Pusillanimity Leads to War
Paul Craig Roberts
“The reputation of one’s arms in war is everything, and equivalent to real forces.” — Napoleon
Russian President Putin’s neglect of Napoleon’s 14 words explains why Gideon Rachman has endorsed the conclusion by me and Gilbert Doctorow that “no one takes Putin’s nuclear threats seriously any more.”
Years ago I made the point that Putin’s nonresponse to Washington’s overthrow of the Russian-friendly Ukrainian government and installation of an anti-Russian puppet, Putin’s refusal to accept the Donbas vote to be reincorporated into Russia like Crimea, Putin’s nonchalance for 8 years while Washington built an Ukrainian army, Putin’s naiveté in trusting the Minsk Agreement, and once Putin was forced unprepared into conflict, Putin’s refusal to fight to win or even raise sufficient forces indicated a leader who was war averse at all costs.
Having placed myself outside the approved narrative, I was subjected to abusive language by ignorant and indoctrinated “experts” who are too stupid to bother to hold to account.
As time passed Gilbert Doctorow also saw that Putin’s pusillanimous non-response to violations of his own red lines was destroying Russian deterrence, and Doctorow joined my camp, a lonely one. And now Doctorow notes that the Financial Times main opinion editor has entered our camp with his declaration: “Putin’s nuclear threats no longer work.” https://gilbertdoctorow.substack.com/p/financial-times-journalist-gideon?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1203055&post_id=219095552&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=dx5km&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Over the years of Russia’s conflict with the West, sometimes acknowledged by Putin, sometimes not, Putin has rolled out a growing assortment of new nuclear weapons of extraordinary destruction power and that cannot be intercepted. Each time Putin’s purpose was to warn, to check, to curtail the West’s aggression toward Russia increasingly expressed with ever more Western weapons “that would never be sent” sent to Ukraine. But as Putin took no military steps to bring the conflict with Ukraine to a military victory, belief that Putin would use such weapons evaporated. The question actually arose in my mind and perhaps in Doctorow’s whether Washington’s best weapon against Russia was Putin’s pusillanimity.
Now thanks to Israel’s possession of America’s president and Republican Party as the champions of the Zionist agenda of Greater Israel, the US finds itself also in conflict with Iran. Compared to Russia as a military power, Iran is a midget. But Iran stood up and fought and kicked Washington’s teeth down Washington’s throat and drove Washington out of the Persian Gulf. Compared to Iranian toughness, Putin looks like a pushover.
Consequently, more countries have joined NATO. More NATO members are willing to have US nuclear missiles on their territory on Russia’s border. Europe is, according to reports, preparing for war with Russia and also for an attack on Kaliningrad. Thus are the fruits of pusillanimity. Putin is not preventing a wider war. He is causing one.
It is the US that is attacking Russia. Ukraine is the US proxy. Putin has accepted the deception.
It is Israel that is at war with Iran. America is Israel’s proxy. Americans have accepted the role of fighting wars of conquest for Israel. Iran is fighting its enemy’s proxy, not its enemy.
The difference is that while Iran ignores its real enemy–Israel–Iran at least fights back against its enemy’s proxy. Putin not only ignores Russia’s real enemy, Putin has consented to an ever-widening war while half-heartedly fighting its enemy’s proxy for 4.5 years, longer than WW II, thus destroying the West’s belief in Russian military capability. It is this kind of stupidity that brings nuclear war.