Author: Ray McGovern

The good news from Germany is very limited and parochial; the bad news downright alarming. Alarm rises from increasing evidence that – how to say this – Germany has “kicked its World War II syndrome once and for all”, to borrow from the exultant words of Gulf War-1-victorious President George H. W. Bush 40 years ago.

After destroying a second-rate Iraqi army Bush bragged, “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all.” He was referring to the perception in some quarters that, after the disaster of Vietnam, the U.S. was being too shy about using military force.

Have we come to the point where the Germans have shaken off their earlier “shyness” after the disaster of WWII?  This gives me goose pimples. Yes, I’m old enough to have lived through the entire war, but – unlike Russia – my country had two great oceans to help defend it. I can only imagine the size of today’s goose pimples on Russians – not only those who lived through the war, but also those who have been given personal accounts of it from fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers.

Continue reading “Ray McGovern on Germany: Bad News Far Outweighs the Good”

(Includes a case study of events in Syria in Autumn 2015, when Obama took Putin seriously and avoided an armed clash.)

President Joe Biden will get it wrong again if he heeds advisers telling him he can send heaps of more lethal weaponry into Ukraine without much risk of open hostilities with Russia.

Like Biden, the Russians do not want that. That’s why they spent last week warning there will be "unpredictable consequences" from surge-supplying billions of dollars-worth of weapons to Ukraine. (See Scott Ritter and me on Ukraine: "Russian ‘Incoming’ To Destroy Weapons Coming In."

Continue reading “Obama Did Not Call Putin’s Bluff: Will Biden?”

Judith Miller and AF General Philip Breedlove are back! At first I thought it a sickening flashback. Two nights ago, there were Judy Miller and former NATO commander Philip Breedlove on TV pontificating on Ukraine.

For younger readers, Judy was the NY Times Archdeacon blessing all those reports of "weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (that weren’t there) and ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda (that weren’t there either).

As for Breedlove, as a sad sign of the times, he appears (via Radio Free Europe) on Reader Supporter News, with zero allusion to his pedigree on truth and falsehood (See: "FOCUS: Former NATO Commander Says Western Fears of Nuclear War Are Preventing a Proper Response to Putin.")

Continue reading “Ray McGovern: Corporate Media Deploys the Big Guns on Ukraine”

Feeling his oats after effusive adulation from leaders of NATO – and Japan at the G-7 summit – Biden gave us the Mother of All Faux Pax this afternoon in Poland. (No, sadly, it was not some kind of Polish joke.)

Echoing imperious King Henry II of England, Biden uttered the equivalent of "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest" … or troublesome president? The priest, of course, was Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The president is Vladimir Putin, who had already warned a complete break in Russia-U.S. relations.

Referring in all but name to President Putin, Biden said, "This man cannot remain in power." Reminder that should not be necessary: Prudent presidents have been reluctant to say that of the leader of other countries – sometimes even when the two are at war. Nor do I need to point out the inevitable hurdle to the cooperation necessary to negotiate a halt to invasions and introduce a ceasefire. Is it all the same to Biden that the carnage continue, with rhetorical promises of support, weapons that are blown up as soon as they cross the border into Ukraine, and crocodile tears.

Continue reading “Biden Slips: Calls Openly for Removal of Putin”

U.S. pundits and strategic experts seem blissfully unaware of how close we all are to being fried in a nuclear strike by Russia. (Fair Labeling: if you are simply looking for yet another reason to demonize Putin, rather than to understand where he is coming from, save time and read no further.)

Here’s the thing: the Russians have good reason to be on hair-trigger alert. Their early-warning radar system is so inadequate that there are situations (including those involving innocent rocket launches) under which Russian President Putin would have only a few minutes – if that – to decide whether or not to launch nuclear missiles to destroy the rest of the world – on the suspicion that Russia was under nuclear attack.

Continue reading “Will Humans Be the Next ‘Freedom Fries’?”

Listen to the segment on The Critical Hour below or here.

Friday’s colloquy between Scott and me began with strong endorsement of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin clear “NO” to proposals for a “No-Fly-Zone-Light” over Ukraine. Scott spells out in some detail what all that would mean.

What are the chances of a false-flag chemical weapon attack blaming Russia? Was Blinken into a smoke-and-mirrors routine Wednesday, when he warned:

“We believe that Moscow may be setting the stage to use a chemical weapon and then falsely blame Ukraine to justify escalating its attacks.”

Continue reading “Ray McGovern and Scott Ritter on Same Page on Ukraine”