Sachs Urges Biden To Step Back from Nuclear War

Nov. 6, 2022 (EIRNS)—In an Oct. 30 commentary on Common Dreams news outlet, Jeffrey Sachs identified President Biden’s failed foreign policy as being responsible for undermining the Democratic Party’s Congressional prospects during the upcoming midterm elections. After admitting that Biden had been dealt a “bad hand” by some of the failed policies of the previous Trump administration, he underscored that Biden chose to escalate tensions further with both Russia and China, which has increased economic instability within the U.S., and globally.

Sachs stressed that Biden’s consistent rejection of a “diplomatic off-ramp” has prolonged “the destruction of Ukraine and threatens nuclear war.” After pointing out the obvious flaws in Biden’s thinking, he asserts that 1) U.S. interests don’t depend upon NATO expansion, 2) Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the U.S. repeatedly since 2008 to keep NATO out of Ukraine, and in late 2021 gave a final warning, ignored by Biden, and 3) that Biden spurned members of his own party who called for negotiations to settle the situation between Ukraine and Russia, Sachs went on to urge some basic negotiations to begin the process:

“The U.S. and Ukraine should accept three absolutely reasonable terms to end the war: Ukraine’s military neutrality; Russia’s de facto hold on Crimea, home to its Black Sea naval fleet since 1783; and a negotiated autonomy for the ethnic-Russian regions, as was called for in the Minsk Agreements but which Ukraine failed to implement.”

He concluded: “We need a change of foreign policy. After the elections, there will be an important time for reassessment. Americans and the world need economic recovery, diplomacy, and peace.”