Cruise Missiles for the Ukraine; What Could Possibly Go Wrong Here? By Richard Miller (London)

The UK has delivered long-range cruise missiles to the Ukraine. Supposedly the missiles do not have the range to strike Moscow, but are still capable of striking deep within Russia, hitting strategic locations. The UK government “has received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles will be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory.” Of course, they know that President Zelensky, the man who dances so well in heels, will do the right thing here and keep his word; would he lie to you? That is the faith of the Western liberal progressive regime. But, too bad if some Ukrainian military operative did not get the memo, and blasts away anyway. One must ask: how long will the Russian bear continue to put up with being prodded with a red-hot poker?

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/do-they-actually-want-world-war-3

“We are getting dangerously close to the “hot phase” of World War III, but most people in the western world don’t even realize what is going on.  They simply trust our leaders when they tell us that we will never have to be directly involved in a conflict with Russia, but meanwhile those same leaders continue to push us ever closer to such a scenario.  Earlier today, we learned that the UK has now delivered long-range “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine…

The United Kingdom has delivered multiple “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine, giving the nation a new long-range strike capability in advance of a highly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces, multiple senior Western officials told CNN.

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, calling the donation Ukraine’s “best chance to defend themselves against Russia’s continued brutality,” confirmed the transaction on Thursday after CNN exclusively reported the deal.

These missiles do not have enough range to get to Moscow, but they do have the potential to hit strategic targets very deep inside Russian territory.

According to CNN, the UK government “has received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles will be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory”…

The Storm Shadow is a long-range cruise missile with stealth capabilities, jointly developed by the UK and France, which is typically launched from the air. With a firing range in excess of 250km, or 155 miles, it is just short of the 185-mile range capability of the US-made surface-to-surface Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, that Ukraine has long asked for.

Critically, the Storm Shadow has the range to strike deep into Russian-held territory in Eastern Ukraine. A Western official told CNN that the UK has received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles will be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory and not inside Russia. UK officials have made frequent public statements identifying Crimea as Ukrainian sovereign territory, describing it as “illegally annexed.”

Of course the Ukrainians consider Crimea to be their “sovereign territory”, and the Russians also consider Crimea to be their “sovereign territory”.

And many experts are already anticipating that the Ukrainians will use these new missiles to strike Russia’s Black Sea fleet which is stationed in Crimea.  Here is just one example…

Ben Hodges, a former U.S. Army Europe Commanding General, tweeted: “Well done UK!”

He added: “This will give Ukraine capability to make Crimea untenable for Russian forces,” and would force a Russian rethink of where to position its Black Sea fleet.

If the Ukrainians start raining down cruise missiles on the naval base in Sevastopol, that might be enough to provoke Russia into using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukrainian targets.

And if the Russians start using their tactical nukes, the Biden administration has already strongly hinted that we are likely to use ours against Russian military assets.

Once we get to that stage, there will be no turning back.

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For now, the Ukrainians continue to insist that they are on the verge of launching a very powerful “counteroffensive” which will turn the tide of the war…

Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Thursday by the BBC that it would be “unacceptable” to launch the assault now because too many lives would be lost.

“With (what we have) we can go forward and be successful,” Zelenskyy said in the interview, according to the BBC. “But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable.”

Has the Ukrainian government been able to scrape together enough foreign mercenaries to make a new “counteroffensive” possible?

I am skeptical, but the weeks ahead will show us whether they are bluffing or not.

Meanwhile, it appears that we could be on the verge of witnessing a major conflict erupt in the Middle East.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Islamic Jihad has fired more than 800 rockets into Israel, and the Israeli military has conducted more than 190 airstrikes in Gaza in response…

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad had fired 803 rockets into Israel between Wednesday morning and 8 p.m. on Thursday evening, and the IDF had undertaken 191 airstrikes in Gaza in the same timeframe.

The IDF killed Islamic Jihad rocket commander Ali Ghali around 1:00 a.m. early Thursday, and his deputy, Ahmed Abu Daka, around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.

This is a huge test for the Netanyahu government.

If the IDF response to these attacks is deemed too weak, Netanyahu will lose a lot of public support.

But if the IDF response is too strong, a major regional war could potentially be sparked.

At this moment, the Israelis are promising that “the campaign will continue as long as necessary”…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant stated that “the campaign will continue as long as necessary,” after a sitatuation assessment following the rocket strike on Rehovot that killed one man and wounded 10 people.

They further instructed the security forces to “continue to exact a heavy price from the Islamic Jihad for its aggression against the citizens of Israel,” the Prime Minister’s office announced.

Let us hope that a ceasefire can be brokered quickly.

Because if the Israelis send troops into Gaza, everything will change.

Before I end this article, there is one more thing that I wanted to mention.

As we draw closer to a war with China, some leaders in Washington are suggesting that we should actually blow up the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company after an invasion happens in order to keep it from falling into Chinese hands…

Taiwan’s defense minister in statements early this week pushed back against the idea of the US bombing the island’s semiconductor factories in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) recently said the US should “make it very clear to the Chinese that if you invade Taiwan, we’re going to blow up TSMC,” referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which produces the majority of the world’s advanced semiconductors.

When asked about Moutlon’s comments, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said the military wouldn’t let that happen.

This just shows how dramatically our relationship with China has deteriorated.

At one time, it would have been unthinkable for a member of Congress to say such a thing.

But now many of our politicians are openly acknowledging that war with China is coming sooner or later.

So let me try to summarize what we are facing.

We are already involved in a proxy war with Russia which could soon turn into a shooting war, a major regional conflict in the Middle East could erupt at any moment, and our politicians are publicly talking about a coming war with China.

Yeah, I think that we are definitely in a time of “wars and rumors of wars”, but most of us in the western world are still completely and utterly clueless.

Most people that live in the western world still believe that our leaders are competent and that they have everything under control.

Unfortunately, by the time they realize the truth it will be far too late to reverse course.”