A clear indication that things are not going as well as Putin expected.
A clear indication he intends to fix that.
I’m beginning to suspect Putin is off his meds
Like when we went to Defcon 2 in the Gulf War or Defcon 3 after 9/11? It is common for countries to raise their defense readiness during times of war.
Nor with the democrats rigging end result.
Wise words from Travis McGee
I would not rule it out. For Russia, this is on a level with our Cuban missile crisis. Allow me to explain.
You might not agree with an adversary (Russia in this case), but to dismiss and ignore their legitimate security concerns is dangerously stupid. It is always wise to look at a war or a potential war from the other side’s perspective, if only to improve the effectiveness of your own efforts.
Russia is not Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya or Serbia, easy (and safe) for America and NATO to slap around. Russia has the most powerful nuclear force on the planet. Miscalculation over Ukraine can rapidly escalate into full-blown war and a nuclear exchange. For Russia, Ukraine joining NATO is a redline worth going to war over. We ignore this at our own peril.
In 1962, we already had medium-range nuclear-armed ballistic missiles in Turkey. When the USSR obtained a client state (Cuba) 100 miles from Florida, they thought it would be fair turnabout to also have their own MRBMs in range of America. (ICBMs were not yet available.) When the missiles were discovered in Cuba, the result was that America was outraged, rightly, and we very nearly had a nuclear exchange.
It was not “JFK backed down Khrushchev!” as American media portrayed it. Diplomats and generals on both sides later wrote that we came within a hair-breadth of a full nuclear exchange. In the deal that was worked out, we also (quietly) removed our MRBMs from Turkey. Part of the agreement was that the USSR would not crow about how they forced us to move our missiles out of Turkey.
Today Russia looks at Ukraine, and they see it as the 1942 invasion route of the Nazis, which came very close to cutting off their Caspian oil, which would have caused the rapid collapse and defeat of the USSR. The idea of NATO forces prepositioned across Ukraine, directly on the Russian border, armed with tanks and MRBMs, is a redline they have repeatedly said they could not tolerate.
The Russians think: at least the Germans had to fight their way to Ukraine and and then across it. How much worse to have NATO forces already in Ukraine, poised in striking range with missiles and tanks, ready to nuke Moscow in minutes, and occupy or destroy the Caspian oil fields in days?
We teased Ukraine into believing that if they were compliant with American, EU and NATO desires, they’d eventually join both groups. Instead, Russia was provoked into removing the possibility of NATO forces ever being positioned in Ukraine by their own invasion. This was all entirely foreseeable.
Imagine Khrushchev saying to JFK: “Our Cuban allies requested these armaments to protect them from continued Yankee aggression. So screw you, our missiles will stay in Cuba.” It would have meant nuclear war. This is how dire the Russians consider even the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO as a full partner.
We ignore their perspective at our own peril.
4 posted on 3/1/2022, 10:09:11 AM by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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