<\/p>\n
UPDATE December 5:<\/p>\n
Explosions Hit Air Bases Deep Inside Russia, Killing Three Russian Soldiers<\/p>\n
https:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2022\/12\/05\/explosions-hit-air-bases-deep-inside-russia-killing-three-russian-soldiers\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As I pointed out again yesterday, the war is ever widening.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>If the Kremlin is unable to comprehend that its limited operation is no longer an alternative and to come to a decision to fight and win a real war and impose the peace, the Kremlin will lose control over the situation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Paul Craig Roberts<\/p>\n \u201cLatvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics called for NATO to allow Ukraine to conduct strikes inside Russian territory, adding the alliance should not fear Moscow\u2019s response. The White House has resisted sending Kiev missiles with the range to hit targets inside Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring\u00a0an interview<\/a>\u00a0on the sidelines of\u00a0 NATO summit in Romania, Rinkevics stated \u2018we should allow Ukrainians to use weapons to target missile sites or air fields from where those operations are being launched.\u2019\u00a0Allies \u2018should not fear\u2019 escalation from Moscow, he added. \u201d<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/latvia-calls-nato-allow-ukrainian-strikes-inside-russian-territory<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Escalation is proceeding as it did in Vietnam. \u00a0A Washington puppet would not have voiced a provocative proposal without Washington\u2019s permission. By \u201cinside Russia\u201d Rinkevics means territory beyond the territory Russia recently reincorporated. \u00a0He is calling for widening the war by crossing a red line that President Putin could not ignore.<\/p>\n It is, of course, Washington that has widened the Kremlin\u2019s limited military operation into an ever larger war with increasing Western participation. \u00a0But it was President Putin\u2019s decision in favor of a slow moving limited war, which did not hamper Ukraine\u2019s ability to fight the war, that enabled Washington to widen the war. \u00a0Washington had plenty of time to create the narrative and control the explanation of the war. \u00a0Washington\u2019s propaganda created sympathy for Ukraine and hatred of Russia. What the Kremlin needed was a quick decisive victory and a new Ukrainian government before Washington had time to react.<\/p>\n More importantly, by entering the conflict with insufficient soldiers and no reserves, the extended Russian lines became indefensible. \u00a0Russian pullbacks were used in the West to create the impression that Russia could be defeated. \u00a0The UK Telegraph even wrote a few days go that Ukraine would be in Crimea by Christmas.<\/p>\n The belief that Russia can be defeated will prevent realistic negotiations and will encourage more provocations that sooner or later will cross a red line that cannot be ignored. The go-slow limited military action is a certain path to wider war. \u00a0Before long Washington will be too involved, too committed to step back. \u00a0Far from being limited, the conflict is leading to nuclear confrontation. \u00a0If the Kremlin cannot find the wisdom to quickly bring the conflict to an end, it will spin out of control.<\/p>\n The Kremlin seems to be having a difficult time recognizing reality. \u00a0For many months the Kremlin has been complaining about each new \u201cindirect\u201d participation by the US\/NATO. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has recently elevated this complaint to \u201cdirect participation.\u201d \u00a0In other words, the Kremlin has finally acknowledged that the US\/NATO are at war with Russia.\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/russia-now-says-us-nato-directly-participating-ukraine-war\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n Lavrov admits that the risk of escalaion into nuclear war is enormous.<\/p>\n So why doesn\u2019t the Kremlin do what it should have done long ago and bring the conflict to a quick close by destroying the infrastructure that permits Ukraine to continue the war and replace Zelensky, an American puppet, with a leader friendly to Russia?<\/p>\n Conflict became inevitable when the Kremlin stood aside and permitted Washington to overthrow the Ukrainian government and install a puppet. The conflict moved forward when the Kremlin refused the Donbass\u2019 request to be reincorporated into Russia along with Crimea. \u00a0In 2014 I said that this mistake would result in war. \u00a0When the conflict began last February, it was clear that anything but a quick decisive Russian victory would result in US\/NATO involvement.<\/p>\n For the Kremlin the lessons remain unlearned. \u00a0More pointless complaints, ignored by the West, issue from the Kremlin while its spokesman gives assurances that Russia has no intention of removing Zelensky.<\/p>\n There seems to be no Kremlin decision to correct the highly unfavorable situation the Kremlin has created for itself.<\/p>\n Leaders don\u2019t like to admit mistakes. \u00a0This is especially the case when leaders decide on a course of action based on moral considerations, which Putin did. \u00a0He tried for eight years to keep Donbass in Ukraine with the Minsk Agreement that Ukraine and the West refused to keep. He decided on a \u00a0military operation limited to clearing Ukrainian soldiers out of the Donbass republics, and refused to invade and conquer Ukraine. Not desiring a ruined and poverty-stricken Ukraine on Russia\u2019s border, Putin \u00a0left secure until very recently Ukrainian power, water, and transportation infrastructure that permitted Ukraine, armed and trained by the West, to engage in a full-scale war that the Kremlin pretended to itself was limited. But from what Putin recently told Germany\u2019s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, these recent \u00a0infrastructure attacks are not components of a revised Russian war policy. \u00a0They are tit for tat exercises. Putin explained the attacks on Ukrainian war-enabling infrastructure as retaliation for attacks on the Crimea bridge and Nord Stream pipelines.\u00a0https:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/567551-putin-shcolz-ukraine-infrastructure\/<\/a><\/p>\n In other words, it seems that the Kremlin\u2019s policy is to kick the can down the road. Putin is still wedded to his limited damage operation to free the areas that wish to escape the tyranny of the neo-Nazi Ukrainian government, and Putin still lacks the realization that Washington\u2019s involvement has cancelled his \u201climited military operation.\u201d \u00a0If Putin fails to realize that he is in a war and to use the necessary force to bring it to a quick end, he will lose control of the situation.<\/p>\n Putin\u2019s intentions were good, but suffered from a lack of realism. \u00a0The Kremlin must have assumed that it was the only player on the chessboard.<\/p>\n The Kremlin\u2019s mistakes have compounded. \u00a0Possibly the Kremlin has left it too long, but unless the Kremlin is content with something like a demilitarized zone and an unresolved conflict like in Korea, the alternative of knocking out Ukraine in 48 hours and installing a new government could end the conflict before Washington escalates it further.<\/p>\n Waiting has never paid off for Putin. \u00a0Waiting let Washington train and equip \u00a0a large Ukrainian army. \u00a0More waiting is letting NATO build a large army on Russia\u2019s border, expanding the NATO force from 40,000 to 300,000 according to NATO\u2019s Secretary General.<\/p>\n A NATO member\u2019s top general says US troops are combat ready on Russia\u2019s border, ready to \u201cfight immediately.\u201d The Kremlin\u2019s confusion and indecisiveness guarantees a larger war.<\/p>\nThe Ever-Widening War<\/em><\/strong><\/h1>\n
\nhttps:\/\/www.rt.com\/russia\/567541-lithuania-us-troops-mode\/\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n