Let’s up the Ante: US Considers Sending Weapons to Ukraine

First it was stern warnings. Then it was sanctions, which soon escalated into financial support and military training. And let’s not forgot our efforts to kill oil prices and engage in currency wars. It seems the West is doing everything in its power to undermine Russia, and are using the conflict in Ukraine as an excuse to throw everything but the kitchen sink at them.

Unfortunately for those of us who just want to live in a peaceful world, the kitchen sink is no longer off limits. Over the past few weeks, several US officials have been rather candid with their desire to help their proxy regime in Eastern Europe, by sending weapons to the Ukrainian military.

According to the New York Times, General Philip Breedlove, Nato’s military commander, supports providing arms and equipment to Ukraine’s hard-pressed forces, which are struggling to quell an uprising led by Russian-backed separatists.

Other senior officials including John Kerry, the US secretary of state, are also said to be open shifting American policy and beginning to send weapons to Kiev.

So far there hasn’t been any official statement, and it doesn’t appear that the Obama administration is interested in arming Kiev, at least not publicly. Anyone who is paying attention knows that our government has already committed clandestine soldiers to the region. They continue to play innocent to the American public, but we know better. We know they want war, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that certain factions within our government are more than willing to go toe to toe with the Russians.

A spokeswoman for the State Department did not deny that the US was considering sending weapons but said no decision had been made.

“I don’t think anybody wants to get into a proxy war with Russia and that is not our objective here. Our objective is to change the behaviour of Russia,” she said.

A group of well-respected former US officials and academics released a new report on Monday arguing that the ongoing fighting in Ukraine shows the need for Washington to begin arming Kiev’s forces.

“The West needs to bolster deterrence in Ukraine by raising the risks and costs to Russia of any renewed major offensive,” the report says.

Its authors include James Stavridis, Gen Breedlove’s predecessor as Nato’s military commander, and Michele Flournoy, a former Pentagon official who would be in the running to become US defence secretary if Hillary Clinton wins the next election.

The report calls for America to give the Ukrainians anti-tank weapons for use against Russian armoured vehicles. Most of Kiev’s anti-tank stockpile is left over from the Soviet era and around 70 per cent of the weapons are reportedly unusable.

So they want to “change the behavior of Russia” and “raise the risks” of any major offensive. I’m beginning to wonder if they understand the forces they’re dealing with. The Nazi’s thought they could change Russia, and look where that got them. I’m sure the forests and fields of Eastern Europe are still littered with millions of German bones that can attest to what happens when you try to change Russia with brute force. I’d wager that there are twice as many Russian bones that would concur.

It would be one thing if there were something at stake, but there isn’t. We don’t have anything to lose or gain by letting the Russians take parts of Ukraine, or all of Ukraine for that matter. It’s not our fight. The ethics of the conflict are not our concern.

This is just Washington trying to flex its flabby muscles to the world, in a vain attempt to maintain its station as the world’s policeman. But no one’s buying it, especially not the Russians. And if they’re not going to shy away from Washington’s advances, then war is all but inevitable.

They’re playing dangerous game that will benefit no one but themselves, and only if they win. But whether they win or lose, the financial and physical costs of this war is going to be paid by the American people. As per usual, the elites get to run their nations into the ground in relative safety, as they push us around like pawns on a chessboard.