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Ignoring repeated Russian warnings about the escalatory dangers linked with the delivery of more and more advanced weapons to Ukraine, Washington and its allies have moved in recent months to provide Kiev with long-range cruise missiles, cluster bombs, and depleted uranium munitions.
The next logical step for the Biden administration to take when it comes to arming Kiev may very well be to provide its client with mini-nukes, former Central Intelligence Agency officer Ray McGovern fears.
“We’re running out of ammunition. The president says ‘Ok, let’s give the Ukrainians some more ammunition,’ and his advisors say ‘We’re too low. So what else have we got? Well we don’t have any more 155 mm shells for our howitzers and so forth but we could give them cluster munitions.’ Now we’re giving them depleted uranium shells. And what’s the next step? Well the next step would be these little mini-nukes. We’ll give ‘em that, if push comes to shove,’” McGovern saidin a podcast appearance alongside Scott Ritter.
The former CIA officer expressed deep concern that many Americans continue to be “prepared to be led into war with Russia,” and accepting of a possible situation in which the Biden administration puts boots on the ground in Ukraine in their quest to “weaken” Russia and inflict a “strategic defeat” on Moscow. This is a situation that could quickly escalate into a full-scale nuclear war, McGovern warned.
“Not since my day way back in the 80s has there been any real threat from Russia. You can hear people say Russia wants to take over Ukraine, wants to take over Poland and the Baltics. That’s all what the British call rubbish. This is a defensive war, a preemptive war if you will, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin ran out of other options, and who’s fault is it? You know, people are very careful, they say ‘Well it’s mostly our fault.’ I’m not so careful, folks. I’m an intelligence analyst. I don’t have to worry about my reputation. It’s 105 percent our fault, and I can prove it to you,” the activist said.
McGovern is one of a small but growing number of commentators in the US warning about the growing dangers of a direct conflict between Washington and Moscow. Late last month, conservative pundit Tucker Carlson warned that the Biden administration might resort to any number of dangerous steps in a desperate bid to “main power,” including assassinating former President Donald Trump, or starting a “hot war” with Russia.
“What are they gonna do? They’re gonna go to war with Russia,” Carlson said in a podcast appearance. “There will be a hot war between the United States and Russia in the next year…I don’t think we’ll win it,” he added.
NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer announced Saturday that the alliance would be able to muster up to 300,000 troopsfor “collective defense” within a month’s time in the event of an attack against it, and that the bloc’s total personnel under arms is approaching 3.5 million “brothers and sisters in uniform.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Sunday that the bloc “must prepare” itself “for a long war in Ukraine,” reiterating that the conflict was Russia’s fault and that in the alliance “we were all wishing for a quick peace.”
Stoltenberg’s comments don’t square with the timeline of the Ukraine crisis, including the US and British governments’ moves in the spring of 2022 to sabotage a possible peace deal between Kiev and Moscow, and, going back earlier, NATO’s decision to reject a pair of comprehensive security treaties proposed by Moscow in late 2021. Last year, former leaders from Ukraine, France and Germany each separately confirmed that the 2015 Minsk peace accords meant to bring peace to Donbass and resolve the Ukraine crisis were a mere ploy designed to buy Kiev time to rearm and prepare for a conflict against Russia.
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