PRESS RELEASE
Pentagon Submits Proposal for Supplying Weapons to Ukraine
Aug. 5, 2017 (EIRNS)—NBC News reported yesterday that the Defense Department has submitted a proposal to the White House for a $50 million arms package for the Kiev regime in Ukraine. The package includes Javelin anti-tank weapons, which strike destroy tanks by hitting them from above where tanks generally have less armor. "It is the right move and I see the fingerprints of Secretary of Defense Mattis all over it," said Adm. James Stavridis (ret.), former commander of NATO.
"This is a very logical and sensible move which will increase deterrence, because it will place doubt in the minds of Russian aggressors in terms of their use of offensive weapons systems."
While the Pentagon is reportedly supportive the proposal, and the Congress would likely be very enthusiastic for it, more sober minds are warning that it’s not such a good idea. The Lexington Institute’s Loren Thompson warned that providing lethal weapons to Ukraine—a country "on Russia’s doorstep"—is not without peril for the U.S. "What would we think if the Russians were arming Mexico?" he asked. "This could potentially spark a wider war."
Columnist Pat Buchanan, in a column posted by Newsmax yesterday, called the proposal "a formula for a renewed war, with far higher casualties in Ukraine than the 10,000 dead already suffered on both sides." And this is a war, he said, that Putin is not likely to allow Kiev to win.
"If Ukraine’s army, bolstered by U.S. weaponry, re-engages in the east, it could face a Moscow-backed counterattack and be routed, and the Russian army could take permanent control of the Donbass,"
he wrote. "Indeed, if Trump approves this State-Defense escalation plan, we could be looking at a rerun of the Russia-Georgia war of August 2008." Buchanan points to Kurt Volker, the State Department envoy for Ukraine who is a longtime associate of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and who has already publicly endorsed the idea of sending lethal weapons to the Kiev regime. Volker, Buchanan writes, believes giving antitank and antiaircraft missiles to Ukraine will bring Putin to the negotiating table, as he fears the prospect of dead Russian soldiers coming home in caskets before his 2018 election. The question is, Buchanan says, does Trump believe this? "What if Putin refuses to back down, and chooses to confront?" he concludes.
