World War III?

Joe Biden made international news today when he definitively ruled out use of American forces in Ukraine on the ground that such action would bring about “World War III.”

“The idea that we’re going to send in offensive equipment and have planes and tanks and trains going in with American pilots and American crews — just understand, don’t kid yourself, no matter what y’all say, that’s called World War III,” Biden told a gathering of House Democrats in Philadelphia.

The president added, “Let’s get it straight here, guys — that old expression, ‘Don’t kid a kidder.’”

Not sure what that last part means. In any event, Biden’s basic message was nothing new: we certainly have no intention of sending American troops to fight in Ukraine, or shooting down Russian aircraft. But still, a naive observer might think it desirable to at least pretend to keep our options open. One might think it would be good if Putin believes there are some extremities where he would face military intervention.

But this is my real point: Biden has sworn that we will fight to defend “every inch” of NATO territory, including Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. By the same logic that, too, would be World War III, wouldn’t it? A friend writes:

I, for one, sleep a little more soundly, a little more securely, knowing that Slow Joe is on this…and Kamala is one heartbeat away.

So we have the revival of Hitler committing war crimes daily and posing a fundamental and existential threat to “our democracy”….BUT…..we’re not going to war over it!

Oh, right, total economic warfare designed and intended to destroy Russia, but that’s all. But then again we WILL go to WWIII to protect “every inch” of Estonia, right, Joe? And if it comes to it, we’ll have a war resolution vote in Congress to protect every inch of Estonia, too, right?

I wonder if they’re feeling reassured in Tallinn…