Both Joe Biden [VIDEO HERE] and Senator Chris Coons [VIDEO HERE] were interviewed as part of the Sunday talk circuit just before the upcoming NATO summit. The message from both voices were similar as part of the larger geopolitical discussion.
On the subject of Ukraine seeking NATO membership the key democrats gave the same explanation and justification, although Biden mumbled a little more alarmingly. Biden, speaking to the Dept of State narrative engineers on CNN, noted there can be no discussion of Ukraine entering NATO as long as the war with Russia is ongoing. From Biden’s perspective if NATO accepted Ukraine now, then all of NATO would immediately need to enter the war with Russia.
What Biden and Coons did not say was that if NATO opened the door to Ukraine now, the interests of Russia would immediately change. If NATO was to make immediate announcements of Ukraine membership, Russia would be stupid not to expand the war immediately and begin the process of taking all of Ukraine instead of the eastern Russian speaking section bordering the homeland.
On the subject of sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, both Biden and Coons admitted something that would not ordinarily be discussed in public circles. Ukraine is almost out of 155mm artillery shells and the U.S. stockpile we have used to support them is now gone. It will take more than several months to manufacture and resupply our own military stores, let alone support the needs of Ukraine. As a consequence, 155mm cluster bombs are being supplied in lieu of our ability to provide less deadly munitions.
[COONS] – “First, we are running out of 155mm artillery munitions, and they are burning through them at a remarkable rate. Six to eight thousand a day. That’s a million a year. We have a plan to bring back online the manufacturing of 155mm shells at scale, but that won’t happen for months. They are at risk of losing this counter offensive if they run out of their shells. We have a large stockpile of 155mm shells that are cluster munitions. It’s the Ukrainians who are asking to be able to use these on their own soil. They’ve committed to monitoring their use to remediating them after the war. And frankly, they will be tactically helpful against dug-in Russian troops that are behind large minefields. So weighing all of those factors, the President made a tough call that I will support.” (more)
[BIDEN] – […] “we’re in a situation where Ukraine continues to be brutally attacked across the board by munitions — by these cluster munitions that are — have dud rates that are very, very low — I mean, very high, that are a danger to civilians, number one.
Number two, the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition, the ammunition — they used to call them 155-millimeter weapons. This is a — this is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of those — that ammunition. And we’re low on it.” (read more)
Ordinarily in a time of war one might not expect to see public discussion of ammo supplies; alas, in the era of World War Reddit, it seems not to be an issue.
On the subject of China, I think this is the first time when Joe Biden has said publicly, that after the Xi-Putin summit, Biden threatened Chairman Xi Jinping with unilateral action to remove U.S. corporations and investment from China if Xi was to openly assist Russian President Putin. At least that is the Biden claim within the interview.