Guest Post by Pat Buchanan
What Putin is suggesting is that in the last analysis, if military defeat beckons for Russia, and his own dispossession of power and political if not actual death are to follow, he may use the ultimate weapon in Russia’s arsenal to prevent it. What should U.S. policy be?
From his principal avenues of attack on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin began this war with three strategic goals.
Send an army south from Belarus to capture Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and replace the government. Send forces into northeast Ukraine to capture its second largest city, Kharkiv, with 1.4 million people.
Third, extend the Donetsk enclave westward to establish a land bridge to Crimea and give Russia full control of the Sea of Azov and most of the Ukrainian coast along the Black Sea.
This last objective is almost achieved. Yet, as of Monday evening, five days into the war, neither Kyiv nor Kharkiv had fallen, though Russia had committed most of the troops it had assembled for the invasion.
Putin needs to get this war over with, for time is not on his side or Russia’s side.
In a week, he has become a universally condemned and isolated figure, and his country has been made the target of sanctions by almost the entire West. He is being depicted as an aggressor, even a war criminal, who is brutalizing a smaller neighbor, which, in its fierce and brave resistance, has taken on the aspect of a heroic nation.
The world is rallying to Ukraine.
In the UN Security Council, which Russia chairs, only Russia voted to veto a resolution denouncing it for aggression. India, China and the United Arab Emirates abstained.
As for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, his defiance of demands for surrender is being portrayed as Churchillian.
Moreover, serious military aid to Ukraine will soon begin.
Europeans and Americans have promised more Javelin missiles to destroy Russian tanks and armor, and Stinger anti-aircraft missiles of the type that took a heavy toll of Russian helicopters in the Afghan war of the 1980s.
NATO is uniting. Germany has voted to raise its defense budget and send its own anti-tank weapons and Stingers to Ukraine.
Economic sanctions imposed on Russia have crashed the ruble, caused a collapse of the stock market and severely restricted Moscow’s capacity to manage its debt.
Russian army units in Ukraine may be sufficient to occupy Kharkiv and Kyiv, but that army is insufficient to control and run a country the size of Texas with a population of 44 million people.
The Russians would have to find thousands of collaborators to help run the country. Where would Putin find them among a people that so widely detests him today?
The longer this war goes on, the greater the certainty that it bleeds the invading army to levels intolerable to Mother Russia, which is what eventually happened in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
If this war does not end soon, Putin is likely to lose it and fail in his goal of pulling Ukraine out of the Western camp and back into the orbit of Mother Russia.
Eventual defeat is becoming visible, and Putin probably cannot politically survive such a defeat.
As his motivation is to hold power and use it to carve a niche in history alongside the greatest Russian rulers of the past who enlarged the nation or empire, Putin is probably not going to accept defeat and go quietly.
Nor was it a sign of resignation that Putin, on Sunday, ordered Russia’s nuclear forces to high alert because, “Top officials in leading NATO countries have allowed themselves to make aggressive comments about our country.”
This is not the first time Putin has introduced the idea of using a nuclear weapon. On Feb. 19, days before the invasion began, Putin ordered drills of nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles, bombers and warships.
In his speech announcing the military operation in Ukraine, Putin warned that countries that interfere with Russia’s actions will face “consequences you have never seen.”
Would Putin exercise what has been called the “Samson Option” – pulling down the pillars of the temple and taking your enemies with you?
What Putin is suggesting is that in the last analysis, if military defeat beckons for Russia, and his own dispossession of power and political if not actual death are to follow, he may use the ultimate weapon in Russia’s arsenal to prevent it.
What should U.S. policy be?
Avoid a widening of the war by preventing any escalation to nuclear weapons. Secure the independence of Ukraine. Effect the removal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory.
If this requires that Ukraine give up any ambition to become a NATO nation, Putin’s declared purpose in launching the war, so be it. We might have avoided this war had we done so before it was begun.
This is not where we appear to be headed.
Finland, and Sweden, it is now being said, should be invited into NATO. Were that to happen, the U.S. would be obligated to help defend the 830-mile Finnish border with Russia.
This would be an act of hubris of the kind that has led to great wars.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
Why did Japan attack the US? Economic issues imposed on them.
Why did Germany rise up under Hitler? Ditto.
Wars are often fought because of nations being strangled economically. The west is attempting to strangle Russia.
It is dangerous times.
I suspect Russia felt that the incursion would be over by now, and that Ukraine would be suing for peace. Russia can clearly defeat Ukraine quickly, but not without inflicting severe loss of life on both the military and civilian populations. The sanctions will hit Russia hard. They have little time.
