USA & NATO vs Russia in Ukraine: Washington's Geopolitical War VII

 

The New York Times’s international affairs columnist Thomas Friedman is arguably the most influential editorial writer in the country.  Last week, his editorial aptly warned the Biden administration of the “huge unintended consequences” of its unplanned and impromptu remarks regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin and the savagery of his tactics in Ukraine.  Friedman reprised the World War II slogan “Loose lips sink ships.”  The recent spate of U.S. “leaks” regarding the successes of U.S. intelligence supporting Ukraine’s military operations will additionally provide much grist for Putin’s propaganda mills at home and abroad.

The Kremlin has been charging the United States and Ukraine with preparing biological weapons to use against Russia.  And also that the United States and NATO have turned Ukraine into an armed camp in order to weaken Russia and carve up its territory.  

Official U.S. statements as well as U.S. leaks to the corpporate-mainstream media help these accusations gain ground in Russia as well as in foreign nations.  President Biden himself has assisted Russia’s information warfare with charges of Russian war crimes and even Russian genocide in Ukraine.  Biden’s theatrical declaration that “For god’s sake, this man cannot remain in power” presumably alarmed an international audience familiar with the U.S. history of regime change and political assassination.

The unplanned and impromptu remarks of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin have been particularly unhelpful to U.S. efforts to hold together the transatlantic alliance.  In Poland last week, Austin declared that U.S. war aims were not limited to restoring Ukrainian sovereignty, but to produce a “weakened” Russia that “can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”  Austin added that Russia cannot have that kind of capability or be allowed to “quickly reproduce that capability.”  Austin repeated these remarks at a conference he hosted in Germany, where he seemed to speak for the nearly 30 nations in attendance.

Most of the international players have no interest in a wider war in Central Europe, particularly with a nuclear-armed Russia. West European officials are particularly concerned that the United States is changing its war aims from Ukraine to Russia.  An authoritative French defense analyst remarked that there is a sense in Europe that the “United States is dragging everyone into a different war.”  The Europeans support increased assistance for Ukraine’s war effort, but are not willing to wage a war against Russia as part of this effort.  The Turkish foreign minister recently complained that some NATO allies actually “want the war to continue.  They want Russia to become weaker.”  Presumably many of the nations that are sitting out this war are fearful of U.S. war aims and U.S. misuse of military force since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

U.S. boasting about its intelligence sharing with Ukraine is particularly reprehensible, with Washington taking credit for assisting the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in April.  U.S. officials have stated that targeting data from U.S. intelligence were given to Ukraine only hours before the Ukrainian Neptune missiles were launched.  The same officials also took credit for providing early warning of Russia troop movements as well as the Russian battle plan for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The most provocative U.S. statements take credit for intelligence that has enabled Ukraine to target and kill Russian generals.  Both the Pentagon and the National Security Council seem to be involved in this aspect of information warfare in order to embarrass Vladimir Putin.  My own view is that senior military leaders favor reminding Putin of the powers and professionalism of U.S. military forces.

The corporate-mainstream media suggest that U.S. intelligence support for Ukraine is unprecedented, but covert CIA support has been conducted for years to bolster allies and U.S. interests around the world.  The British would have had far more difficulty in reclaiming Argentinian Falkland Islands in the early 1980s without U.S. intelligence and logistical support.  CIA director William Casey secretly authorized the sharing of sensitive satellite photography with Iraq in its war against Iran in the 1980s to provide an added advantage to Saddam Hussein’s air war against Iran. We know a great deal about U.S. military assistance to Israel, but very little about the extensive sharing of vital intelligence materials at key junctures in Israeli crisis management.

At the very start of the war in February, Joe Biden emphasized that “direct confrontation between NATO and Russia is World War III, something we must strive to prevent.”  Now, the United States appears to be committed to ensuring that Russia can no longer carry out military aggression anywhere.  Secretary of Defense Austin and his subordinates regularly brief congressional committees to emphasize that U.S. weapons are making the difference in the conflict.

In the past few weeks, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin have traveled to Kiev; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has led a Democratic congressional delegation as well; and late last week Biden traveled to a Lockheed Martin plant in Alabama that is producing Javelin missiles for Ukraine.  At the Javelin plant, Biden told the workers that Ukrainians “are making fools of the Russian military in many instances.”

These visits will not advance Ukraine’s objectives in defending itself from the Russian invasion, but they will contribute to bipartisan support for even greater defense spending, which is already bloated; a gratuitous worsening of relations with Russia, which compromises future strategic arms control and disarmament negotiations as well as the Iran nuclear accord; any nuclear accord with North Korea; and future efforts to deal with the climate and with Covid.  Self-aggrandizing U.S. statements and actions will also enhance Putin’s popularity at home for standing up to the United States.

If the United States want to be the "exceptional power" that Biden and others contend, then the Biden administration must take steps to gain a cease fire in Ukraine; reduce bilateral tensions with Russia; and contend with the Sino-Russian relationship without creating greater conflicts in Eurasia and the East Asia.

Ultimately, the USA are no more or less exceptional than any other nation on earth, but they do have more espionage and military tools do destabilize the world, given its long lasting experience in those areas. 

It should use, for this once, at leat, use their tools of power to address and even counter the growing instability they have themselves created in the international arena.