In a similar vein in his Sun-Times column Neil Steinberg laments that all-out war with Russia is inevitable:
Is the United States heading toward war? It seems a very real possibility. Some arms convoy in Poland will be hit, and the gears of general conflagration will start to turn. It’ll all seem inevitable, afterward. Then we can be haunted aplenty.
Just to be clear. I’m not saying the United States shouldn’t continue arming Ukraine. We have to. Which means we must accept the possibility of war. We don’t like to think about that. The whole strategy of handing weapons to Ukrainians and letting them actually pull the trigger is a tactic designed to avoid dragging ourselves into actual fighting. The easy way.
We should keep in mind that every wargame of great power conflict over the period of the last 30 years at least has resulted in a nuclear exchange. Every one. How did we get ourselves into such a predicament?
If nothing we have done contributed to Putin’s rise to power, if nothing we have done has had any effect on Putin’s actions, indeed, if Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was inevitable, we are completely helpless and there’s nothing we can to do prevent a worldwide conflagration. All of the choices are Putin’s.
Everyone is still doubling down.
The Times of London confirmed UK troops were in Ukraine training Ukrainians. Which begs the questions, how many other NATO (including US) troops are in Ukraine doing “training”.
Then there was Senator Coons suggesting its time to consider sending troops to Ukraine. Remember, Coons is a Senator from Delaware, and thought to be a point man for the administration in the senate.
I guess the next steps would be; trainers become advisors and get close to the frontline, and someone gets killed or captured, and off we go.
People have also been talking about our airlifting supplies to the Ukrainians. What could possibly go wrong?
Putin is a Russian nationalist, not a communist. (All the communists are in Biden’s regime and American universities.) He has led Russia’s recovery from the US-designed and US-promoted Yeltsin Hell regime that nearly destroyed the country. He has the overwhelming support of the Russian people. Pre-war it was 70+%, now it is 80+%. So, if by “contributing to Putin’s rise to power” you mean our very public attempt to destroy Russia itself, you are correct.
Putin has said that a war between Russia and the US will be fought on American soil. I doubt that means Russia ground forces in Ohio, but I’m not sure about Hawaii or Alaska. We are currently getting 2 million illegal aliens per year entering the US. Just how many are Muslim jihadis or Chinese, Russian, or Iranian special forces? And how much munitions are smuggled in? Manpads are just that, carried by one man. How many manpad strikes would shut down all civilian aviation in the US? One?
But the Russians can conduct air and missile strikes throughout the US. All our coastal cities are essentially undefended.
Modern conventional weapons overlap nukes in destructive power, viz. thermobaric bombs.
“airlifting supplies” — that requires air superiority / air dominance over Russia in Russia / Belarus.
The range of the S-400 (Russian air defense) is 400KM. All of Ukraine is within 400KM of Crimea, Russia or Belarus.
Or the assumption that the Russians would not attack a U. S. military aircraft in Ukrainian airspace.
“the assumption that the Russians would not attack a U. S. military aircraft”
To be honest, there not much difference between that and having NATO troops “advise” Ukrainian troops from just behind the front lines; which isn’t far from where things stand.
The Cold War is generally regarded to have run from 1947-1991. During that time Russia had pilots fly against us in Both N Korea and Viet Nam. They manned the SAMs. We didnt go to war against each other. It is not inevitable. Do I wish politicians would quit posting as tough guys? Yes.
Steve
And if Putin decides to nuke Kyiv to bring his war to quick victorious end, he can be confident that there would be no
Military response from the US or NATO. We would still have too much to lose.