Exactly how close to nuclear war did we get in the last month? (And still today since conditions haven’t changed?)

Closer than most of us noticed, and I have the deranged, spiteful, insanely dangerous, and howlingly irresponsible Biden administration receipts to prove it.

On Nov. 17, while many of us weren’t looking, still elated by the victory of Trump winning a second term in the White House, the lame-duck dementia patient of a president (or someone / some people acting on his behalf, because we really don’t know) decided that, “for the first time” it was a good time to authorize “Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia,” according to AP, sometimes called the Associated Press but all too often the “Administration Press.”

Foreign policy wonks could quibble and nibble around the edges of what that meant, but one thing that was certain was that Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin, would most assuredly regard the entrance of U.S.-supplied munitions into the conflict as a huge escalation.

X/Twitter took note of the magnitude of the decision with alacrity, noting that “the Democratic party decided Biden was unfit to run as president but competent to escalate war with Russia even after the party lost.”

And that it was “comic book villain evil” to kill “thousands of people just to try to sabotage the incoming president” and “make it harder for Trump to end the war.” 

Indeed.

Then, just two days later, on Nov. 19, Putin reacted as predicted — and then some. 

He did, indeed, view the entrance of American-supplied missiles into the conflict as a huge escalation. 

Agence-France Presse reported that Russia updated “its nuclear doctrine to treat attacks by non-nuclear states supported by nuclear powers as joint attacks.”

Being an official doctrinal update, one could safely presume Putin would have made materially the same announcement in one day, not two, had it not taken a day for the Russian bureaucrats to process the paperwork to make it have the additional force of the State’s imprimatur. 

I guess even in Russia, the wheels of bureaucracy turn slower than any of us would like.

Chief White House Correspondent for OANN, Daniel Baldwin, captured the moment this way: “A clear threat of World War III.”

Walter Kirn, Editor-at-Large at the newspaper, County Highway notes the grim first: 

For the first time in my life — or anyone’s — US-made long-range missiles have been launched into mainland Russia.

He further notes that the legacy media seems “eerily detached” and that “friends in Europe [are] genuinely worried about nuclear war. Right now. This morning.” 

Imagine that. 

No, seriously — imagine it. 

The. Threat. Of. Nuclear. War. Made. Real. Made. Manifest.  Of course, the threat of nuclear war has the most severe consequences for those closest to it, but we should not kid ourselves:  a nuclear warhead going off anywhere is a global event and will harm all of us in ways we cannot, dare not, imagine.

So, you, being a rational person, might think the Biden administration would take note of this insanity and adjust their policy, or at least their public pronouncements of it. 

You’d be right:  they did notice — but only long enough to pour gasoline on the fire! 

Because missiles and the threat of nuclear war weren’t enough escalation, Biden added landmines to the mix — the same day Putin ups the ante with nukes:  “Biden has just approved antipersonnel land mines for Ukraine, two days after approving ATACMS missiles.”

And just as a weekend bonus? Biden’s “violating his own policy” on landmines with this! 

Grimly amusing to note that unlike Putin, who at least waited a day for Russia’s official change in policy on nukes to be written into the State’s official bureaucracy, Team Biden didn’t bother with any such thing as crossing t’s or dotting i’s on official United States policy. A one-hundred and eighty degree policy change on landmines?  Who needs the official gears to turn?  Team Biden can just speak it — or in this case, memo it — into reality!  The same day!  Because … yet further escalation was so … urgent?  What in hell is going on here?

As RealClearInvestigations writer Paul Sperry noted, quoting former Senior State Department Military Adviser Col. Larry Mrozinski: “‘Never in my life has an outgoing president made it abundantly clear that he is pushing the United States into WWIII.’”

“But wait!” As they say on late night infomercials. “There’s more!”

As if missiles, landmines, and the threat of nuclear war weren’t enough, Biden just gave Ukraine some “found money.” Well over four billion dollars: 

“JUST IN:  Biden administration tells Ukraine they can keep $4.65B they were supposed to pay back…”

And just in case you were tempted to ascribe all of this is Putin v. Biden verbal mudslinging and it’s just me being hysterical, our own State Department took all this seriously enough to tell the U.S. embassy in Kyiv to evacuate and close.  That order came down on Nov. 20, merely four days after all this started.

Due to “a potential significant air attack.” Gee that’s great.  Americans abandoning our embassies is always such a good look.  What kind of “air” attack?  And what does “significant” mean? Just garden variety missiles or the nuclear-tipped kind, since we’re in this fun new world?

Four days in November.  The 17th-20th.  While we’re all readying to roast turkeys and rub our bellies. Missiles, nukes, landmines, and bags of cash.  (Pallets one might even say). 

One thing we cannot say?  That these are the actions of a leader in control. Of anything.  Himself, his presidency, his policy.  Somebody spent four days poking that Putin bear and here we are.  The only question is: who?

Image: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region, via Flickr // public domain