The White House said Monday that the US sees “no reasons” to change its nuclear alert levels after Russian President Vladimir Putin placed Russia’s nuclear forces on a “special” alert.
According to Interfax, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that its nuclear missile forces in its Northern and Pacific fleets have been placed on “enhanced combat duty” in response to Putin’s order.
“We are assessing President Putin’s directive and at this time, we see no reasons to change our own alert levels,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
Later in the day, President Biden was asked if Americans should worry about nuclear war, to which he simply replied, “no.”
Psaki claimed that the US and NATO had no “appetite or desire” for a conflict with Russia even as the Western powers are pledging to funnel more weapons into Ukraine and have imposed a series of harsh sanctions on Russia.
Putin has made clear that a key demand for a ceasefire in Ukraine is for Kyiv to declare its neutrality, but the increased US and NATO support makes that less likely to happen.
Look at my post over in the “Putin Nuclear Forces” thread (IIRC, I’m losing track of where I’m posting stuff.)
The concern is the call for Article 4 of the NATO Charter – not Article 5, which doesn’t apply (although as I mentioned elsewhere, Poland’s hosting Ukrainian jets is an attempt to get Russia to hit Poland, thus triggering Article 5).
It would seem the US is pursuing the same course of action it did with regard to the Serbia conflict. Invoke Article 4 (this time using the eastern European NATO members to do that), then go to the UNSC, wait for the predictable Russian veto, call for a General Assembly meeting to get a “consensus” that “something must be done” for “humanitarian” reasons, then go it alone.
This is a real risk. Scott Ritter just today on Consortium News made the exact same argument:
Putin’s Nuclear Threat
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/27/putins-nuclear-threat/
was his invasion measured, sane, and responsible?
Troll. Again.
If I’m a Russian military and political strategist, Joe Biden’s State of the Disunion speech before Amerika tonight offers special advantages to order simultaneous maneuvers where required.
Are the US/NATO playing Russian Roulette?
Appropriate.
Why is it that President Joe’s simple “No”, does not ease my concerns?….
It should… Because US, EU and and NATO have come to realize that they cannot counter Russia on a sustainable basis… And they believe sanctioning Russia is sufficient to bring the country down similar to a defeated country after being hit by a nuclear bomb…!
“Psaki claimed that the US and NATO had no “appetite or desire” for a conflict with Russia even as the Western powers are pledging to funnel more weapons into Ukraine and have imposed a series of harsh sanctions on Russia.”
Is she that dense? I was in a bar one time and I had no “appetite or desire” to fight this guy so I walked up to him and threw a beer in his face and kicked him in the balls. I was shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you when that had the opposite effect. (made up story)
so you’re saying NATO and the Ukraine attacked first? They militarily attacked Russia, and Russia is just defending itself from the Urkanian/NATO military assault?
Troll.
I was mocking Psaki. She doesn’t want a fight but she’s ok with doing things to keep it going. Stop trying to read shit into what I say. I don’t believe in humans dropping bombs on other humans. But NATO did war games all last summer and “7 minutes to Moscow” would get my attention too. Russia has been provoked since the end of the Cold War. War wasn’t the answer.