Analysis: Poland 'Looking For Any Excuse To Escalate Crisis'

Analysts: Poland Operating on 'Hair Trigger' Seeking Any Excuse to Drag NATO Into Ukraine Conflict

Sputnik News

The Tuesday incident in eastern Poland triggered a momentary frenzy over the potential invocation of NATO’s collective defense charter, but experts with Pentagon experience told Sputnik the issue would soon blow over since NATO hopes to accomplish its goal of weakening Russia without fighting World War III.

On Tuesday, a missile exploded in the Polish town of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border, killing two civilians, and was immediately blamed on Russia by the Ukrainian government and numerous Western media outlets. However, just hours later, the Polish and US governments said the projectile was most likely an S-300 (NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) air defense missile of a type used today only by Ukraine.

Scott Ritter, a military analyst and former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, told Sputnik that the reversal had “ripped apart the credibility” of NATO’s claims it is not seeking escalation of the conflict.

“When these reports first came out, based on [fragmented], incomplete data, Poland together with the Baltic states were screaming for NATO to consider Article 5 and Article 4 procedures - in effect asking, demanding that NATO interfere in the Ukraine conflict,” he noted. “This tells you that these nations, Poland and the Baltic states, are operating on a hair trigger, that they are leaning forward when it comes to seeking any excuse to escalate the conflict in Ukraine so that NATO gets involved.”

However, he noted that even as they are forced to back down amid “unequivocal” evidence that the missile was a Ukrainian S-300 5v55-series missile and not a Russian one, NATO is still “looking for any excuse whatsoever to escalate this crisis.”

“And indeed, it appears that even though it's now acknowledged that the missiles that hit Poland were Ukrainian S-300 air defense missiles, the blame is being shifted to Russia by these and other NATO players who claim that these missiles would never have been fired if it were not for Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. Therefore, Russia is to blame. And now they're using this as an excuse to begin a larger discussion about air defense in Poland, air defense capabilities that would have the potential of reaching into Ukraine. So this in itself is an escalation.”

Ritter predicted that Moscow’s pursuit of its military objectives and its decision-making process would be “unimpeded” by the incident, since the targets of their cruise missiles had been legitimate military targets.

“I believe that this is an issue that nobody will be discussing in a week or two,” he said. “It's a non-issue. It's been blown way out of proportion by the West.”

“NATO will, of course, have their meetings. At that point in time, there might be some discussion about increasing air defense, but ultimately, Russia is blameless and beyond simply doing what NATO normally does, which is to blame Russia regardless,” Ritter added.

However, he said it would be an “impossible task” for Western media to rehabilitate its image as an entity independent from NATO governments.

More....