Biden should use last 6 months to end his destruction of Ukraine, Gaza

Biden should use last 6 months to end his destruction of Ukraine, Gaza

President Biden should take a page from his predecessor Lyndon Johnson. Back in 1968, LBJ withdrew from his reelection campaign because his Vietnam War policies made him vulnerable to peace candidate Sen. Gene McCarthy.

LBJ largely destroyed his Great Society legacy by pivoting from Jack Kennedy’s plan to withdraw from Vietnam. Upon succeeding JFK, Johnson went all in backing an unwinnable war. Johnson then pledged to use his last 10 months to seek a negotiated peace to end a failed war. He nearly succeeded till his peace plan was sabotaged by the Nixon Campaign. They told North Vietnam not to accept Johnson’s proposals to get a better deal from Nixon.

The gambit worked. Nixon won and kept the war going for his entire 6 year presidency, adding a million or more deaths to the senseless carnage. Nixon’s treason should not detract from applauding Johnson’s effort to the promote peace as he exited the White House.

Fifty-eight years later, Joe Biden can also use his remaining time to end not one war, but two wars. His legacy, like Johnson’s, will forever be sullied by igniting his senseless, failed proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, and his enabling of Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Alas, there is a chasm between LBJ’s pivot to peace and Biden’s agenda for his last six months. Biden remains committed to squandering endless billions till the last Ukrainian soldier is dead to weaken Russia. Biden appears oblivious that Russia is thriving on the military, economic and diplomatic front since he stupidly provoked Russia’s pushback to NATO expansion.

Biden’s enabling of Israeli genocide in Gaza is more ghastly than his destruction of Ukraine to promote US unipolar dominance in Europe. Biden talks ceasefire, aid to starving, disease ridding millions in Gaza, while his actions do the opposite.

President Biden has six months to do the right thing in Ukraine and Gaza. Unless he has an epiphany to peace, Joe Biden will endure forever a legacy of senseless destruction of human life without an iota of redemption in his final six months.

We must all push President Biden to channel his predecessor who faced the same dilemma 56 years ago…and, to his credit, made the right decision.