Approaching Nuclear Thresholds:
Scott Ritter on the Ukraine Crisis
Steven Starr / Special to EAW
(October 5, 2022) — In his latest interview (link below), Scott Ritter makes some important points. Most importantly, he states that Russia will not use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, as Ukraine does not pose an existential threat to Russia.
However, if NATO intervenes on the behalf of Ukraine, it will be fighting Russia for what now is legally defined by Russia as Russian territory. In that case, NATO would pose an existential threat to Russia and Russia would use nuclear weapons in order to ensure a Russian victory (if necessary, if Russian conventional forces were being defeated).
In my opinion, under current circumstances, ANY use of a nuclear weapon would almost certainly be a false flag event created by neocons who want to justify NATO intervention. Such a false flag may be used to fool the public in the West, but it will not fool Russia. And once the nuclear “threshold” is crossed in a US/NATO-Russian conflict, there is little chance that it would not escalate into a full-scale nuclear war.
My main concern is that the neocons in Washington have convinced themselves that “Russia will back down” if NATO forces enter directly into the conflict. The utter fool, General Patraeus, stated that if Russia used a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, NATO would “take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and also in Crimea and every ship in the Black Sea.” Like that wouldn’t result in a nuclear war!
Ritter says he loses sleep because there are people on both sides who are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons.
It is important to note that many mercenaries hired by NATO, as well as NATO troops (out of uniform), are already fighting in Ukraine, and that the US/NATO is directing Ukrainian forces in the field in conjunction with supplying Ukraine with targeting information based on US satellite surveillance. Ritter points out that Polish troops (out of uniform, apparently) are also fighting, and Poland is a NATO member.
In other words, the US and NATO are now viewed by many in Russia as being directly involved in the conflict. Ritter makes the point that the US/NATO is “over-committed” to the conflict, which will make it unlikely that NATO will de-escalate.
I consider this Cuban-Missile-Crisis-in-reverse (that is how it is viewed in Russia) to be more dangerous than the original Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, as we do not have anything like the same caliber of US leadership as we did then. Biden is certainly no JFK, lol.
Ritter notes that there are many people in jail on weaker circumstantial evidence of a crime that what we know about the destruction of the Nordstream pipelines, which he describes as “premeditated murder” by the US. In my opinion, this evil act has greatly escalated the dangers in the conflict. Ritter says that the US will pay political consequences for this when the winter fully arrives and people are freezing in Germany (and elsewhere in Europe).
Ritter says that because of the failed policies imposed on Europe by Washington, there will be revolutionary change in Europe. NATO is at war with itself, with the US destroying the pipelines, the Poles suing Germany for WW2 reparations, the new Italian Prime Minister calling the EU trash.
Ritter expects that Russian troops will fully occupy Ukraine and purge Ukraine of the nazi-idelology of Stepan Bandera (who is currently the national hero of Ukraine). That is what “denazification” means. It will be a total victory of Russia over Ukraine, which means a total defeat of NATO.
Will the crazies in Washington and UK allow that to happen Interesting times, as the Chinese say.
Scott Ritter on What’s Next for the Ukraine Crisis
Note: Start at the two-minute mark in the video — unless you want to hear the host make jokes about toilet paper.
Putin’s September 30 Speech
Ritter also states that Putin’s speech on the occasion of the signing of treaties that incorporated the Ukrainian territories into Russia was the most important speech of the 21st century to date; he compared it to Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech made in Fulton, Missouri. As with all of Putin’s speeches, only portions of it were reported on in the West. You might want to read it. I copy below a few paragraphs from it:
Putin’s Speech (Excerpt)
“The West is ready to cross every line to preserve the neo-colonial system which allows it to live off the world, to plunder it thanks to the domination of the dollar and technology, to collect an actual tribute from humanity, to extract its primary source of unearned prosperity, the rent paid to the hegemon. The preservation of this annuity is their main, real and absolutely self-serving motivation. This is why total de-sovereignisation is in their interest.
This explains their aggression towards independent states, traditional values and authentic cultures, their attempts to undermine international and integration processes, new global currencies and technological development centres they cannot control. It is critically important for them to force all countries to surrender their sovereignty to the United States.
In certain countries, the ruling elites voluntarily agree to do this, voluntarily agree to become vassals; others are bribed or intimidated. And if this does not work, they destroy entire states, leaving behind humanitarian disasters, devastation, ruins, millions of wrecked and mangled human lives, terrorist enclaves, social disaster zones, protectorates, colonies and semi-colonies. They don’t care. All they care about is their own benefit.
