Scott Ritter on Dec. 13 posted an article under the above title, referencing Trump’s statement in his Nov. 25 interview with Time magazine, released on Dec. 12, denouncing Ukraine’s deployment of U.S. long-range missiles into Russia as “crazy” and “a very big mistake.” Ritter reviews the history of the Nov. 17 switch by the collective Biden to approve Ukraine’s deployment of the ATACMS into Russia, Russia’s Nov. 21 Oreshkin response, noting that: “The use of the Oreshnik represented the first time in the history of warfare that a strategic missile was used in combat, a major escalatory move by Russia reflecting the seriousness with which they took the ATACMS attack,” and the discussion between Russian Chief of Staff General Valery Gerasimov and Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Q. Brown.
Ritter adds that General Brown knew that the CIA had determined that Russia was serious about the use of nuclear weapons: “The CIA had briefed select members of Congress and the White House that it assessed the Russians were serious about their willingness to employ nuclear weapons if the attacks continued. And General Brown knew that the position taken by the White House was that they were prepared for this. That they were ready for a nuclear ‘exchange’ with Russia over the issue of Ukraine.”
Ritter then reports on his deployment to the Congress: “On December 5, accompanied by the irrepressible Medea Benjamin from CODEPINK, her able Washington, D.C. Director Adnaan Stumo, and other volunteers and activists, including Jose Vega and Morgan Blythe, I paid a visit to several congressional representatives and their senior staff to talk about the danger of nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia, and possible ways that such a war could be avoided. One of the points that I drove home was, in the face of continued use of ATACMS missiles by Ukraine against Russia, and void of any possibility of getting the Biden administration to rescind its permission regarding ATACMS use by Ukraine, it was imperative that President-elect Trump issue a statement which distanced himself from this policy, and provided Russia with assurances that a Trump administration would not continue to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS against Russia. We were assured by several of the people we met with that they would do their best to get this message to senior members of the Trump transition team.”
He added that he included in his briefing to the congressional offices the insane statement by Rear Admiral Buchanan, adding that “it was imperative that President-elect Trump issue a statement which distanced himself from this policy, and provided Russia with assurances that a Trump administration would not continue to allow Ukraine to use ATACMS against Russia. We were assured by several of the people we met with that they would do their best to get this message to senior members of the Trump transition team.”
Ritter quotes the Trump denunciation of the ATACMS policy in the Time interview, and that the Russians thus know his view, which may be why they did not use the Oreshnik in their response to the most recent ATACMS attack. But he adds: “It needs to be reiterated by both Trump and his team, so that there is no uncertainty in the minds of the Russian leadership what awaits them if they withhold from undertaking escalatory retaliatory strikes against Ukraine and possibly NATO in response to what will inevitably be additional ATACMS attacks by Ukraine on Russian territory. The governments of the United Kingdom and France have just authorized Ukraine to use the Storm Shadow and SCALP cruise missiles against Russian targets. To forestall a Russian retaliation against UK and French targets outside of Ukraine, Russia needs to know whether Trump’s attitude toward ATACMS extends to Storm Shadow, SCALP, or any other foreign-made long-range weapon (the German-made Taurus missile comes to mind).”
