Giving Ukraine the go-ahead to use long-range missiles and drones to hit targets far inside Russia is insane.
It has to be crazy because my old congressman Adam Kinzinger says we should definitely do it. Warnings from Putin about consequences of U.S.-made weapons hitting inside of Russia? "The U.S. needs to stop taking it seriously," Kinzinger writes on CNN.
Just what the world needs: an international game of nuclear chicken.
Every escalation involving advanced weaponry that the U.S. and its allies have given to Ukraine has elicited warnings of a nuclear response from Putin. F-16s, Javelin anti-aircraft missiles, Patriot Missiles, HIMARS artillery system, and Abrams tanks were all supplied (eventually) to Ukraine, and each weapons system brought threats from Putin. The threats didn't become action against the West.
But firing a missile into Russia and potentially hitting civilian areas is a step beyond escalation and becomes a threat against the Motherland. Putin might see the nuclear gamble in hitting Ukraine as worthwhile.
Would the U.S. launch nukes at Russia, risking a full-scale nuclear war over Ukraine?
In almost every one of these cases, Russia threatened escalation, an attack on NATO or the use of nuclear weapons. Each time, the bluff was called, and Ukraine was able to better defend its territory. While Russian threats should not be taken lightly, history shows us that these threats are often hollow. During the Cold War, nuclear threats were not uncommon, but the US didn’t keep them from advancing its foreign policy interests.
"Russian threats should not be taken lightly." But Kinzinger is taking those threats lightly. "[H]istory shows us that these threats are often hollow." That's the definition of taking the threat lightly.
But the real question is far more to the point: Is Ukraine worth gambling the fate of the planet over?
I understand exactly where Biden is coming from. The "world order" must be protected. Without order, it's the law of the jungle with the strongest preying upon the weakest. That's a path that surely leads to World War. Sadly, the only way to make good on America's commitment to keep Ukraine a sovereign, independent country is for the U.S. to send its own troops to fight. And Biden claims he doesn't want that.
So we're going to risk Russian retaliation by allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with powerful, sophisticated weapons.
Biden has faced mounting pressure at home to lift the restriction, including from Democrats, and foreign allies’ decisions to give Ukraine the go-ahead to use their transferred weapons on Russian soil have added to that pressure.
This month, U.K. Foreign Minister David Cameron said Kyiv could use British weapons to strike sovereign Russian territory. Then on Monday, NATO’s parliamentary assembly adopted a resolution calling on Western countries to allow Ukraine to use weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.
The issue gathered momentum on Tuesday, when French President Emmanuel Macron opened the door to Ukraine using donated weapons to “neutralize” Russian military sites
“We’re not being escalatory by doing this,” Macron continued during a joint press conference alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Of course not. Hitting targets deep inside Russia for the first time is de-escalation!
Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and a group of bipartisan lawmakers led by House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) sent a letter to the Pentagon asking them to take restraints off Ukraine.
On Wednesday, a group of 60 former officials and scholars sent Biden a letter demanding that he lift the restrictions on Ukraine's use of U.S. weaponry.
“We must finally learn from Ukraine’s successes at calling out Russian bluster that it is not escalatory for Ukraine to defend itself. The past two years have shown that if we allow the U.S. to be held hostage to the Kremlin’s threats of escalation, Russia gains the upper hand and Ukrainian civilians pay the price,” wrote the group.
That might be a good epithet to put on all our tombstones. If there's anyone around to bury us.
