WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:06.100 On Sunday, news broke that President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use long-range American 00:06.100 --> 00:08.500 missiles to strike deeper into Russian territory. 00:08.820 --> 00:12.600 After the U.S. gave Ukraine the green light to strike targets on the Russian side of the 00:12.600 --> 00:16.580 border earlier this year, the Ukrainian government and its biggest cheerleaders in 00:16.580 --> 00:21.440 Washington have been pressuring the president to support longer-range strikes, especially 00:21.440 --> 00:24.860 after Ukraine launched its invasion of Russia's Kursk region. 00:25.600 --> 00:26.820 Sunday they got their wish. 00:27.320 --> 00:31.720 On Tuesday, the first missile was launched at a target in Russia's Bryansk region. 00:32.060 --> 00:33.740 The move has many in the West concerned. 00:34.500 --> 00:38.980 Back in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a change to Russia's nuclear 00:38.980 --> 00:39.460 doctrine. 00:39.860 --> 00:44.220 According to the changes, the Kremlin now considers an attack on Russia carried out 00:44.220 --> 00:49.080 by a non-nuclear state with the support of a nuclear armed power to be a joint attack. 00:49.420 --> 00:54.000 Also under the new doctrine, a conventional attack that poses a, quote, critical threat 00:54.000 --> 00:59.800 to Russian sovereignty now meets the official threshold to trigger a Russian nuclear response. 01:00.120 --> 01:02.180 Yesterday, those changes were made official. 01:02.520 --> 01:07.140 The American weapon system the Ukrainians are now using is the Army Tactical Missile 01:07.140 --> 01:08.620 System or ATACOMS. 01:09.080 --> 01:14.940 They have a range of 190 miles and, importantly, require the U.S. or its allies to provide 01:14.940 --> 01:17.520 the targeting coordinates every time it's shot. 01:18.200 --> 01:21.820 So the U.S. is not merely allowing the Ukrainians to fire missiles deeper into 01:21.820 --> 01:24.080 Russia, it's actively helping them do so. 01:24.440 --> 01:31.820 Six days ago, China opened a deepwater port in Chiang Kai, Peru, 3,472 miles away from 01:31.820 --> 01:32.740 Washington, D.C. 01:33.360 --> 01:37.320 U.S. officials and hawkish commentators condemned the move, calling it a security 01:37.320 --> 01:42.000 threat to the U.S., because they consider this to be in, quote, America's back 01:42.000 --> 01:42.320 yard. 01:42.680 --> 01:47.200 Yet the same group is now cheering on as the Biden administration orders the U.S. 01:47.200 --> 01:52.680 military to help Ukraine launch missiles at targets in Russia a little over 100 miles 01:52.680 --> 01:56.560 away from Moscow, with no apparent concern about the Russian reaction. 01:56.980 --> 02:01.240 The official position of the U.S. government appears to be that Putin is a psychotic 02:01.240 --> 02:07.520 maniac who views himself as a quasi-religious figure in conflict with the West, and that 02:07.520 --> 02:12.040 he is expected to keep a totally cool head as he watches the U.S. violate the line 02:12.040 --> 02:16.120 laid out in Russia's nuclear doctrine by helping to launch missiles deeper and 02:16.120 --> 02:17.340 deeper into Russian territory. 02:17.780 --> 02:21.800 The other factor that makes this escalation frustrating is that Biden's political 02:21.800 --> 02:27.040 heir, Kamala Harris, just lost the election and popular vote to Donald Trump, who 02:27.040 --> 02:31.140 ran to a significant degree on transitioning the ongoing conflict with 02:31.140 --> 02:34.580 Russia from the battlefield back to the negotiation table. 02:34.940 --> 02:38.640 Biden appointees and other top-level foreign policy officials have been very 02:38.640 --> 02:41.660 explicit that they want to Trump-proof their Ukraine policy. 02:42.460 --> 02:44.900 This policy change may be an attempt to do that. 02:44.900 --> 02:49.060 In other words, Biden officials and unelected bureaucrats are working to 02:49.060 --> 02:53.060 undermine the next administration's ability to carry out what voters want, 02:53.860 --> 02:55.960 all in the name of protecting democracy. 02:56.420 --> 03:00.260 Thankfully, the imminent transfer of power in Washington does give the Russians 03:00.260 --> 03:03.720 less of a reason to escalate in response to these strikes, especially 03:03.720 --> 03:06.920 considering that the months of consideration Biden gave to this 03:06.920 --> 03:11.000 move reportedly provided that Russians time to move critical military 03:11.000 --> 03:13.580 assets out of the range of Ukrainian attack arms. 03:13.580 --> 03:18.060 As provocative as this move is, the likelihood it alone will trigger World War 03:18.060 --> 03:19.660 III remains very low. 03:19.960 --> 03:24.100 That said, a world war between two governments armed with thousands of 03:24.100 --> 03:28.620 city-killing thermonuclear weapons is so unfathomably dangerous that any 03:28.620 --> 03:32.340 increase in the risk of one breaking out, no matter how small, must be 03:32.340 --> 03:33.340 deemed unacceptable. 03:34.060 --> 03:38.440 The best, most up-to-date account of how nuclear war can break out and 03:38.440 --> 03:41.960 would play out comes from Annie Jacobson's haunting book from earlier 03:41.960 --> 03:44.520 this year, Nuclear War, A Scenario. 03:44.940 --> 03:48.280 Even just reading the prologue, which is available for free in the Amazon 03:48.280 --> 03:52.360 preview, where Jacobson explains what would happen in the minutes after a 03:52.360 --> 03:56.360 single thermonuclear bomb is detonated above an American city, makes it 03:56.360 --> 04:00.080 clear that such an event would be a catastrophe so far beyond any of 04:00.080 --> 04:03.280 the various threats the establishment is trying to scare us about, it's 04:03.280 --> 04:07.000 almost comical that we spend any time worrying about anything else. 04:07.320 --> 04:11.140 Most experts who study nuclear deterrence agree that a limited use 04:11.140 --> 04:15.120 of nuclear weapons is likely to quickly accelerate to a full-on nuclear 04:15.120 --> 04:15.680 exchange. 04:16.100 --> 04:19.980 And in a full-on nuclear exchange, American cities are not expected to be 04:19.980 --> 04:22.560 struck by a single bomb, but by dozens of them. 04:23.420 --> 04:28.160 With hundreds of smaller towns targeted as well, and radioactive winds set to 04:28.160 --> 04:31.060 bring painful deaths to those who were initially spared. 04:31.380 --> 04:35.580 So it is absolutely crazy that Joe Biden is kicking off his lame-duck 04:35.580 --> 04:39.640 period by explicitly crossing a red line the Russians said would 04:39.640 --> 04:41.000 justify a nuclear response. 04:41.420 --> 04:45.520 US officials spent decades scoffing at Putin's red lines about Ukraine, 04:46.080 --> 04:50.480 berating him for being all talk and no action until suddenly, in February of 04:50.480 --> 04:51.640 2022, he invaded. 04:52.840 --> 04:56.080 Now they are again playing that same game with much higher stakes. 04:56.440 --> 05:00.320 If the government's primary job were, as we're taught, to protect the 05:00.320 --> 05:03.600 lives and property of the American people, then avoiding a nuclear 05:03.600 --> 05:06.240 exchange would be its single greatest priority. 05:06.240 --> 05:10.980 The Biden administration's decision on Sunday reiterates that our so-called 05:10.980 --> 05:12.680 leaders have other priorities.