This whole point bears repeating: the Biden administration was willing to risk nuclear war with Russia to promote a war that never needed to be fought in the first place. By pushing NATO to Russia’s borders and using CIA, USAID, and agents from other agencies to destabilize regimes bordering on Russia, the US risked plunging an entire region into pointless warfare. Taibbi writes:

While the Times piece does little to clear up whose fault the military and diplomatic failure was (there were numerous passages of the “mistakes were made” variety), it’s clear we were lied to about everything. Zelensky and his set will no doubt tell their side now, and it’s possible Ukraine’s freelanced heightening of risk to Americans will come out seeming less treacherous. Either way, it’s clear the Biden administration should have cut the cord years ago, to prevent Americans from being dragged into World War by “partners” with every incentive to pull them in. Instead, the administration berated its critics as treasonous cowards who’d have let Hitler swim to London.

Given that most of the political players in this fiasco are out of power, new scrutiny will likely move to the Trump administration’s actions. Yet, while we have “dodged a bullet” (or, better put, “dodged a nuclear missile”), this affair is not over. More than a million people have died, much of Ukraine lies in ruins, and Trump has been unable to broker that elusive cease fire.

None of this had to happen. The Biden administration was full of Samantha Power and David French types that have anxiously awaited the US’s latest “war of liberation.” In the end, of course, there is no liberation, just the death, destroyed cities, and irresponsible international “experts” who already are in search of their next war—until someone stops them.