UPDATED: The incoming president told Time he “vehemently disagrees” with firing U.S. missiles into Russia, words that could soothe nuclear tensions between Washington and Moscow, reports Joe Lauria.
Donald Trump (Isac Nóbrega/Wikimedia Commons)
UPDATE: Adds new last paragraph.
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
President-elect Donald Trump accused the Biden administration of “escalating this war” in Ukraine and “making it worse” by allowing U.S. long-range ATACMS missiles to be fired from Ukraine deep into Russia.
“I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday. He said:
“Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake, very big mistake.”
Last Thursday former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter was on a day-long venture in the labyrinth of House office buildings on Capitol Hill to lobby members of Congress and their staffs to prevent the U.S. from attacking Russia with ATACMS.
That alone, Ritter argued, would reduce the threat of a nuclear exchange with Russia, which had warned would be possible if the missile attacks continue.
Among the steps Ritter recommended to Republican Congressmen was to get word to Trump’s transition team to get Trump to make an immediate statement that after he is sworn in he will order a cessation of ATACMS being fired into Russia.
Such a statement from Trump, Ritter argued on Capitol Hill, would lessen tension with Moscow over the ATACMS and possibly avert catastrophe. Trump’s comments to Time was what Ritter had in mind.
Trump said:
‘”I think the most dangerous thing right now is what’s happening, where Zelensky has decided, with the approval of, I assume, the President, to start shooting missiles into Russia. I think that’s a major escalation. I think it’s a foolish decision. But I would imagine people are waiting until I get in before anything happens. I would imagine. I think that would be very smart to do that.”
Ritter entering Congressional office at the Capitol to warn of nuclear war. (Joe Lauria)
Biden’s Inexplicable & Reckless Change in Course
Just two months ago, in September, President Joe Biden had bowed to the realists in the Pentagon to oppose allowing long-range British Storm Shadow missiles from being fired by Ukraine deep into Russia out of fear it would lead to a direct NATO-Russia military confrontation with all that that entails.
Putin warned at the time that because British soldiers on the ground in Ukraine would actually launch the British missiles into Russia with U.S. geostrategic support, it “will mean that NATO countries — the United States and European countries — are at war with Russia. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.”
That was a clear warning that British and U.S. targets could be hit. Biden thus wisely backed off.
It was the second time that Biden had sided with the Pentagon against the neocons in his administration when it came to avoiding direct war with Russia.
The first time was in March 2022 when his neocon Secretary of State Antony Blinken stepped out of line to announce that the U.S. would give NATO-member Poland a “green light” to send Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine to enforce a no-fly zone against Russian aircraft.
[See: The Madness of Antony Blinken]
Members of Congress and the media then piled the pressure on Biden to approve it until cooler heads at the U.S. Defense Department, the greatest purveyor of violence in history, stepped in to stop it.
Biden ultimately sided with the Pentagon, and he couldn’t be more explicit why. He opposed a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine fighting Russian aircraft, he said, because “that’s called World War III, okay? Let’s get it straight here, guys. We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine.”
But then, after his party lost the White House in November, Biden suddenly reversed himself on his sensible positions and is defied the Pentagon to roll the dice that Russia’s warnings are bluffs that won’t lead to nuclear conflict.
While he previously would not even authorize British long-range missile attacks into Russia in September, let alone U.S. ATACMS, he authorized the ATACMS, risking Russia taking direct action against U.S. targets.
It remains to be seen if Trump’s words can reassure the Kremlin.
Of course it was Trump who provided Ukraine with lethal aid. Barack Obama had refused, saying Ukraine was not a vital U.S. interest, as it was for Russia and there was no point in angering Moscow. Obama also worried that U.S. weapons could wind up in the hands of “thugs” — i.e., Azov, neo-nazi types in Ukraine.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette, the London Daily Mail and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange.
Please Support CN’s
Winter Fund Drive!
Make a tax-deductible donation securely by credit card or check by clicking the red button:
National and international politics has become a protection racket with different mob bosses taking (slightly) different approaches to the same con. We can try to push what might be a moderating action by Trump toward Russian fears of US hegemony, and we should, but never can we believe that he is more than a ‘wind sock’ driven by his self-interest and the interest of the oligarchs with whom he associates. Yes, take what we can get, but, as Ritter and others have argued, only an increasing awareness and action from a significant part of the people will ultimately lead to needed international actionable agreements.
