Nato moves closer to war

The next round in the escalation race has apparently arrived. Outgoing U.S. Pres. Joe Biden reportedly granted Ukraine permission to use long-range U.S. weapons to hit sites in Russia. Biden waited until after the U.S. elections as a way to tie Donald Trump's hands, should he be elected. Czech politicians, generals, intelligence heads and advisers who routinely promote Biden's policies even before Biden announces them should be happy. They've played a small role in the escalation that everyone pretends to oppose. Among those who have been calling for or predicting that Biden would let the rockets fly were Pres. Petr Pavel, Army Chief of Staff Karel Řehka, National Security Adviser Tomáš Pojar, EU Affairs Min. Martin Dvořák and presidential adviser Petr Kolář. Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin has said repeatedly, most recently on Oct. 24, that Ukraine isn't capable of operating such weapons on its own and that allowing them to be used would mean the entry of Nato into the war. It's now up to Pa­vel, Řehka, Pojar, Dvořák, Kolář and other escalationists to tell Czechs when they should head for the nonexistent bomb shelters.