Ukraine Is Losing Big Time, So Biden Ups the Ante, Risking World War III

Below is a preview of my forthcoming AFP article. -KB

By Kevin Barrett, for American Free Press

During the last week of May, the White House leaked an alarming story: Biden was preparing to send medium-range advanced rocket systems to Ukraine. Those rockets could be used by Ukrainian forces to hit targets in Russia. If that happened, Russia would undoubtedly retaliate and escalate—possibly by striking a NATO country bordering Ukraine. That could trigger Article 5, which would theoretically bring all of NATO, including the US, into the war. Within days or even hours, nuclear bombs could be raining down on American cities.

Then on May 30 Biden walked back the leak, saying that the US was “not going to send to Ukraine any rocket systems that can strike into Russia.” The world breathed a sigh of relief.

But the relief was short-lived. The very next day, Biden flip-flopped once again, announcing that, contrary to his previous announcement, the US would indeed be sending M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to Ukraine. With a range of up to 190 miles (with the longest-range munitions) the M142 HIMARS could, if fired from Ukraine, hit much of western Russia. Moscow, the Russian capital, is less than 280 miles from the border.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov blasted Biden’s move as “dangerous” and “unprecedented.” Russia’s Defense Ministry launched exercises with their strategic nuclear missile forces in Ivanovo. The world had moved another step closer to the brink.

Biden sent the HIMARS in response to desperate pleading from Kiev. Ukrainian forces are getting shellacked in the east. The Russians look just weeks if not days away from achieving their primary goal of liberating the Russian-speaking Donbass region from the Ukrainian forces that have been shelling the civilian population virtually nonstop since 2014.

Biden apparently hopes that the HIMARS will prove an equalizer by helping the Ukrainians withstand Russian artillery fire and hold their ground—snatching victory, or at least stalemate, from the proverbial jaws of defeat. But many military experts are not so sanguine. They say Russia will successfully interdict many of the HIMARS, and that by the time Ukrainian soldiers are trained and able to use them at scale, the Donbass will already be lost. The core problem, these analysts say, is attrition: The Russian casualty rate is running at around 10%, while the Ukrainian rate is much higher, possibly over 50%. Even the fanatically pro-Ukraine Western mainstream media has been running articles about the massive attrition and desertion from Ukrainian units in the Donbass. It is doubtful that Biden’s gift of HIMARS will put a timely dent in Russia’s artillery superiority.

But there is one way Kiev could try to use HIMARS rockets to gain a substantial military advantage: fire them into Russia, then sit back and watch as Russia retaliates by striking Poland or Romania, thereby dragging NATO into the conflict. Zelensky, who is losing badly, is desperately trying to convince NATO to declare all-out war on Russia. Hitting Russia with US rockets that entered Ukraine from Poland or Romania, in order to trigger Russian retaliation against NATO countries, might strike Zelensky as the only conceivable route to victory.

The problem with that scenario, of course, is that Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other nation. An all-out NATO-Russia war would almost inevitably go nuclear, as whichever side was losing would seek to rectify the imbalance with “limited” or “tactical” nuclear strikes that would set off an unstoppable chain reaction of escalation.

Zelensky, who is losing the war, might be willing to risk Armageddon in the desperate hope of turning things around on the battlefield—or, failing that, making the whole world share his misery. But is the question of who rules Ukraine really a life-or-death national security interest of the United States? Is the unbelievably corrupt, nazi-infested Zelensky regime really so wonderful that saving it would merit risking a war that could end, or severely curtail, human civilization?

Biden assures us that Zelensky has promised not to hit Russia with the US-supplied HIMARS. But Zelensky doesn’t consider Crimea part of Russia. Unfortunately, the Russians do.

And will Ukro-nazi militias, whose idea of the chain of command may be somewhat unorthodox, respect Zelensky’s promise?

If Biden really believes Kiev’s guarantee that it won’t attack Russian territory with the new rocket systems, I have a bridge over the Dnieper River to sell him. Surely Biden’s advisors know how tempting it will be for Ukraine to misuse the American weapons in hopes of triggering escalation and ultimately bringing NATO in to save the day. When and if, God forbid, a furious Putin calls Biden on the hotline and Biden responds “but Zelensky promised me he wouldn’t do that,” Biden will look as silly as President Merkin Muffley in Dr. Strangelove—and, along with the rest of us, just as doomed.