By Gil Barndollar
Ukraine’s string of battlefield victories, and the Russian partial mobilization that followed, have rightly raised Western fears of nuclear escalation. While some experts and scholars have counseled caution and prudence, urging the Biden administration to be careful as it negotiates a moment of increasing peril, others have dialed up the rhetoric and prescriptions. Forget the rote invocation of Munich and appeasement; according to at least one prominent Washington journalist, we may already be in World War III.
Such a framing is dangerously at odds with reality. Yes, Russia, the largest country on earth, stretches across 11 time zones. Its shores touch a dozen seas and a pair of oceans. But in this war the fighting is confined to one small (in relative terms) corner of Russia’s massive perimeter. Not one bomb or bullet has landed outside the territory of Russia and Ukraine.
Ukraine has received enormous support from the United States and NATO — more than $30 billion in military aid to date. But no member of the alliance is engaged in active hostilities, a “red line” not to cross, loudly announced and scrupulously observed by President Biden. The United States is clearly not a neutral nation in this conflict, but there is still a critical line between being in a shooting war and not. The American people, who oppose putting U.S. troops in Ukraine, understand this basic fact, even if some purported “experts” may not.
This piece was originally published in The Hill on October 7, 2022. Read more HERE.