Retired General and former Director of the CIA David Petraeus says it's his belief that if Russian President Vladimir Putin used nuclear weapons against Ukraine, the United States would quickly intervene to "take out" Russian forces. He emphasized too that Washington would lead the way among a collective NATO response.
The well-known retired Army general issued the prediction of such a major US intervention in that scenario during a Sunday interview on ABC's "This Week," explaining that the West must take the Kremlin's latest nuclear rhetoric seriously, and that this is what the White House's latest warnings of "catastrophic consequences" for Moscow is all about.
"And what would happen?" show co-anchor Jonathan Karl questioned for former CIA chief. "Well, again, I have deliberately not talked to Jake about this. I mean, just to give you a hypothetical, we would respond by leading a NATO, a collective effort, that 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," Petraeus responded.
But that's when Karl brought up the likely scenario of radiation fallout from such a Russian nuclear engagement directly impacting much of Eastern Europe, reaching nearby NATO countries.
"Yes. And perhaps you can make that case. The other case is that this is so horrific that there has to be a response, it cannot go unanswered. But it doesn't expand, it doesn't - it's not nuclear for nuclear," Petraeus explained. That's when he expressly laid out that Washington has to be ready nuclear escalation if the situation demands:
"You don't want to, again, get into a nuclear escalation here. But you have to show that this cannot be accepted in any way," Petraeus said.
While the former top Army general is of course not speaking from within the administration or in the capacity of an active government official at this point, his perspective certainly generally reflects that of the foreign policy and military establishment.
Petraeus went on to explain his view that Putin has no qualms about surrounding European countries and Western backers of Ukraine suffering too. "Well, he's trying to cast this in any way that he can in a way to appear threatening, to be threatening, to try to get Europe to crack. He thinks he can out suffer Europe, if you will," he continued.
Watch the full interview below:
"And, you know, the Russians have out suffered Napoleon and the Nazis and so forth. But I don't think he's going to out suffer Europe. Europe's going to have a tough winter, there's going to be very reduced flow of natural gas, but they'll get through it and I don't think they'll crack on the issue of support for Ukraine." He explained of the battlefield situation in the east that if Russian forces continue to be backed into a corner this makes Putin more unpredictable and dangerous...
"He is losing, and the battlefield reality he faces is, I think, irreversible," Petraeus said, adding that there is "no amount of shambolic mobilization, which is the only way to describe it, no amount of annexation, no amount of even veiled nuclear threats, can actually get him out of this particular situation."
Recent weeks have witnessed a flurry of 'doom and gloom' apocalyptic sounding headlines based on increased threatening rhetoric from Kremlin officials, including Putin himself, suggesting or implying the future possibility of resorting to tactical nukes in Ukraine if red lines are crossed. However, there's also been no observed change in posture or movement among Russia's nuclear forces. US intelligence says it is stepped up its surveillance and monitoring, but this has not led to any changes in the United States' nuclear posture either.
via zerohedge