Is War Between The U.S. And Russia Possible?

Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation: Is War With Russia Possible?

The US is undermining opportunities for cooperation in Syria and Ukraine, while escalating NATO’s military presence near Russia.

Nation contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen and John Batchelor continue their weekly discussions—after a two-week “sabbatical”—about the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments are at TheNation.com.) Cohen laments that during the past two weeks the Obama administration appears to have been undermining cooperation with Moscow on three Cold War fronts.

Refusing to accept President Putin’s compelling argument that the Syrian army and its allies are the only “boots on the ground” fighting the Islamic State effectively, currently around the pivotal city of Aleppo, Washington and its compliant media are condemning the Syrian-Russian military campaign against “moderate” anti-Assad fighters in the area, many of them also jihadists. At risk are the Geneva peace negotiations brokered by Secretary of State Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. Regarding the confrontation over Ukraine, where Kiev’s political and economic crisis grows ever worse, the best hope for ending that civil and proxy war, the Minsk Accords, was virtually sabotaged at the UN, where US Ambassador Samantha Power claimed the accords require Russia returning Crimea to Ukraine. (In fact, Crimea is not mentioned in the Minsk agreement.) And in Europe, where opinion mounts favoring an end to the economic sanctions against Russia—as evidenced by the Dutch referendum against admitting Ukraine to the European Union and the French Parliament’s vote in favor of ending the sanctions—the Obama administration (not only Ambassador Power but President Obama himself) is lobbying hard against such a step when the issue comes up for a vote this summer.

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WNU editor: If you have 40 minutes, I recommend listening to the interview. As to what is my take .... this Nation post is correct when it says that there is a faction in the Kremlin and in the national security/defense establishment that firmly believes in the idea that the West wants a "hot-war" against Russia, and that Putin has not prepared Russia for such a possibility. But is war possible .... for the moment I do not see it happening .... not even close. But I do see an arms race, and I do believe that Putin is being pressured by his hard-line critics to spend the money necessary to send the message that they cannot and will not be "pushed around". As for what does the Russian public think .... on this one issue alone Putin enjoys a 90% approval rate.