QUESTION ASKED: ATACMs? What are they thinking?

Handcuffing an incoming President? Or even just giving him a worse situation to deal with? This was once unthinkable, but is the sort of churlishness one expects from this administration.

It’s perhaps appropriate that the Biden administration is finishing up with another foreign policy move that leaves one wondering “what could they possibly be thinking?”

Team Biden’s late-in-the-day authorization for Ukraine to use US-provided ATACMs mid-range missiles to attack targets inside Russia is the latest—but far from the first—head scratching move by the “adults in the room”.

From a purely military perspective, these weapons are helpful—especially when you are allowed to use them against more targets. But hitting targets inside Russia won’t have a decisive effect on the Ukraine fighting either way.

* * * * * * * *

ATACMs is a story that will be forgotten in a week or two.

But intentionally or not, President Trump will enter office having been handed the keys to the Augean Stables by the aforementioned bow-tied swells—who’ll soon be scurrying off to sinecures in think tanks and lobbying firms or Ivy League teaching positions—as “professors of practice” of all things.

Trump and his team will have to clean up their mess. It’ll take a good sized shovel.

Evergreen question, to which I hope we’ll learn the answer in 2025: Biden Is Not Running the Government. So, Who Is?