U.S. President Joe Biden took a victory lap last week and said it is the leadership from Washington that is holding the world together—despite global crises ranging from wars in Ukraine and Israel. 

“American leadership is what holds the world together,” he said. “American alliances are what keep us, America, safe.”

Biden tied the Israeli conflict with Ukraine and compared Hamas to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said they represent different threats, “but they share this in common: they both want to annihilate a neighboring democracy.”

Biden noted that Americans have been left to wonder why it matters that the U.S. supports wars.

“History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay the price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction. They keep going and the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising.”

Biden used the Domino Theory to explain Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine and said if the Russian leader is not stopped, he could threaten NATO allies. He said the U.S. stands ready to defend every inch of the alliance. 

Putin told a conference earlier this month that Russia is not interested in seizing new territory in Ukraine and wants the conflict to come to a swift end. Russia currently controls about 20 percent of what was considered Ukraine prior to the 2022 invasion, which includes two Donbass republics and the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. (See “PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA IS NOT INTERESTED IN MORE LAND, WANTS TO NEGOTIATE,” 10 Oct 2023.)

TRENDPOST: Patrick Martin, a writer for WSWS, noted that it did not take too long during Biden’s prime-time speech last week to realize that his top agenda item was to use both wars to “procure a massive spending bill for the war in Ukraine to prop up the Zelensky government following the failure of its summer offensive.” (See “UKRAINE WAR A STALEMATE AFTER KYIV COUNTEROFFENSIVE FAILS TO DELIVER” 17 Oct 2023, “UKRAINE COUNTEROFFENSIVE A BLOODY FAILURE” 3 Oct 2023 and “UKRAINE LOST ITS COUNTEROFFENSIVE, NOW LOOKS TO PROVOKE WWIII WITH STRIKES ON RUSSIA’S BLACK SEA FLEET IN CRIMEA” 26 Sep 2023.)

The Biden administration requested more than $105 billion from Congress on Friday to keep bloodying the killing fields in Ukraine, Israel and continue its effort to turn Taiwan into a porcupine. (See “U.S. WANTS TO TURN TAIWAN INTO A PORCUPINE ON STEROIDS” 23 May 2023.)

Some of the funding will also be earmarked for the U.S. Southern Border. Ukraine would receive $61 billion; $14.3 billion for Israel; $2 billion for Taiwan; more than $9 billion for humanitarian assistance; and $6.4 billion for border operations.

CNBC noted that the supplemental funding request “invests approximately $50 billion in the U.S. defense industry.”

“The funding will expand production lines, strengthen the American economy, keep us safe, and create new American jobs,” Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters.

Martin wrote that the U.S. president is asking for this additional funding on top of the $1 trillion already going to military spending. He wrote that Biden even used Wall Street jargon when he made the pitch to the American people: “It’s a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations.”

He noted that the U.S. has been at war for three decades and these wars have impacted a significant portion of the world’s population. He mentioned Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Bosnia, and Sudan.

Martin noted that Biden mentioned former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who called the U.S. “the world’s indispensable nation.” The president did not mention the “60 Minutes” interview in 1996, when Albright was asked about the 500,000 or so Iraqi children who died because of U.S. sanctions on the country.

Albright said, “I think that is a very hard choice, but the price, we think, the price is worth it.”

Reports on Saturday indicated that the U.S. could be preventing Israel from carrying out preemptive strikes against Hezbollah to prevent a wider war.

TRENDPOST: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made it clear that the U.S. supports Israel and its continuing bombing, killing and destruction of Gaza… and that there is no peace at hand. 

Indeed, on Sunday, he rejected the idea of the U.S. calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. In an interview with Margaret Brennan, the host of CBS News “Face the Nation” who noted that “UNICEF says 1,524 children have been killed in the Gaza Strip during these bombings. Why isn’t the US calling for at least a temporary ceasefire?”, Blinken said that “Freezing things in place where they are now would allow Hamas to remain where it is and to repeat what it’s done some time in the future. No country could accept that.”