It is a very dicey situation.
Nukes are part of a modern mythology, like space travel, created by the overlords in order to frighten the rabble and as a symbol of their superior technical capacity. If they existed they would have been used constantly since their development, like every single invention known to mankind. Our species does not venture somewhere never to go again, or create a tool that is never used- it is not in our nature.
If you grant that they exist, then you give these people the added qualities of forbearance, gravitas, maturity, circumspection, and prudence- qualities they clearly do not possess.
It is difficult to believe we have been hoodwinked to this degree, but there it is. You choose either fraud or that every politician in every country that supposedly possesses them a character that they have never displayed in any other arena.
Orwell was not joking when he referred to a time of Universal deceit.
It is all lies and it is up to each of us to stop believing in them and live our own lives outside of their sphere of influence.
HSF – that is absurd, tinfoil hat stuff. Nukes are easily provable, and any physics phd can easily make one given the materials. Hell, I could probably do it. For a smart guy, you are really gullible at times. Your proof that they do not exist consist of the argument that we haven’t used them. That is no proof whatsoever. The records, film, photos, scientific evidence is massive.
How do you see this all playing out?
Options as I see them:
1) Russia wins via agreement
2) Russia wins via surrender
3) We all lose via nuclear holocaust
4) We all lose via Putin is a stooge of the WEF
Go get us a PhD and show us. I worked in a building where the first purifying column was built for project Manhattan. That doesn’t mean there is a nuclear bomb anywhere.
Heyyyyyyy, waitaminit, that’s like the pistol that shoots a flag out that says BANG….. OK, I get it….
I think you are right. I know the “science”. I studied it hard for many years. Isotope spread could very well be the failed attempts at creating such a weapon. I can think of several reasons they have not succeeded. It is pondering the true nature of our reality that led me to consider that “space” such as it is portrayed could be an illusion.
We live in a universe made of light. From where does it come and where does it go.
i knew a US soldier who stood in a trench waiting for the first nuke test. he and his fellows stood up and marched to ground zero shortly after. he died in his 80s
No he is not.
“Third, extend the Donetsk enclave westward to establish a land bridge to Crimea and give Russia full control of the Sea of Azov and most of the Ukrainian coast along the Black Sea.”
I think this is all Putin really wants. (Donetsk extended to Crimea.). To solidify Crimea and make it permanently sustainable. He would never have a 40 mile convoy sitting, twiddling it’s thumbs as a shiny object to scare people, unless it’s just a scary distraction. If a sudden ceasefire happens and the scary army withdraws, we’ll know. He’s a chessplayer….
Putin doesn’t want or need a protracted war. Things go awry during war and the Russian advance was designed to limit civilian casualties (unlike the US and NATO when they wage war i.e. Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya). However Western media propaganda is using this to make Putin look like he is losing and make Zelenskyy who is a clown look like a hero! The longer this conflict goes on, the more the West will use Zelenskyy and his neo-Nazis to create global havoc and program us for more war. Make no mistake these economic sanctions against Russia are acts of war. Does anyone in their right mind want war with Russia?
Jeebus, strike me dead, I hate humanity!!!
It’s been just 5 days. Five. Fucking. Days!! Even the 3,494 Generals that have appeared on MSM are all calling it a failure. hahahaha
It must stick in their craw that Russia has made more advances in Ukraine after just Five. Fucken. Days. than the USA!USA!USA! did in Afghanistan in 20 years. Fact!!!
It annoys the shit out of me that these failed Generals, and totally amateur MSM whore are opining about shit they have no clue about. They don’t know Jack, Shit, or Fuckall about military doctrine, tactics, strategy …. especially RUSSIAN doctrine. So, please, shut your pie hole and shut the fuck up about shit you know zero about.
And even IF you did know ….. you don’t shit about what is in Putin’s head! Did he call you and tell you? You don’t know shit about what his Generals want to do, or how. Did they call you? Russian leaders aren’t attention grabbing TV whores like their Western counterparts. They are keeping things very very much to themselves. They are walking softly and carrying a very big stick. And all what you experts carry is a very small dick. So, again, just shut the fuck up and die.
It was the same with the truckers convoy and protest… TOTAL failure because baby castro didn’t come out after a couple of hours of honking and surrender. Total failure when after five days of bouncy castles, BBQ’s and hot tubs that baby castro didn’t surrender or flee to cuba with the nations wealth.
If things are not IMMEDIATE and according to somes expectations then it ALL failure… sigh…
Why would he? there is no reason to.