It’s time for Biden to follow in the steps of Nixon and resign

OPINION:

As a result of the recent G7 and NATO meetings, the world’s “sleepwalking” progress toward a nuclear holocaust got a big boost. And the main reason is President Biden.

Overwhelmed by his long list of domestic problems and declining ratings, he’s seeking to change the subject by hyping the war in Ukraine and demonizing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On one hand, it looks like he is succeeding. All participants in these meetings agreed to pump more money and weapons into Ukraine. Mr. Putin’s name with negative epithets was repeated more frequently than lofty pledges to freedom and democracy.

However, judging from what is going on on the battlefield all this not only prolongs the suffering of the Ukrainian people but also raises the chances for World War III, if U.S. policy does not change — and fast. 

According to the latest Gallup poll, Americans are not happy with the direction the country is going. Only 13% are satisfied vs. 87% dissatisfied, and just 16% approve of the job Congress is doing vs. 82% disapproval. Not a very impressive result for the country, and a president who claims to be the leader of the free world. 

According to Newsweek, the mood of the nation is the worst it has been in any midterm election year since 1974 — the year that Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency following investigations into the Watergate scandal.

I gather that Newsweek is sending Mr. Biden a clear hint. But will he get it?

One should give Nixon credit. He resigned without blaming any domestic or foreign actors in order to save the country from unnecessary turmoil. Nixon said: “I will have hastened the start of that process of healing, which is so desperately needed in America.” He acknowledged that some of his judgments “were wrong,” and he expressed contrition, saying: “I deeply regret any injuries that may have been done in the course of the events that led to this decision.”

There are many good reasons why Mr. Biden should follow in Nixon’s footsteps. The list of his and his family members’ misdeeds and humiliating scandals is long and well known.

However, there is one issue that we should all pay attention to since it deals with war and peace: to be more precise, nuclear war! Great power confrontation over Ukraine might be the “spark” that sets off World War III in the way that Serbia was in World War I and Poland in World War II. 

Mr. Biden is trying to place all the blame on the Russian president for the tragic events taking place in this country, but maybe he should point his accusing finger at the mirror. It was Mr. Biden as vice president who held a Ukrainian portfolio, and it was he who oversaw the Feb. 22, 2014, illegal coup, which overthrew the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych. The coup was coordinated by the infamous Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt as documented by the recording of the Nuland-Pyatt phone conversation of Feb. 4, i.e. 18 days before the coup, where they discussed the composition of the new Ukrainian government. In it, Ms. Nuland confirms that then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Mr. Biden himself were in the loop.

Well, coups have consequences, and this is what is happening in Ukraine right now, since the main goal of the plotters was to drag Ukraine into NATO and use its territory, including the Crimean peninsula, for military bases. Imagine what the U.S. would do if Russia tried something similar like orchestrating regime change in any country, especially in the Western hemisphere, which would then join a pro-Russian military block. Or imagine how Americans would feel if the Russian politicians were mixed in the crowds and supported Jan. 6 rioters on Capitol Hill. Well, those in Washington who are thinking in terms of “rules-based order” believe that these rules allow them to do what they want no matter the devastating results of their actions. 

At the same time, Mr. Biden’s fantasy of collapsing Russia’s economy hasn’t materialized as well, since the overwhelming majority of the world’s nations ignored his calls for sanctions. Moreover, a growing number of countries are now expressing interest in joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, where the world’s two most populous nations with strong economies, China and India, are actually increasing their trade with Russia, despite Washington’s pressure. Moreover, to add the salt to the injury, not a single Latin American country sanctioned Russia, and Argentina has applied to join BRICS where Brazil is already a member.  

What is even more humiliating for Washington is that Mr. Biden is now begging for help from Saudi Arabia, Iran and even Venezuela, where the U.S. also has a history of attempted presidential coups, to reduce the inflated cost of oil and gas by increasing their production.

Finally, during his 2020 campaign, Mr. Biden kept pledging to reunite the U.S., which he claimed former President Donald Trump polarized. Not only has Mr. Biden divided it further, but has also been trying to divide the whole world between, supposedly, democracies and autocracies.

To summarize, since Mr. Biden is failing on all sides, it is time for him to re-read the Nixon resignation speech, and act accordingly. Joe, it’s time to go!

• Edward Lozansky is president of American University in Moscow.