March 20, 2024 (EIRNS)—At the March 19 meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin proclaimed that neither Ukraine nor the U.S. will back down in defense of democracy, the rules-based order, and the national security of the United States. According to a Defense Department press release, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who accompanied Austin, told the group that the support given to Ukraine “doesn’t just help Ukraine. It strengthens NATO and helps to bolster the defense industrial base in the United States, Europe and the world. It enables our own security.”
Secretary Austin warned that “the United States would face grave new perils in a world where aggression and autocracy are on the march where tyrants are emboldened and where dictators think that they can wipe a democracy off the map.” Following the standard script, Austin warned that the dangerous dictator NATO must defend itself from is Vladimir Putin and his “imperial dreams…. If Putin is successful in Ukraine, he will not stop there,” he gravely intoned. In a post-conference press availability, reported by RT, lest anyone miss the point, Austin repeated, “Ukraine’s survival is in danger, America’s security is at risk” and the enemy is Russia. The delivery of further aid to Ukraine “is a matter of survival and sovereignty for Ukraine” and “a matter of honor and security of America.”
