It is time for the U.S. and NATO allies to pull out all thevstops, and take thevwar to Putin.
Emmanuel Macron has usefully broken the taboo against considering sending troops to Ukraine from individual NATO countries.
As Michel Tenser argues in his impressive book, Notre Guerre (2024), the West is faces a frontal challenge from Russia, which under Putin is relentlessly embarked on a mission to destroy international law, the U.N. Carter- based international legal order, and ultimately our civilization as it currently exists.
Connecting many dots, Tenser make an overwhelming case that the war against Russian aggression in the Ukraine is “Our War”, not mere the war of Ukraine.
Pulling together the various threads in the argument, he persuasively concludes that Vladimir Putin and Russia today represent pure “Evil”, just as Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany did some 85 years ago when the launched World War II by invading Poland on September 1, 1939.
Tenser is right. It is only because the psychological mechanism of mental occlusion has kept us from seeing a reality right in front of us that is so horrible we cannot even look at it that Western leaders have failed to acknowledge that reality through deeds, not merely words. They mouth catastrophic warnings, and then go back to doing nothing to effectively meet the challenge.
It is time for NATO and the West to get serious about winning thecwar with Russia.
Before it may become becessary to send grond troops to Ukraine, there is much the West can do if it gets serious about winning “our war” against Russian aggression and its assault on our civilization.
What can be done?
First, the U.S. and nato countries can lift all restrictions on the use by Ukraine of weapons it has supplied to hit targets in Russia, and to knock out the Kerch Strait Bridge.
Second, it can transfer to Ukraine large numbers if F-16 fighter aircraft, with numbers rising as quickly as pilots can be trained. These training programs should be expanded and accelerated to the maximum degree possible.
Third, the U.S. should flood Ukraine with long-range ATACMS artillery rockets and the unmodified HIMARS artillery units needed to launch them.
Fourth, NATO and other countries should send to Ukraine as many air defense systems and missiles as they can.
Fifth, Western countries should immediately send all the artillery shells the can to Ukraine. It is illusory to maintain that they need to maintain stocks for their self-defense in Russia invades them. The war is already underway. The best use for these weapons for their own self-defense is in Ukraine.
For maximum effect, these measures should be announced and undertaken simultaneously.
Vladimir Putin will huff and puff, and threaten nuclear attacks against countries participating in such measures.
It is best to call his bluff all at once, rather tan affording him muktile opportunities to threaten nuclear war.
Western governments should remind him that NATO countries have nuclearvweapons, too. More importantly, they should remind tge Russian population of tge likely effects on their cities of a nuclear strike. Ifbthis information does not alreadubexist in declassified form, it should be prepared as quickly as possible.
Sooner or later, the U.S. and NATO will need to call Putin’s nuclear bluff, risking a confrontation. The sooner that happens, the better.
In the meantime Biden and other government leaders should ban references “World War Three”, which has been Putin’s very effective psychological warfare tool. It has been particularly effective against Biden and Scholz.
Rather, what we need is more open discussion of how to manage a nuclear confrontation with Russia. Now is a good time for that discussion. It won’t be any easier after Putin seizes the Suwalki corridor (connecting Russia to its exclave Kaliningrad, and the Baltics to Poland), or invades Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania.