Back on June 7, Biden’s Senior Director of Arms Control at the National Security Council Pranay Vaddi had announced that the U.S. would take a “more competitive approach” to arms control and perhaps start up an arms race, purportedly in response to what Russia and China are doing. Earlier this week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reportedly stated that NATO would discuss dusting off nuclear warheads in Europe for the coming conflicts. And National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told PBS’s NewsHour on June 17 that Ukraine could use U.S. weapons to strike deeper into Russian territory, saying: “This is not about geography. It’s about common sense.”
Against this backdrop of on-the-record statements, the Washington Post published an article on June 17 on the upcoming July 7-9 NATO summit, in which they state three times (!) in one article that the U.S. will be coming under “pressure” at that meeting (presumably from the British and continental Europeans) to let Ukraine use all their weapons to strike deep into Russian territory. To wit:
“White House officials are expecting pressure from foreign leaders [at the NATO summit] intent on giving Ukraine a green light to hit back at Russia more aggressively.” And:
“But the gathering also will pose a big test for Biden, as many allies are unhappy with his reluctance to let Ukraine attack targets in Russia.” And then again:
“Many NATO leaders have been frustrated at Biden’s reluctance to give Ukraine more latitude to strike military targets inside Russia.”
The Washington Post itself then admits that the pro-war parties in Europe were seriously set back in the June 6-9 EU Parliament elections, quoting Ivo Daalder, U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama, to the effect that “The countries most likely to push hard to do more on Ukraine are going to be significantly weakened because of European elections.”
That pretty much leaves the British—who have led the charge for an unending war against Russia—and their assets in Washington and elsewhere, as the actual proponents of the policy described by the Washington Post.
