LOS ANGELES.–All the macho Neocons or war hawks in the White House and Congress are lost in the weeds of the Ukraine War, believing 81-year-old President Joe Biden and 46-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s rubbish about Putin taking over Europe. No one in the White House, especially during an Election Year, wants to admit failure in Ukraine where Biden was the first-and-only U.S. president to go to war with the Kremlin. Biden tossed into the trash can decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with the Soviet Union and Russian Federation [since 1991], all to back Ukraine’s war with the Kremlin. Zelensky is back in New York and Washington selling his new “victory plan” that is nothing new, calling for more cash-and-arms to vanquish the Russian military. Three years of war with the Kremlin has lost 20%-25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
No military expert on earth, other that White House and Kiev propagandists, believe that Ukraine will vanquish the Russian military. When the war started Feb. 24, 2022, Zelensky told Biden that Putin suffered from a terminal illness and the Russian military was near collapse. Nearly three years later, Putin looks fit and the Russian military continues its march through Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Now Zelensky’s new “victory plan” calls for more cash-and-arms, desperate that if 78-year-old President Donald Trump wins the Nov. 5 election, the jig is up, Zelensky gets his U.S. funding pulled. Zelensky’s new “victory plan” calls on Biden and NATO to allow Kiev to use U.S., U.K. and NATO weapons to strike at military targets deep in the Russian homeland. Putin warned today that U.S., U.K. or NATO strikes in Russia could trigger a nuclear strike.
How far does Zelensky want to push the Ukraine War? He shows no restraint moving 10,000 Ukrainian troops into Russia’s Kursk border region. Zelensky wants to continue his push into Russian territory, thinking it gives him leverage in any future peace talks to get Putin to remove all his forces from Ukraine. Russian troops were in Donetsk, Luhansk and Crimea before the war began and doubt will remain in those areas after the war. Zelensky asks Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO to violate all of Putin’s “red lines” for using nuclear weapons. Zelensky is angry enough and under enough domestic pressure to start WW III or nuclear war. How are Biden and NATO supposed to let Zelensky call the shots when he’s made every catastrophic decision since the war began? Had he just accepted the status quo, Ukraine would not be bankrupt and lose 20%-25% of its sovereign territory.
Biden’s decision making on Ukraine has been abysmal, buying into Zelensky’s rubbish about Russian taking over Europe. Even today, while he sells his new “victory plan,” Zelensky spews his rubbish about dangers to the world if he doesn’t win in Ukraine. Well, no one other than his sycophantic advisers—and maybe Biden—thinks he’s going to vanquish the Kremlin. Russia’s recently revised nuclear doctrine permits the Kremlin to order a nuclear strike if nuclear or conventional weapons threaten the Russian state. What does Zelensky think would happen if he starts hitting Russia’s military sites with long-range U.S., U.K. or NATO weapons? “Russia no longer has any instruments to intimidate the world apart from nuclear weapons blackmail,” said Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff. What does Yermak know about Russian first-strike rules for using nuclear weapons?
Zelensky has been playing a dangerous game of chicken, all because he considers Ukraine already in WW III. So, pulling U.S. or the European Union [EU] into WW III only makes military sense in that it assures the allies have skin in the game. Zelensky hasn’t been happy with NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg who denied Ukraine fast-track membership. So, pulling the U.S. or EU into a shooting war with Russia would accomplish Zelensky’s goal in a world war to fight the Kremlin. Does the Western Alliance want to get pulled into a dangerous world war that could use nuclear weapons? Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Yermak is so convinced Putin is bluffing, he’s willing to take the risk. “These instruments will not work,” said Yermak about Putin using nukes. Zelensky ripped GOP VP candidate J.D. Vance for calling for peace talks.
U.S., U.K. and NATO officials should take Putin’s nuclear threats with the utmost gravity because of consequences to Europe and the world. What Ukraine’s desperation is willing to do should not guide the more cautious, logical approach to global diplomacy. What sovereign land Ukraine loses to Russia, it doesn’t justify starting WW III or nuclear war. Had Zelensky accepted Putin’s peace offer in March 2022, his country would be intact, without the wide spread destruction and ruin to its economy. “The nuclear triad remains the most important guarantee of o ensuring security of our state and citizens, an instrument for maintaining strategic parity and balance of power in the world,” Putin said. Putin is dead serious about using nukes to preserve Russian national security against dangerous missile strikes in Russia. Zelensky sells his “victory plan” but at what price?
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.