Who would have ever thought that using American made weapons, and then providing access to America’s multi billion dollar C4-ISR targeting systems in order to kill Russian citizens living inside of Russia might just be a bad idea?
But that is the Biden Administration in a nutshell, isn’t it?
What kind of Twilight Zone alternate reality are we living in when an obnoxious R President is the voice of reason and peace?!!
If I were on an airliner right now, I’d be checking for gremlins on the wings.
The way I see it, we are currently fighting World War Three, with the American empire against mostly Russia, Iran, and China, but everyone is pretending that it’s a bunch of disconnected proxy wars so it doesn’t go into the full nightmare. But that’s becoming increasingly more difficult to pretend with US and UK forces in Ukraine firing long range missiles into Russia and Ukrainians operating drones in Syria. I wonder if those three countries see it the same way? If so, I’m not sure they’d be so quick to cut deals and abandon each other.
The empire scored a victory in Syria, despite suffering a setback against China in South Korea. Trump showing some sanity about Ukraine is good, but Trump talks a lot and I’ll wait to see what he actually does. I think he’s just acknowledging that the Ukraine front against Russia is mostly lost.
Whether Trump follows through or not his words have probably bought us some time. That is Scott Ritter’s argument.
Don’t anyone hold their breath that Trump will necessarily follow thought on his promises and claims. He will come under immense pressure from every direction to continue the aggressive policies of the last few decades.
He doesn’t have a good track record of resisting those pressures.
“No Sir !” I will not follow orders from Mr Biden. US citizens rejected him. US citizens chose Mr Trump. I will follow orders from Mr Trump. If there are no orders from Mr Trump I will wait for orders. “No Sir !” I will not follow orders from Mr Biden. I will not fire on Russia against the will of US citizens.
There are war mongers in both main parties, and plenty of people who profess to want peace are too gullible to the lies spewed by the mainstream media, which is owned by death dealers. And others have been otherwise bribed, blackmailed or compromised. Tom Cottonmouth, Linseed Graham-Cracker, and Brian Mast-Murderer are not exactly people pleasers. And how Miriam Addledson can actually sleep at night knowing that her “hero”- IDF sniper bullets to the hearts of innocent Palestinian babies continues with wild abandon, should show that all the expensive hair cuts and clothing can’t camouflage the darkness of a soul which has long ago sacrificed it’s integrity and turned wrong into right.
Everyone wants and loves a hero, and most people want peace and survival for themselves and others. Sometimes the heroism comes not from those at the top or in powerful positions, but from people like Scott and Joe, the real heroes the death dealers are truly terrified of.
So b/c Trump will be under huge pressure from Bibi to go to war with Iran, his recent rhetorical make-nice with Russia should then be condemned? Or at the very least be taken with a grain of salt and thus we should oppose it? YCMTSU.
I doubt many of us feel secure waiting to see what Trump actually does. On the other hand, it would be hard to go past the mistakes introduced by “the collective Biden,” whosoever constitutes that in December of 2024.
And it is unlikely that Trump has extensive family and business interests inside of Ukraine, as Biden and probably also the “collective Biden” do.
The quartering of Syria and Israeli bellicosity generally provide enough to worry about, and here Trump looks like an eager participant. But we are all surely safer rid of any administration that carries on lobbing missiles into Russia. Fools!
thank you Joe Lauria, thank you….may the miracle of peace happen asap in Ukraine/Russia proxy U.S. war
It won’t do much good trying to even things out with Russia if in exchange for one peace Trump will ask Russia to step aside so he can help Israel take out Iran. It won’t have saved any conflict, it will have just moved it sideways and Putin will have to say no to it. Iran is an ally and he’s not going to betray it. He’s not the USA.
Mr Trump is the only POTUS in my lifetime to say that war is undesirable. He is the only POTUS to put forward an election policy intended to end a war. Mr Trump is the only POTUS to follow Churchill’s claim that “jaw, jaw is better than war, war”.
After all the lies and BS, the desperate and gullible WANT to believe because the facts are so disturbing and negative. Politicians SAY shit, and make empty promises. How can people still be so gullible and naive? Oh well, a sucker born every minute.
