NATO Fighting Putin, Now or Later: General Sir Chris Deverell (How about Peace Instead?) By James Reed
Military hawks in the West seem eager to fight Putin, because as they see it, war is inevitable. Thus, former senior British military chief General Sir Chris Deverell has said that imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine could be necessary as the West faces the choice of fighting Putin either now or later. Yes, fine, but say … what if the West loses? Ooops, didn’t think of that.
“Imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine could be necessary as the West faces the choice of fighting President Putin either now or later, a former senior British military chief has told The Times.
General Sir Chris Deverell, who until his retirement from the army in 2019 was in charge of military intelligence, cyber and special forces as commander of the Joint Forces Command, suggested he had shifted his thinking on whether NATO should close the skies over Ukraine, saying Putin was determined to extend the conflict anyway.
He said: “I have been against the imposition of a no-fly zone by NATO in Ukraine, believing that it would surely escalate the conflict. But Putin seems hell-bent on escalation. So the question is becoming: does Nato fight him now or fight him later?”
He said a no-fly zone could only be imposed if the West was willing to back it up with ground troops, if necessary. In comments on Twitter, Deverell said Putin would probably respond with nuclear threats but the logic has to be that his threats are “meaningless”.
“Whatever he can do to us, we can do to him,” he said.
Russia has been accused of an intense bombardment of Ukrainian cities and indiscriminately targeting civilians from the air – something the Ukrainian government has said could be stopped if the West imposed a no-fly zone.
NATO has ruled that out, however, warning it would lead to direct confrontation with Russia, as the West would have to be prepared to enforce it by shooting Russian planes out of the sky.
Yet some British ministers also believe Putin is determined to take the whole of Ukraine, and could then push into other territory, such as the Baltic States, which would spark confrontation with the West regardless.”
Adm. Charles Richard, head of the U.S. Strategic Command also sees dark times ahead, with the US facing two hostile nuclear powers.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-faces-nuclear-threats-china-russia-never-us-admiral
“Adm. Charles Richard, head of the U.S. Strategic Command, said it has become imperative for the United States to have the capability to defend against Russia and China at the same time.
“Today, we face two nuclear-capable near-peers who have the capability to unilaterally escalate a conflict to any level of violence in any domain worldwide, with any instrument of national power, and that is historically significant,” Richard told the House Armed Services Committee on March 1.
He pointed out that while the need to deter both China and Russia at the same time was only at the level of major concern in April last year, the concern “has now become a reality.”
“That need is now an imperative.”
In April 2021, he told lawmakers at another congressional hearing (pdf) that the United States for the first time in history was “on a trajectory to face two nuclear-capable, strategic peer adversaries at the same time.”
Months later, he said the United States was “witnessing a strategic breakout by China,” adding that the Chinese regime’s “explosive growth and modernization of its nuclear and conventional forces” was “breathtaking.”
“Last fall, I formally reported to the secretary of defense, the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] strategic breakout,” Richard said. “Their expansion and modernization in 2021 alone is breathtaking.”
China and Russia pose a threat to the United States now more than ever, as the two neighboring countries currently boast a “no-limits” partnership, according to a statement released following a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Feb. 4.
Last summer, China reportedly tested nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles, prompting Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley to say the tests were very close to a “Sputnik moment.” Additionally, there were reports that China was building hundreds of new nuclear silos.
In November 2021, the Pentagon warned that China might have as many as 1,000 deliverable nuclear missiles by 2030.
So far, China hasn’t slowed down in its pursuit of hypersonic weapons, according to Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of the U.S. Northern Command.
“They’re aggressively pursuing hypersonic capability, tenfold to what we have done as far as testing within the last year or so, significantly outpacing us with their capabilities,” he said at the hearing.
As for the current U.S. defensive posture, Richard said he felt quite confident.
“I am satisfied with the posture of my forces. I have made no recommendations to make any changes,” he said. “The nation’s nuclear command and control is in its most defended, most resilient lineup that it’s ever been in its history.”
However, Richard told lawmakers that it’s important to keep monitoring China’s development.
“We don’t know the endpoint of where China is going in terms of the capabilities it’s developing and the capacities that it’s developing,” he said.
“While I’m very confident we’re going to wind up with a very good strategy, I think it will need to be a question that we continue to ask ourselves as we see where China goes, as we see where others go. What are the overall capability and capacity that the United States requires in order to execute that strategy against a changing threat.
“We’re going to have to ask that question much more frequently than we have in the past.”
It would have been rational for the West not to have built China up in the first place, but free trade was irresistible for its paradigm, which inevitably leads to collapse. Is it in the genes of whites or what that produces this self-destruction?
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