“Do you know we don’t rule out first-use nuclear action?” So said Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) while outlining what measures the U.S. could take against Russia over Ukraine, at whose border Moscow has been massing troops. The senator’s office later clarified that this comment related to American policy in general and not specifically to Russia. While this is actually believable (Wicker made a loose comment), what’s unbelievable is that we’re even considering a military confrontation with Moscow over something that does not at all involve a U.S. national interest.
Moreover, what else Wicker said, during a recent interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, is not reassuring. To wit: “Well, military action could mean that we stand off with our ships in the Black Sea and we rain destruction ... on Russia military capability,” the Independent related him as stating. “It could mean that we participate, and I would not rule that out, I would not rule out American troops on the ground.”
Making it worse is that the Biden Administration and the Establishment, in general, are all-in on this Dr. Strangelove foreign policy. As Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s spokesman, Ned Price, has put it, “If Russia chooses to fail to deescalate…we and our allies would be prepared to act. We would be prepared to act resolutely.”
Equally troubling is that geniuses in both parties are pushing to have Ukraine become part of NATO, with its “an attack on one is an attack on all” policy. This means that if Russia then invaded Ukraine, the U.S. and Western Europe would be obligated to intervene militarily. WWIII, anyone?
For his part, Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that NATO troop and weapons deployment to Ukraine is a “red line” for him. Of course, it is. Just as we couldn’t back down during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Russia wouldn’t back down on Ukraine. The same is true of China vis-à-vis Taiwan.
Like it or not, you must tread softly in another great power’s backyard. Enter it and refuse to back down, and war will almost assuredly result because that power can’t realistically back down. Doing so would mean losing face and sending the ultimate message of weakness. For if you can be pushed around at your own doorstep, in what way can’t you be dominated?
Despite this, our chicken hawks insist on playing chicken with a nuclear power over...what? Few ask what the national interest is, and no one explains. We do hear bloviating about Ukraine’s “sovereignty” and border integrity from the same people who’ve made our border a sieve-like conduit for a southern invasion, as Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson pointed out last night. These people also talk about defending “democracy” while having stolen an election here and undermining our republic with unconstitutional policy and two-tiered justice.
Then, last year, sociopathic congressman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) actually said that we aid “Ukraine and her people so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don't have to fight Russia here.” Perhaps Schiffty has been watching the flick Red Dawn too much. (He should note that in the film’s remake, in 2012, the Chinese troops invading American soil were digitally altered post-production to appear North Korean in deference to Beijing, our main geopolitical rival.)
In other words, if you thought there couldn’t be anything as irrational as our coronavirus policy — where authorities insist on reordering civilization over a pathogen that more than 99.9 percent of the infected will survive — welcome to our Russia policy. We’re acting as if a nation with an economy one-eighth the size of China’s is today’s Roman Empire and we’re Gaul; our “cure” of military intervention in its backyard would definitely be worse than the disease, too. Russia is now the COVID-19 of geopolitics.
To be clear, none of this concerns whether you love, hate, or are indifferent about Putin. It’s not about whether Russia is right or wrong on Ukraine. It’s about applying Just War Doctrine and, again, recognizing that you can only do so much at a great power’s doorstep.
An aside: Note that both our world wars, along with the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, began under Democrat administrations. And having in power detached-from-reality leftists who can’t judge human nature, as we do today, is always dangerous.
In fact, if they stay at the helm long enough, their folly may provide for their voters a harsh object lesson in how there really are things worse than white privilege, microaggressions, and sexual constraints.
Below is an excellent Tuesday Tucker Carlson Tonight segment on the Russia-Ukraine folly.
Photo credit: YouTube screengrab
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https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/are_you_ready_for_nuclear_war_over_ukraine.html