The DT crowd is just as pathetic as the hope and change, Joyful Genocide crowd. Has anyone noticed that our POTUS candidates get more and more freakish as time goes by? The ancient Greeks had a word for this “kakistocracy”. The desperate, gullible masses continue to be conned by politicians, oligarchs, and the mass media.
I just looked in my shorter Greek lexicon, and it does not contain “kakistokratia”. The word’s meaning would be clear to any speaker of Greek, but that word seems not to have existed in Ancient Greek.
Not for nothin’, Joe Lauria; but, Biden’s-Harris’ WH, Treasury, M.I.C., Congress’ “Democracy” is f/indefensible!!!
IMO, *“Everybody, knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody, rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody, knows the war is [NOT] over. Everybody, knows the [Big Guy] lost. Everybody, knows the [DNC’s “primary”] was fixed. The poor stay poor. The rich get rich. That’s how it goes. Everybody, knows. Everybody, knows the boat is leaking. Everybody, knows the captain lied.”
[NOT] “everybody’s got this sinking feeling, like their father or their dog just died. Everybody, knows the old” [miserably aged, dementia addled, truth challenged, grounded, American Eagle is still poke’n & provoke’n the Russian Bear; AND], “everybody, knows” [Russia did not go into Ukraine to play the USG’s & NATO’s war games. Russia went into Ukraine to change it!]. Outta the gate, to date, 12.13.24, Russia rocks the Queen. Ukraine is the Pawn. Et tu, USG/NATO?
*“And, if you listen, you will hear, a new sound coming in; as an old one disappears,” i.e., “the domination of one nation over another adversely affecting the economics & social structures,” trumped by the U.S.’ POTUS, #47. “It remains to be seen, if,” D.J. Trump can make peace NOT war! “Everybody, knows,” *‘life is forwards & backwards.’
Onward & Upwards!!! TY, Joe Lauria, CN, et al.
*Leaonard Cohen. *World Party. *Ghanaian proverb.
And WHAT??? will Trump say tomorrow??? Lot of hot air…
Thank You Joe
Yes, the US should never had supported the Ukrainian Nazis war of aggression in the Russian oblasts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Donetsk, Crimea that started in 2022. We can hope as with Chechnya and Dagestan will liberate Ukraine in the coming decades. We must remember that the condemnations of Putin’s Special Military Operation by the United Nations, International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders / Medecines Sans Frontieres, Physicians for Human Rights are totally and completely unjustified and almost if not criminal.
Agree with you near 100%. However, this debacle (war) started in 2014, not 2022. Our State Department and CIA , at a cost of $5 billion dollars, overthrew the Democratically elected President of Ukraine in 2014, and Ukraine has not been sovereign since then. Even Jens Stoltenberg once blurted out that the war began in 2014.
Thanks to Scott Ritter for working the halls. I think Putin will limit himself to surreptitious attacks on Western Europe and forego tactical nukes until sanity returns in January. Biden further degrades his pitiful legacy. Leads with border opening, adds Afghan debacle, induces inflation, blows his debate, closes with risking nuclear war. Go Joe!…(away) I voted for anti-war Green Party, and never believed Trump would be an upgrade to anyone.
It’s looking like there could be potential for a lowering of rhetoric against Russia during Trump’s term, of course this is a good sign, but we have to wait and see how it plays out. Trump’s inclination for some sort of detente with Russia is a nice start, but let’s remember he waged harsh economic sanctions against Moscow during his first admin.
The real trouble is in Miriam’s bought and paid for Cabinet. With the Zionist Power Configuration’s errand boys in place you can rest assured there will be some sort of dangerous escalation against sovereign Iran. It’s this awful possibility that we must pay very close attention to. An attack on Iran could bring Russia into the fighting rather quickly regardless of Trump’s feel good overtures.
An Israeli instigated war on Iran would be dreadful all around, obviously. A Washington-Zio attack on the Persian state would be absolutely devasting to the common Iranian people and to a much lesser extent working people across the globe with a world economy in desperate straits due to skyrocketing energy prices.
The potential aggression against Iran must be stopped dead in its tracks!
Trump didn’t have much choice but to pile the sanctions on Russia in his first term. He was already being painted by Russiagate as a Manchuria Candidate under Putin’s thrall. When he tried to do the bare minimum of diplomacy by meeting and having a conversation with Putin, the press and the Democrats screamed bloody murder and accused him of treason. Russiagate pretty much tied his hands on all things Russia during his first term … which was the whole point of the dirtiest (and most successful) political dirty trick of the past century.
