Did Biden goad Putin into invading Ukraine?

As of today, thirty member countries comprise the NATO alliance. Between 1999 through 2020, fourteen countries were admitted into NATO in the following order: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia. Much of that real estate borders Russia, and the U.S. is committed to defend those lands against Russian aggression.

Alliances can be powerful deterrents to war, but they can also be dangerous. After the Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, the Serbians agreed to a long, demeaning list of Austrian demands to avert war. Nevertheless, the Austrians insisting on crushing Serbia without fear of drawing Russia to Serbia’s defense, knowing that the Kaiser had sworn the equivalent of a Teutonic blood oath to defend Austria unconditionally,

On December 9, 2021, Reuters reported that in a 90-minute phone call, President Biden had assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Kyiv's bid to join the NATO military alliance was in its own hands. Said Zelenskiy: “President Biden said very clearly that the decision on Ukraine's accession to NATO is the decision of the Ukrainian people only, this is a sovereign and independent Ukrainian state," he said… And it depends on Ukraine and NATO members."

Surely Biden knew that admitting Ukraine into NATO was a red line for Putin that would trigger a military response, and surely Putin knew about the phone call, if Reuters published an article about it. Knowing that we could not realistically prevent Russia from invading Ukraine if she was determined to do so, was it wise to give Zelinskiy those assurances just as Putin was massing troops on the border?

Last week the New York Times reported that for the last three months, from December through February, U.S. intelligence officials had been sharing information about Russian troop movements

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 strike 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: “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.

Yes, and predicted months before here on FR that “a war would be found.”

Entirely predictable.

The Ruling Oligarchy should be realizing that the peasants are on to them.

Bill Gates:
“ ..... another pandemic is all but certain.”

“We’ll have another pandemic. It will be a different pathogen next time,” Gates said.

Entirely predictable.

Do they see that we see them?

Obviously the aim Of the US and it’s European allies (and they aren’t all on board) is to peel away Ukraine from Russia’s orbit and incorporate it into the West. Making it a bulwark on Russia’s border….

(But Putin says…this isn’t happening period, end of story. And he’s going to do everything he can to make sure this doesn’t happen and he made that precisely known.)

Nato and EU expansion , along with fostering Ukraine’s civil protests/revolutions, is how they’re accomplishing this.... Nato is a military institution and the EU an economic institution..... Both desire bringing countries into their orbit with the idea of making them Democratic regimes. Which means toppling those regimes who resist. And this in order to create a new world that is pro-western. ....Russia, China, Iran, the Middle East, Asia and others in the East don’t see it that way.

But it was the coup of Feb. 22 2008 what has precipitated what we see playing out now because Ukraine was unwilling to accept the deals they were offered at that time... Both by the Governing powers at the time and Russia’s. ....Including a new election. .... Maidan was violent with many deaths and destruction of Kiev itself by the Ukrainians.

Putins response to Maidan was to bring (Russian ) Crimea back under Russia. ..and assist Donbass (Russians) and Luganse (also Russian) to stabilize the Russian people there and end the fighting.

Nato/US and the EU have overplayed there hand and now people are dying in a preventive war in Ukraine. Up until now the EU had no interest in fighting Ukraines wars or conflicts within it’s country. And up until Feb 2008 there is no evidence of Russian aggression against Nato nor Europe.

Now and over the preceding weeks Putin’s made it very clear we’re fooling around with a nation which has the highest stockpile of Nuclear Weapons in the world….and we are daring him to use them over Ukraine?

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.