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The EU and NATO have exhausted nearly the whole of their available options in confronting the terrorist state Russia. {NYT 4 September}
All-out war appears an ever more serious prospect. —
FTA: Russia’s failed drone attack on a German airport was part of a dangerous pattern of escalation that, experts and officials said, risks sparking an open confrontation with NATO — whether the Kremlin wants it or not.
German officials declared this week that the Russian state was behind the attack, in which one explosive drone hit a parked Ukrainian cargo plane and another appeared to collide with a plane taking off. Both drones failed to detonate. If successful, the attack could have killed or maimed people and led to unpredictable consequences, officials said.
It was the most dramatic in a spate of such attacks that includes plots to place incendiary devices aboard DHL cargo planes, blow up railroad tracks in Poland, and burn down warehouses and shopping centers all over Europe.
Such attacks began occurring shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, part of an effort by President Vladimir V. Putin to bring the war to the West. But they have recently increased in frequency and intensity, Western security officials said. The attacks, along with recent reports citing Western intelligence services suggesting Russia could be planning some kind of military incursion or provocation along NATO’s eastern flank, have frazzled Europe and left officials there casting about for solutions.
And how shall the former United States and its people — now under the governance of those who are, inarguably, just a bit more friendly unto the Kremlin than were prior administrations, yet still a NATO member — react if and when a wider European war begins in earnest? —
FTA: Another challenge for NATO is keeping its 32 member countries aligned. After Germany’s announcement this week, a chorus of allies voiced support and solidarity, including the American ambassador to NATO, Matthew G. Whitaker. Notably, though, his statement did not mention Russia by name. By contrast, a statement by Prime Minister Andy Burnham of Britain named Russia three times.
The omission was an example of the failure by the Trump administration to hold the Kremlin accountable. Since taking office last year, Mr. Trump has occasionally dangled the possibility of imposing costs on Mr. Putin’s transgressions, but he has rarely followed through.
Last week at NATO headquarters, Elbridge Colby, a senior Pentagon official, also omitted any mention of Russia while pushing European countries to take the lead in supporting Ukraine, part of an effort to reduce U.S. military presence on the continent. And on Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent blamed Ukraine for high energy prices dragging down the global economy, citing its attacks on Russia’s oil industry. He did not mention that Russia started the war and has relentlessly targeted Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.
It is the threat of a united response, Western officials believe, that keeps the Kremlin in check. And it is that unity that Mr. Putin seems to be testing with each new attack.
For now, Western officials insist that NATO retains its deterrent effect, though the ambivalence of the Trump administration has created uncertainty about whether it will continue to.
Personally, I do not believe Trumpistan shall remain within NATO for very much longer. Trump shall abandon the alliance when push cometh to shove, and hath said or implied as much on many occasions through the years. He was making noise of this during his first reign of terror, when there were more guardrails keeping in his lane than there are now. Alas, I see but little to encourage me that the majority of the American people would be outraged at such a move — the grave betrayal of European allies. Most citizens would be baying about not wishing to shed blood for the ‘Europoors’ — look about oneself, and one shall not have to look too hard: Europhobia is presently all the rage among #MAGA and ‘conservative’ Americans. We heard the incessant whining, whilst Mr Biden yet held office, about the billions in necessary military aid sent for the defence of Ukraine. Some years back it would have been unthinkable, but it is no longer hard to imagine the American public writ large being content to see their country break faith with its international commitments and collectively spit upon the face of all it hath purported to stand for since the Second World War. The likely consequences for such, on the other hand, are unimaginable.
What y’all voted for, #Murica.
🪐💔 #QueSeraSera 𓅨 🕈
