Vladimir Putin on Thursday came as close to threatening war with the United States and Europe as he has ever done. Before dismissing his warnings as more bluster, Washington needs to seriously consider its next moves. Foolishly pushing ahead with plans to remove restrictions on Ukraine to use Western long-range missiles anywhere in Russia could undo 75 years of NATO keeping us out of war.
In July, Washington feted heads of state of all NATO members in celebrating the 75th anniversary of the alliance. President Joe Biden told the assembled group that the alliance “held high the torch of liberty during long decades of the Cold War.” Today, we may be on the verge of squandering that hard-earned liberty, potentially plunging NATO into a destructive, wholly unnecessary war with Russia.
In February 2022, Russian forces violated the Ukrainian border, flooding tens of thousands of armored combat troops into much of northern and eastern Ukraine. In response, NATO countries immediately began to support Kyiv’s troops with weapons and ammunition. There was some early trepidation that the weapons supplied had to be limited so as to mitigate the risk of the war’s escalation to a general fight between NATO and Russia.
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