russian defenses to “crumble.” Yet, as I had written months before the offensive began, the fundamentals of war demonstrated that Ukraine had virtually no chance of success. How could a former four-star general not understand those fundamentals and—even months after failure was plainly evident—still claim the Russians would collapse?

Read article in The National Interest