Hot air over Ukraine and China - EDITORIAL

For over a week, events in Ukraine have come to dominate news headlines the world over.  US President Biden claims thousands of Russian troops are massed on Ukraine’s borders poised to invade that country. Biden has warned, he thinks Russia will invade Ukraine in weeks. He has warned President Vladimir Putin that his country would pay a “dear price” in lives lost and a possible cut-off from the global banking system if he does invade.  

Biden, speaking at a news conference to mark his year in office, also said a “minor incursion” by Russia would elicit a lesser response.  
NATO Secretary General, Gen. Jens Stoltenberg, warned that another Russian invasion of Ukraine would carry a “high price,” adding that the 30 allies together represent more than 50 percent of the global economy.  

The US Secretary of State Blinken too, has kept repeating dire threats of terrible retaliatory measures the US would take in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.  
Russia meanwhile has totally dismissed US charges; saying the movement of Russian troops within its borders were perfectly legitimate and accused the US and the West of hysteria. Russia warned however, that attempts to extend membership of Ukraine to NATO was not permissible and was a red line.  
Prior to the re-unification of Germany, US and the NATO bloc verbally guaranteed the then Soviet leadership, NATO would not be expanded to include countries coming under the former Soviet Union.  

The Western bloc failed to keep its word leading to the present crisis in Ukraine.  
At the same time, at the other end of the world so-to-say -in the far east- the US is hyping anti-China hysteria, making war-like noises and warning China to lay off the island of Taiwan, which China claims as part of its territory.
In its efforts to take on China over the island of Taiwan, the US has roped in Japan, Australia and India. With the sabre-rattling getting more shrill with each passing day, there is a need to sit back and take stock.   

The US is thousands of miles away from both China/Taiwan (9,146 miles) and Russia/Ukraine (5,705 miles).  
Neither Russian/Ukraine nor Chinese/Taiwan problems pose a military or political threat to the US or its way of life.   
Why is it then the belligerent posturing on the part of current US President Biden, who speaks the language of President Obama, sound more like President Trump especially when discussing Russia and China?  

Two possibilities come to mind. First the US mid-term elections are coming up on 8 November, 2022. All four-hundred-and-thirty-five seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.   
According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll, Biden’s public approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency as Americans appeared exhausted by the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic toll. While according to CNBC of 4 Jan 2022, Biden’s overall disapproval rating reached a new high in December as more voters signaled their unhappiness with his handling of the economy and the Covid pandemic.  

A 55% majority of survey respondents also signalled disapproval of his leadership during the pandemic, an area in which he previously excelled.  
The survey adds a sign of trouble for Biden, as his administration looks to tackle a wide range of economic and political problems ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power in Congress.  
With ex-president Trump and the Republican Party gaining in popularity at the expense of president Biden and his Democratic Party as indicated in the polls President Biden needs a diversion to improve his standing among the US electorate.  

It appears that the present sabre-rattling and war-like postures of the Americans is part of a cynical plan of the administration to give a lift to Bidden’s sagging political fortunes and make him appear a strong leader able to stand up to Russian President Putin and China’s president Xi.   In the end it will perhaps, turn out to be just hot air over Ukraine and China.  
But through Indian participation in its devious games, the Americans are drawing South Asia into its political intrigues, setting Asian against Asian and dividing our part of the world into intrigues and divisions similar to those in Europe.