Name? Joe Biden
Westphalian identity? US American
Age? 79
Why is he in the news? US President Joe Biden has been very vocal against Russia’s activities in Ukraine. Not one day passes without Biden warning that Russian invasion of Ukraine is “imminent”. Meanwhile, Russia reports that Ukrainian troops are crossing into Russia, which the Biden administration dismisses as fake, and false flag operations.
Why do we care? Because the US does not have a good reputation when it comes to using declassified information. The video of Colin Powell using false intelligence to justify the 2003 US invasion of Iraq remains present whenever the US publishes new intelligence. Biden’s national security advisor Jake Sullivan argued, “In Iraq, intelligence was deployed from this very podium to start a war, we are trying to stop a war.”
Why should you care? Because it is rather obvious that the Biden administration does not want to be surprised by Putin as Obama was in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea. Back then, intelligence officials blocked the Obama administration from sharing what they knew about Putin’s plans with its allies, giving Putin the element of surprise. You should care 8/10 about the current information war and its consequences.
Who else cares? French President Emmanuel Macron. Europe is caught in the middle of this information warfare. Being a lot closer and a lot more dependent on Russia, EU leaders have been more careful with their language and accusations of Putin. Macron in particular has been focused on finding a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine situation, portraying himself as the EU’s chief negotiator ahead of French Presidential elections.
Any further comments? What we can see in this rivalry and extension of the systemic competition the West, China and Russia are involved in, is that unconstrained by truth, Putin is simply better at such unconventional warfare than Biden. Since the Iraq war, even the US media has become more critical of intelligence reports.
