When Poland said it would release all its remaining 28 MIG-29 floggers to the United States March 8, it was more than a generous offer. Pentagon officials plan to replace the MIGs with F-16s, an upgrade to the Polish Air Force. Poland said they be happy to transfer the planes to Ramstein, Germany, prompting a big groan from the Pentagon, realizing it would now look to the Kremlin that the U.S. has gotten directly involved in the fight. “The intelligence community has assessed that the transfer of MIG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,” said Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby, exposing the complete hypocrisy of the Ukraine war. Pentagon officials say sending the MIGs would look like the U.S. has directly involved in the war, potentially causing retaliation by the Russian Federation.
What’s the difference in the Pentagon’s mind between supplying Ukraine directly lethal offensive and defensive weapons for years and shipping MIGs from Poland or from Ramstein to Kiev? If there’s any more glaring hypocrisy, then what is it? Russian President Vladimir Putin went to war in Ukraine to stop the U.S. and NATO from supplying lethal weapons to Ukraine. But now that it’s a hot conflict, Kirby says the U.S. can no longer ship planes to Ukraine. Kirby knows that that the U.S. continues to ship lethal weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian occupation. Poland doesn’t want to infuriate Putin any more than he already is about joining NATO and the Western Alliance. Putin can’t get over the fact that the Soviet-era Eastern Alliance was referred to as the Warsaw Pact. But the idea that the U.S. or Poland can’t send the MIGs directly to Ukraine is breathtaking hypocrisy.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 59, cautioned against the U.S. sending Polish-owned MIGs to Ramstein for eventual delivery to Kiev. “We need to be careful about every decision we make so that we aren’t making the potential for escalation worse,” Kirby said. NATO Secretary-General has made clear for the last eight-years that he wants no part of NATO membership, largely because Ukraine has been at war with Kremlin-backed separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. Stoltenberg recognized that granting Ukraine membership would have started a war, if not spreading to NATO. All the effort to avoid supplying Polish-owned MIGs to Ukraine from Poland or from Ramstein are designed to keep NATO out of a direct conflict with Europe. Since President Joe Biden, 79, rejected all of Putin’s security demands, he pushed Putin to a war he was reluctant to start.
Wherever the MIGs come from, Putin knows they’re coming from Poland into U.S. hands to supply like all of Ukraine’s weapons from the United States or NATO. Biden refused to admit that the Ukraine War was indeed “provoked” by the U.S. supplying Ukraine indiscriminate amounts of lethal weapons with which to eventually attack Russian Federation. Putin begged Biden for three months to sit down and discuss new security arrangements in Ukraine in Eastern Europe. Let the record be clear, Biden refused to talk, discuss or negotiate any of Putin’s red lines, telling him they were all “non-starters/” Putin finally served notice Dec. 24, 2021 that without action on security measures, he would take “military-technical measures” to deal with Russian national security issues. Biden ignored Putin’s requests, eventually forcing Putin’s hand on the Feb. 24 invasion.
Putin knows there’s no difference between supplying lethal arms to Ukraine before the war and after it started, believing he has a long list of enemies all seeking to oust him from office. “But it’s certainly not going to be good for the Ukrainian people to have what’s already a destructive and terrible war get even more destructive and terrible,” Kirby said, making excuses why the Pentagon won’t deliver the MIGs to Ukraine directly. Well, for Zelensky, it’s inconceivable that NATO won’t defend Ukraine because he’s committed to preserving democracy against Putin’s tyranny. “Close the sky right now! Stop the killings!” Zelensky tweeted. “You have power but you seem to be losing humanity,” criticizing the U.S and NATO for not setting up a no-fly-zone. Zelensky has wanted for years to have NATO fight Ukraine’s battles with the Russian Federation.
White House and Pentagon officials haven’t told Zelensky that he has options other than war to resolve the conflict with Russia. No one at the White House has suggested that Zelensky take up Putin’s offer to end the war. Zelensky acts like the only solution is for the U.S. and NATO to enter the conflict and battle the Russian Federation to the death. Zelensky never asked himself why the U.S and NATO should fight his battle with the Russian Federation. Zelensky isn’t defending democracy, he’s defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. White House and Pentagon officials know that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity was compromised March 1, 2014 when Putin moved the Russian army into Crimea. Ukraine made a choice Feb. 22, 2014 to oust Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych and must live with the consequences. Expecting the U.S. and NATO to fight Ukraine’s battles goes over the top even for Zelensky.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
