Times of war require sober thinking. Especially, when a military conflict could potentially go nuclear.
In the case of the United States, it’s fortunately not directly involved in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. However, it’s still not in the clear. Simply put, as long as the US is involved in a proxy war with Russia, the chances of further escalation are high.
Retired Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor knows what’s at stake when dealing with the Russo-Ukrainian conflict. In a recent Real Clear Defense piece, Macgregor declared that a proxy war in Ukraine “appeals to Washington because Ukrainians, not Americans, fight or die in the conflict.”
A proxy war is a clever way for Deep Staters to give Russia a bloody nose, but it will not lead to Russia’s outright defeat in Ukraine. The only way for Russia to be stopped in this case is for the US to deploy ground forces and other conventional units to Ukraine.
But here’s the problem, such a move by the West would be viewed by Russia as an existential threat, thus compelling it to turn to nukes to protect its sovereignty.
This does not register with the foreign policy Blob who are still committed to doling out military aid, sending intelligence, and egging on the US’s NATO partners to get involved in a conflict with Russia.
As a sober voice of realism, Macgregor demonstrates how American efforts to undermine Russia are doomed to fail by pointing to history (something most so-called “experts” refuse to study):
Consider history. America’s war against Japan in the Pacific was decided more by the sheer weight of U.S. Naval Power than by any specific weapon system or platform. The war in Ukraine is no different. New weapon systems in the hands of Ukrainian forces compelled Russian formations to adjust their tactics, but Russian strategy toward Ukraine is unchanged.
One gets the cynical sense that DC is using Ukraine as a sacrificial lamb against Russia. At the end of the day, Russia possesses superior military forces and firepower, thus giving them escalatory dominance in this conflict. No amount of US military aid will change that. One has to wonder what the US’s endgame will be when Russia inevitably defeats Ukraine militarily. Will the US then fund irregular forces in an effort to create an anti-Russian insurgency? Or will the US deploy troops to Ukraine?
Curious minds would like to know what DC has in mind in Ukraine. Macgregor noted that there maybe some domestic factors behind Biden’s decision to take a harder stance against Russia:
Washington’s timing for the proxy war in Ukraine is also problematic for reasons that have nothing to do with Ukraine. President Biden’s approval ratings are falling through the basement. Thanks to open borders, Illegal drug, and human trafficking is occurring on an industrial scale to the point where fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 through 45.
America’s economy is decelerating and sliding into recession, or worse. Supply chain disruptions that predate the war in Ukraine are worsening with the result that global prices, especially for oil, natural gas, food, and fertilizer are soaring. It’s no surprise that beyond the confines of the Washington Beltway, many Americans think public order and the rule of law, the hallmarks of American Civilization, are breaking down.
In contrast to the Deep Staters and members of the foreign policy Blob, Macgregor understands that the last 30 years of US policy towards Russia has created the present security crisis in Ukraine. In an era when short-term thinking and media soundbytes are the norm, such nuanced analysis is hard to come by.
Instead, people buy into the vacuous human rights and “liberal democracy” crusading that is constantly being blared on the TV screen. This groupthink is even stronger at the highest echelons of the national security establishment. For these people, America must have full spectrum dominance and any rising power that asserts its national interests at the expense of the Blob’s universal machinations must be treated as a threat. Any kind of geopolitical defeat the US faces will allegedly sully America’s credibility on the world stage.
Due to the Biden regime having weak leadership, given how the US presidency has become a symbolic position due to the prevalence of the Deep State dictating the most important policies these days, the likelihood of the US sleepwalking into a military conflict is much higher than most people realize.
There’s nothing special about the US when it comes to its conduct of foreign policy. No matter the ideology of the state, imperial overreach is real, and when states geopolitically overstretch themselves, harsh realities begin to set in. Just look at the US’s ill-fated military expeditions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Macgregor concluded that “In truth, conflicts fought in the name of lofty moral principles intensify violence and make realistic postwar settlements difficult, if not possible. Nowhere is this difficulty more pronounced than in Ukraine.”
The retired colonel is on the mark here. Because, let’s face it, morally righteous foreign policies are devoid of rational thinking, and are suffused with raw emotions. This is not the way to conduct foreign policy. The US needs to go back to its realist/non-interventionist foreign policy roots and only focus its attention on its sphere of influence — the Western Hemisphere.
If the US does not abandon its fantastical foreign policy, it will be consigned to the dustbin of history, a fate that has befallen countless great empires thanks to their arrogant policies both at home and abroad.