I want to underscore again that their insatiability and determination to preserve their unfettered dominance are the real causes of the hybrid war that the collective West is waging against Russia. They do not want us to be free; they want us to be a colony. They do not want equal cooperation; they want to loot. They do not want to see us a free society, but a mass of soulless slaves.
They see our thought and our philosophy as a direct threat. That is why they target our philosophers for assassination. Our culture and art present a danger to them, so they are trying to ban them. Our development and prosperity are also a threat to them because competition is growing. They do not want or need Russia, but we do. (Applause.)
I would like to remind you that in the past, ambitions of world domination have repeatedly shattered against the courage and resilience of our people. Russia will always be Russia. We will continue to defend our values and our Motherland.
The West is counting on impunity, on being able to get away with anything. As a matter of fact, this was actually the case until recently. Strategic security agreements have been trashed; agreements reached at the highest political level have been declared tall tales; firm promises not to expand NATO to the east gave way to dirty deception as soon as our former leaders bought into them; missile defence, intermediate-range and shorter-range missile treaties have been unilaterally dismantled under far-fetched pretexts.
And all we hear is, the West is insisting on a rules-based order. Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them? Listen, this is just a lot of nonsense, utter deceit, double standards, or even triple standards! They must think we’re stupid . . .
Washington demands more and more sanctions against Russia and the majority of European politicians obediently go along with it. They clearly understand that by pressuring the EU to completely give up Russian energy and other resources, the United States is practically pushing Europe toward deindustrialisation in a bid to get its hands on the entire European market. These European elites understand everything — they do, but they prefer to serve the interests of others. This is no longer servility but direct betrayal of their own peoples. God bless, it is up to them.
But the Anglo-Saxons believe sanctions are no longer enough and now they have turned to subversion. It seems incredible but it is a fact — by causing explosions on Nord Stream’s international gas pipelines passing along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they have actually embarked on the destruction of Europe’s entire energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who stands to gain. Those who benefit are responsible, of course . . . .
But people cannot be fed with printed dollars and euros. You can’t feed them with those pieces of paper, and the virtual, inflated capitalisation of western social media companies can’t heat their homes. Everything I am saying is important. And what I just said is no less so: you can’t feed anyone with paper — you need food; and you can’t heat anyone’s home with these inflated capitalisations — you need energy.
That is why politicians in Europe have to convince their fellow citizens to eat less, take a shower less often and dress warmer at home. And those who start asking fair questions like “Why is that, in fact?” are immediately declared enemies, extremists and radicals. They point back at Russia and say: that is the source of all your troubles. More lies.
I want to make special note of the fact that there is every reason to believe that the Western elites are not going to look for constructive ways out of the global food and energy crisis that they and they alone are to blame for, as a result of their long-term policy, dating back long before our special military operation in Ukraine, in Donbass. They have no intention of solving the problems of injustice and inequality. I am afraid they would rather use other formulas they are more comfortable with.
And here it is important to recall that the West bailed itself out of its early 20thcentury challenges with World War I. Profits from World War II helped the United States finally overcome the Great Depression and become the largest economy in the world, and to impose on the planet the power of the dollar as a global reserve currency. And the 1980s crisis — things came to a head in the 1980s again — the West emerged from it unscathed largely by appropriating the inheritance and resources of the collapsed and defunct Soviet Union. That’s a fact.
Now, in order to free itself from the latest web of challenges, they need to dismantle Russia as well as other states that choose a sovereign path of development, at all costs, to be able to further plunder other nations’ wealth and use it to patch their own holes. If this does not happen, I cannot rule out that they will try to trigger a collapse of the entire system, and blame everything on that, or, God forbid, decide to use the old formula of economic growth through war.
Russia is aware of its responsibility to the international community and will make every effort to ensure that cooler heads prevail.
The current neocolonial model is ultimately doomed; this much is obvious. But I repeat that its real masters will cling to it to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world except to maintain the same system of plundering and racketeering.
They do not give a damn about the natural right of billions of people, the majority of humanity, to freedom and justice, the right to determine their own future. They have already moved on to the radical denial of moral, religious, and family values.
Let’s answer some very simple questions for ourselves. Now I would like to return to what I said and want to address also all citizens of the country — not just the colleagues that are in the hall — but all citizens of Russia: do we want to have here, in our country, in Russia, “parent number one, parent number two and parent number three” (they have completely lost it!) instead of mother and father?
Do we want our schools to impose on our children, from their earliest days in school, perversions that lead to degradation and extinction? Do we want to drum into their heads the ideas that certain other genders exist along with women and men and to offer them gender reassignment surgery? Is that what we want for our country and our children? This is all unacceptable to us. We have a different future of our own.”
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
