In the last week some truly momentous—horrifying—events have roiled the news and placed the world in grave danger. The most notable event was the bizarre Yevgeny Prighozin-led “coup” (I place that in quotation marks because we truly do not understand what that event was really about) in Russia.
The Russian Federation, the world’s largest nuclear-armed power, may have internally destabilized and could have lost control of those nuclear weapons, if the “coup” had become a protracted civil war (as many in the West were clearly thinking would happen).
People do not realize how serious of a problem the “coup” was posing to US policymakers as it unfolded. Uncertainty leads to fear. And fear, clouded by the fog of war, can lead to grave mistakes—particularly when dealing with a nuclear power, like the Russian Federation.
What’s required is clear-eyed, cogent leadership during such a crisis (and in the aftermath of it).
Enter Joe Biden
Wandering outside the White House in a state of utter bewilderment, President Joe Biden presented himself before a gaggle of reporters crowding the White House lawn, seeking some reassuring insight or statement from the forty-sixth president. His face at ease, squinting while speaking, President Biden smiled and laughed, trying to give off the impression that all was well.
In a calm, albeit slurred manner, the president gave a soothing speech meant to allay fears and reassure America’s twitchy allies.
The statement was soundbite simple. “It’s hard to tell but he is clearly losing the War in Iraq, he’s losing the war at home, and he is becoming a bit of a pariah around the world,” Biden said. Satisfied that he’d calmed the situation, hapless Biden turned away from the confounded reporters and marched resolutely to the presidential helicopter as he left for Chicago, Ill.
Before that, at a fundraiser in the posh Washington, D.C., suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland, President Biden said this:
If anybody told you—and my staff wasn’t sure either—that we’d be able to bring all of Europe together in the onslaught on Iraq and get NATO to be completely united, I think they would have told you it’s not likely […] the one thing [Vladimir] Putin counted on was being able to split NATO.
That’s twice in as many days. The Iraq War was 20 years ago. In another part of the world from where Russia and Ukraine are located. There was no way that anyone could have conflated the Iraq War with the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War unless something was afoot.
It’s Not Just a Stutter
Rumors that the octogenarian President Joe Biden suffers from a form of dementia have dogged the forty-sixth president since he initially ran for the presidency in 2020.
Constantly confusing things, slurring his words, shaking the hands of people who aren’t there, falling up the stairway to Air Force One, falling off a stationary bike, sliding on a flat stage during the Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony, and snapping at anyone who says something he disagrees with, President Biden gives all the hallmarks of an old, doddering man who is struggling with some form of cognitive decline.
Alas, saying that the forty-sixth president has Alzheimer’s or even hinting that he might be suffering from a form of dementia, or some other cognitive decline is likely to end up with you being canceled.
Besides, at the start of the Biden Administration, there was a movement by pro-Biden elements to insinuate that all the strange behaviors and convoluted speech was simply the result of a stutter (that Biden had when he was a young man but was believed to have overcome long before he became president – and good for him).
Perhaps a stutter is at play when he speaks. Although, if the reports are true that he overcame that stutter decades ago, it might have come back—as the forty-sixth president’s mind has deteriorated. That would be truly sad, for sure.
That is a thing with age-related cognitive decline.
I am witnessing it daily with a family member of mine who is suffering from age-related dementia. As the mental state declines, the individual suffering from this illness reverts to behaviors, patterns of speech, and actions that were predominant in an earlier stage of their life.
For the sake of not getting in trouble, let’s just call whatever cognitive problem Biden may suffer from a “stutter.”
Biden’s confusion may have been excused had it been one of the few times it happened. This was not the first—or even the tenth—time Biden displayed such stupefaction. More importantly, a “stutter” of the kind that Biden may suffer from can become exacerbated in times of severe stress or when the sufferer lacks adequate sleep.
Cogent Leadership Needed
Given the fact that Biden is the president, and that surprise Russian “coup” was one of the most stressful foreign policy events in years, it is likely that Biden’s “stutter” was exacerbated by those events and having to be paying attention to those unfolding events.
The crisis that is the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War is getting scarier by the day, the longer the war drags on.
For the first time since the end of the Cold War, Russian nuclear forces have been deployed to Belarus en masse.
The implication is clear: Moscow is raising the specter of some form of nuclear campaign taking place to finally end the war in their favor.
It should be up to American policymakers, notably our president, to lead an effort to mitigate the risk of nuclear war while seeking an offramp for this most destructive war.
If the short-lived “coup” was stressful for Mr. Biden, then the likelihood of Russia escalating its war in Ukraine into a nuclear conflict will be even more stressful.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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