War With Russia?

No War With Russia? Don't Be So Sure -- Paul J. Saunders, National Interest

Though Moscow now appears willing to talk about Ukraine, it is far from clear that Russia’s terms will be acceptable to the United States—or, more important, to Kiev. Meanwhile, according to NATO’s commanding General Philip Breedlove, Russia’s troops could seize southern and eastern Ukraine within three to five days. With such high stakes, it’s time to reexamine some of our fundamental assumptions about war.

Nineteenth-century American humorist Josh Billings—a contemporary and rival of Mark Twain—is credited as the originator of the often-cited warning that “it ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Unfortunately, after two decades of sole-superpowerdom, our president, politicians and pundits seem to know a great deal that ain’t so about wars. Thus as Washington debates its response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, all sides agree on only one thing: America will not go to war with Russia. Unfortunately, their certainty may rest upon a series of dangerously false assumptions.

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My Comment: I always tell my American friends that they do not have the monopoly on when to start and/or end a war .... sometimes .... quoting Leon Trotsky .... “you may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” The Americans may not be interested in starting a war with Russia .... but what happens if Russia wants to start a war? Fortunately .... I do not believe that anyone in the Kremlin wants that ... including Putin ... but wars and conflicts sometimes happen because of an uncontrollable sequence of events .... and who is to say that Ukraine is not one of them.