Source: Unz.com
It was obvious from the beginning that the Kremlin’s “limited military operation” would result in an ever-widening war leading to a nuclear confrontation, and there is no doubt that the conflict has continued to widen.
The latest development brings us closer to the use of nuclear weapons. The F-16s, which Biden said would never be given to Ukraine, have now been given, as I said would happen. Moreover, they are being given in a recklessly gratuitous form. The first shipment of F-16s are aircraft that have modifications that allow them to be armed with nuclear weapons.
To understand how reckless this is, the Kremlin has no alternative to considering that the aircraft might be used to deliver tactical nuclear weapons on Russian troop concentrations. To ignore this possibility would be to risk disaster.
As I said would happen, this latest provocation is a substantial war-widener. The Kremlin is now considering attacks on the European air bases from which the F-16s will be operating. In other words, Putin is now being deprived of the pretense that the conflict is limited.
Gilbert Doctorow sees the situation as I do and regrets “our dismal progression on the way to Armageddon.” https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2023/06/19/tactical-nuclear-weapons-latest-news-from-russia/
I have been unable to come up with any intelligent reason for Putin to permit a war that should have ended quickly before the West could become involved to drag on for 16 months with no end in sight. It seems that Putin expects the West to come to its senses before it is too late. If so, it shows the success of American propaganda over the decades so that even today despite all the evidence Putin thinks that somewhere in the West there is a basic goodness that will assert itself in the West before the fatal step is taken….