President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address last night, and he spent the first 15 minutes attacking Russia and President Vladimir Putin while praising Ukraine to the skies. Biden had been coached to put on the same aggressive tone he has used to date in addressing the Russians, and he had nothing at all to offer by way of resolving the Ukraine crisis.
In his best put-on, tough-guy voice, Biden said: “Russia’s Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways. But he badly miscalculated.” “We are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine. Putin is now isolated from the world more than ever…. He has no idea what’s coming.”
Biden bragged that the ruble had already fallen by 30% as a result of financial warfare against Russia, and he announced additional measures to exclude all Russian planes from American air space, and that the U.S. would release 30 million tons of oil onto the markets (as part of a 60 million international plan they put together).
Biden did reiterate that the U.S. is not now, and will not engage militarily against Russia in Ukraine. But he again threatened that if Russia moved west one inch into a NATO country, then the U.S. will defend all NATO countries with everything available.
