Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
We have the potential of involving the United States in a boots-on-ground conflict in Ukraine with the possible result leading to WWIII and Armageddon.
There are three scenarios in which this could happen, but one is so crazy that I tend to discount it out of hand and will cover it now.
Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has suggested providing Ukraine with tactical nukes. In an article dated June 9, Rubin details a situation in which Russian President Vladimir Putin could become desperate if he loses the war or becomes humiliated.
Rubin writes: “Putin is desperate and erratic … With the Ukrainian counter-offensive underway, the threat that Russia might use tactical nuclear weapons is increasingly a likelihood.”
Rubin is obviously unaware of situation reports from the front in Ukraine. Even the Western media is being forced to describe the “horrific losses” in personnel and equipment that Ukraine is suffering.
Russia appears to be holding its own without the use of nukes.
A second scenario concerns the NATO summit to be held during mid-July in Vilnius, Lithuania.
According to the NATO secretary general, at that summit, Ukraine will be denied entry to NATO. The proposed work-around to this situation is for Ukraine to “invite” several NATO members to form a “Coalition of the Willing” and enter Ukraine to provide security or peace keeping operations in Western Ukraine. This has the likelihood of putting NATO troops in conflict with Russia, resulting in casualties and NATO initiating a response.
The U.S. could thus be dragged into the hostilities.
The third set of circumstances involves the F-16 fighter aircraft that Ukraine will be receiving sometime in the future. There is talk of basing these planes outside Ukraine. The Russian president’s response to this is from St. Petersburg on June 16:
“The F-16 will also burn, there is no doubt. But if they are located at air bases outside Ukraine, and used in combat operations, we will have to look at how to hit and where to hit those means that are used in combat operations against us. This is a serious danger of NATO’s further involvement in this armed conflict.”
We find ourselves in an extremely precarious situation, and no one seems too concerned. I’m concerned, and so should you be.
Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:
