Saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army is ill-prepared to conduct combat operations, 66-year-old CIA Director William Burns thinks Putin’s recent call-up of 300,000 troops won’t help the Kremlin in Ukraine. Putin’s decision Sept. 21 to call-up 300,000 troops irked 79-year-old President Joe Biden busy fighting a bloody proxy war in Ukraine. Biden told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 22 that Putin was solely responsible for launching the Ukraine War, blaming him for starting an unprovoked war. “Even if he’s able to mobilize 300,000 troops, it’s not as if throwing people like cannon fodder toward the front, many of whom are not going to be well trained, many of whom are not going to have the kind of equipment they need as well,” Burns told CBS Evening News host Noradah O’Donnell. Burns and other Western officials like to criticize Putin’s army but doesn’t admit Ukraine’s losses.
Putin responded to Biden’s ongoing threats to give Ukraine unlimited cash-and-weapons to fight a White House proxy war against the Russian Federation. Putin’s call up threw Biden for a loop, responding at the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 22 that he would give Ukraine $1.9 more in defense spending. Putin sees what Biden is up to giving Ukraine unlimited cash-and-weapons, trying over time to break the Russian military. Kremlin officials see the war as between the U.S. and the Kremlin, not Kiev and Moscow. “His [Puitn] military has a lot of other problems, manpower is only one of them,” Buris said. Yet Burns can’t account for how the broken Russian military has managed to seized 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including the entire Black Sea coast and all its ports. If Putin’s military were so bad, how did he manage to seize 25% of Kiev’s sovereign territory?
Burns won’t say how Putin’s beleaguered military has managed in seven months to seize so much Ukrainian territory. Whatever the backlash in Russia to a new conscription demand, including Russia men fleeing the country, the same thing would happen in the U.S. if Biden announced he was recalling the U.S. draft to fight wars in Ukraine and China. Burn’s, as CIA director, is involved with information warfare, fighting a propaganda war to weaken the enemy. No one in Kiev or the White House admits to Kiev’s losses in the seven-month old conflict. Burns couldn’t say whether Putin was bluffing about using tactical nukes in Ukraine. “When the territorial integrity of our country is threatened, to protect Russia and our people, we will certainly use all the means at our disposal Putin said. “It’s not a bluff,” Putin said, referring to the possibility of using nuclear weapons.
Military experts debate whether or not Putin is serious about using tactical nukes in Ukraine. Ukraine’s 44-year-old President Volodymr Zelensky said he didn’t think Putin was bluffing, calling on the U.N., U.S. and EU to do everything possible to stop Putin’s possible use of nuclear weapons. Burns says it was “very hard to say at this point” if Putin is bluffing, saying the U.S. intel community has seen no signs that Putin’s preparing to use nukes in Ukraine. Burns won’t admit that the beleaguered Russia army has done considerable damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure, despite claims that Putin’s military is in shambles. What does that say about Kiev’s military when they’ve lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory in the first seven months of fighting? U.S. officials can’t admit that Putin has done anything right?
Putin hasn’t folded his tent and headed for the Russian border under threats from Kiev and the U.S. Burns likes to deliver propaganda talking about the worst case scenario for the Russian military. Where’s the battlefield evidence that Putin’s army is dilapidated and losing ground to Ukraine. Putin’s Sept. 10 decision to pull out of the Kharkiv region had more to do with strategy, less to do with Kiev’s offensive. But if you listen to the Western press, Putin was handed a brutal defeat in Kharkiv. Burns cleverly plays into the Western propaganda machine that Putin’s army is on the verge of collapse, despite the facts on the ground that he controls 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory, including the entire Black Sea coast and all of Kiev’s strategic ports. Burns wants O’Donnell to know how much progress Zelensky has made seeking to reclaim sovereign territory lost to the Kremlin.
Burns, like his predecessor John O. Brenner, tries to gaslight the media into thinking that Putin is losing the war in Ukraine. Brennan did everything possible using fake intel to accuse former President Donald Trump having ties to the Kremlin. Brennan helped former FBI Direction James Comey’s counterintelligence operation AKA Crossfire Hurricane that used former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s opposition research against Trump AKA the Steele dossier. So whey Burns says Putin’s army is near collapse or that the new conscripts won’t be properly trained with the right equipment, he’s spreading a certain narrative. Burns needs to account for how Putin’s dilapidated army managed to seize 25% of Kieve’s territory? What we have to do is take it very seriously, watch for signs of actual preparations,” Buris said about Putin hinting about using tactical nukes.
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.
