Posted on 03/02/2022 10:47:27 AM PST by conservative98
Retired Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor joined Tucker Carlson on Fox News Tuesday to discuss the latest developments of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, noting that the first phase of Russia’s incursion is over, marking the “beginning of the end of the Ukrainian resistance.”
“The first five days, we witnessed a very slow, methodical movement of Russian forces into eastern Ukraine,” MacGregor said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday.
“So this is a — this is the beginning, frankly of the end of Ukrainian resistance,” he added.
Carlson then asked MacGregor what Putin’s endgame is in this conflict, to which MacGregor replied that it’s to take a portion of Ukraine and establish a buffer zone separating NATO with Russia.
“I think Vladimir Putin set out to honor his word of 2007,” MacGregor said simply.
“In 2007 at the Munich Security Conference, he said: We will not tolerate the expansion of NATO to a point where your NATO, your border, is touching Russia, specifically Ukraine and Georgia. We see these as essentially Trojan horses for NATO’s military power and U.S. influence, subversion and so forth.“
“He then turned to several opportunities to reinforce that over and over and over again, most recently with President Biden in the hopes that he could avoid taking action to effectively clean out eastern Ukraine of any opposition forces whatsoever, and to put his forces in a position vis-a-vis NATO to deter us from any further attempts to influence or change Ukraine into effectively a platform for the projection of U.S. and Western power into Russia.““Now, his goal, as we see it, at the moment, is to seize this entire area of eastern Ukraine. That’s pretty clear. He is going to roll up to that river, up near Kyiv, he has actually moved over the river and is preparing to go in and capture that city entirely.“
“At that point, he has to decide what else he wants to do. I don’t think he wants to go any further west. I think he’d be very satisfied to hold that point. But he would like whatever emerges from this that we call Ukraine, whether it’s just the western side or it encompasses some of the east and the west of Ukraine to be neutral, non-aligned, and preferably friendly to Moscow, that he will accept. Anything short of that, his war has been a waste of time.“
MacGregor claimed the Biden administration should then respond by telling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms because “there really is no choice.”
“I think President Biden and Sullivan, his National Security Adviser have already given some indication of their readiness to accept something like that,” he said. “They’re not going to have any choice. Either they accept it or then they put him in the position of having to do more than he would like to do, which would probably not go down well with NATO.”
“No one really wants Russian forces on their border, least of all Poland. So I think Sullivan and Biden will essentially tell Zelensky, if he is still the President at that point and if he is still running any semblance of the Ukrainian government, which is largely collapsing now. If he is still there, he is going to be told accept the deal, go neutral, because there really is no choice.”
Biden and the West can’t afford to send forces into Ukraine to push back Russian forces, so their bluster and rhetoric that they’ll take on Putin will fall apart in real time over the coming days, he said.
I am sure we are involved in some role at least in the Western Ukraine.
I am much more concerned about the command and control of nuclear weapons on both sides.
There is a long and ugly history of “close calls”—and it turned out that launch authority did get delegated down the chain of command in some situations.
Despite endless assurances from both sides that “this could never happen”, I remain unconvinced.
It is entirely possible somebody could get an itchy trigger finger.
there is a difference between SUPPORTING Putin and discussing all aspects of geopolitical strategies and moves.
They have been making statements that the Baltic States need to be removed from NATO and disband their military.
And yes, Finland. Finland was part of Imperial Russia. They want her to be so again.
That has been their STATED goal for a while now. Just as “No NATO on the borders of Russia or in former Warsaw Pact states!”
LOL
I don’t know. I love the food in old New York.
Peoples matter.
America made out of the same stock as Brazil...is Brazil.
How does this relate to anything I posted?
Not sure which part of Colonel you missed, which is an O-6. Colonels today typically command brigade level units.
We are beginning to resemble Argentina in the Peron era.
There is a lot of militaristic talk—while serious adversaries are busy with the belly laughs.
Agreed. It starts with making provocative statements about nuclear weapons. People that think "that just can't happen" should consider possible pressure points that could change that certainty.
One possible scenario is that US (not really)/European leadership does not offer an "off-ramp" to Putin to deescalate. Some people see that as a sign of weakness. That's a fair point.
But if so, US/European leadership is going to have to decide on how far they will go to sanction Russia. Russia is not North Korea - they will not behave as a country in the same manner. What's next - blockade of humanitarian aide to all non-Russian held areas of the Ukraine? To Russia? Expel Russian nationals from Europe and the US? Nationalize Russian businesses operating in the US and Europe?
On second thought, I can give up the restaurants. :)
You stated “His analysis”...
The rhetoric needs to cool—and cool quickly.
The flaw in command in control can happen when communications is broken—for any reason.
Listen to the doubletalk and vague assurances on this relatively recent close call:
Yes. I remember when this happened. And yeah, lots of soft-pedaling.
I hated going to the Alert Pad for an aircraft redball. Very tense because B-52's were cocked with nuclear ordnance. Even in the plane it was tense. The whole time we were troubleshooting the problem, B-52 co-pilot is staring at you over his left shoulder, as behind the pilot in what was an equipment bay filled with avionics in earlier models is a safe with Emergency War Orders.
Hated going out to the Alert Pad! Always good when we fix things quickly - on that day, the Pilot forgot to push in a circuit breaker. I'm sure he got hammered for that.
Me neither.
I might have had a mix up with another commentator who was a general sorry about that but that’s just strange of s***.
There may be unintended consequences.
Even Wikipedia shows himas never commanding a brigade. He’s just another one of the nine out of ten Lt. Colonels who didn’t earn an eagle.
Tucker invited a person on his show to voice controversial views and generate debate and audience. He succeeded. He’s good at his job. Tucker can now ask for a raise when his contract renews. What’s wrong with that?
If Tucker invites someone you don’t like, wait for the next show.
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