As far as Iran goes, I think you are right. Trump’s price for getting Russia out of their Ukrainian quagmire is probably going to be a promise from Putin to not interfere with the Iranian regime change attempt that will likely be coming in the next few years. Putin doesn’t really give a crap about Iran (or Syria or North Korea). They are useful pawns for him. If Trump can help Putin recover his rook or bishop by getting him a favorable peace deal with Ukraine, he’ll gladly sacrifice a pawn (though after the fall of Assad, he’s running low on pawns).
It’s not just Biden, this is the outcome and policy of a Democratic administration with the full support and madness of the Democratic Party. They are stoking war with Russia; a war with no winners but definitely with America as the big loser. All for pure ego and lust for power. They are like lemmings in a fever going over the cliff. And they can’t stop. It’s truly madness.
Trump may not portend much better but in this one fucking thing he may ironically be the factor that saves all our lives. One thing for sure is that the Democratic Party will not.
I agree with everything you say. Whether you like Trump or not is irrelevant. He may be the only hope we have to avoid WWIII – nuclear.
Please. As if the Rs are not in lockstep. War Inc. is a bipartisan affair, that should be clear by now. We can expect more bellicose provocations against Iran and China with a superficial deescalation with Russia. Either way, no substantive change in foreign policy, just like last time and the time before…
No amount of blah blah BS, excuses, or wishful thinking will change that.
Both Parties are war Parties that support the Zionist colonial State and eventual war with China, Russia, and Iran. Both Parties support murderous chaos in the Middle East to further the US’ suicidal dream of being the world hegemon. This is easily discerned. Trump is an ignorant fool and a weak, easily flattered narcissist. He’s surrounded himself with rabid Zionists and other assorted freaks. (Like Genocide Joe did, only Trump’s people are a bit stupider, a bit crazier.) Do you really imagine there’s any difference between the Parties? Or that Trump, despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, is anti-war, or in the least bit capable of stopping the terrible momentum that is building to global catastrophe?
That’s what happens when you let neocon rats infiltrate your party. They bailed on the democrats in the 1960s when the hippes made them insufficiently bloodthirsty, and they bailed on the republicans in 2016 when Trump was insufficiently bloodthirsty. Now they are back on the democrat side and spreading their warmongering poison to a new host (allied with the neoliberal wing of the party). It took republicans nearly a half-a-century to realize what vile ghouls they are give them the boot, hopefully democrats will figure out their game a little quicker and send them into obscurity sooner rather than later.
I think Biden wants to go out with a “BANG” (literally) and take all of us with him!
Mildly encouraging words there from Trump but it does not amount to a commitment to end the practice.
Worth bearing in mind that horrible warmonger Keir Starmer urged Biden to do this escalation.
Also worth bearing in mind that in the recent past the Pentagon stated that the Ukraine could hit such targets with its own weapons.
I disagree very vehemently with sending missiles hundreds of miles into Russia,” Trump told Time magazine in an interview published on Thursday. He said:
“Why are we doing that? We’re just escalating this war and making it worse. That should not have been allowed to be done. Now they’re doing not only missiles, but they’re doing other types of weapons. And I think that’s a very big mistake, very big mistake.”
Sounds more than “ mild” encouraging words to me if I were Vladimir Putin. Considering the fact that Putin’s response to these provocations has been only more of the same ,targeting military and energy infrastructure and a sneak preview of a weapon that isn’t even nuclear.
Trump does a lot of talking, and a lot of bragging, and a lot of lying, just like Genocide Joe. Let’s wait and see what happens, but there’s no reason to be optimistic, if you give even cursory study to his first go-round as President.
Fortunately, the odds of Starmer having any influence in the Trump White House are pretty much nil after the labour party sent consultants/staffers across the pond to campaign for Kamala.
What a gigantic unforced error on their part, poisoning the well of the transatlantic relationship from day one. And for nothing. It’s not like the labour party needed to curry favor with the democrats. That relationship is already as sound as a pound. Sending campaign volunteers over was all downside (if Trump won) and no upside (they were already on friendly terms with democrats). Well, they got the downside. I hope Starmer enjoys the next four years of Trump giving him wet willies, purple nurples, and wedgies.