{"id":50094,"date":"2024-11-18T14:52:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T22:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=50094"},"modified":"2024-11-18T14:52:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T22:52:29","slug":"taking-the-handcuffs-off-us-missiles-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/11\/18\/taking-the-handcuffs-off-us-missiles-in-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Taking the Handcuffs Off’ US Missiles in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

I woke to this disconcerting story from CNN:<\/p>\n

President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use powerful long-range US weapons deep inside Russia<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why now? Biden is a lame duck president, shuffling out the door, and now he decides to allow Ukraine to use American ATACMS missiles, with a range of roughly 190 miles, inside Russia. It\u2019s also expected that these and similar longer-range missiles provided by the French and British will have no decisive impact on the war. They may kill and wound more Russians and inspire responses in kind by Russia against Ukraine, but their use won\u2019t contribute to \u201cvictory\u201d for Ukraine. So what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My wife put it well when she learned of the decision: \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201cridiculous\u201d were her words of choice. It\u2019s amazing how well our \u201cexperts\u201d feed the obscenity of war.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/picture>\n
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How dare you handcuff our missiles!<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I take my title from a comment made by President-elect Trump\u2019s nominee for National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, who said<\/a> we should take the handcuffs off of U.S. missiles in Ukraine, as if those missiles were people being held prisoner.<\/p>\n

Whether in the Biden or Trump administrations, the advisers at the top are moral midgets, murderously so. I wonder how they\u2019d feel being targeted by ATACMS. Hey, we just took the handcuffs off, Mr. Waltz. Enjoy your time being bombarded by these liberated missiles.<\/p>\n

At the end of September, I noted how Vladimir Putin had redefined Russian nuclear policy to include a possible nuclear response to the use of \u201ctactical\u201d missiles like ATACMS. Here\u2019s what I wrote then:<\/p>\n

Vladimir Putin is redefining Russian policy for the use of nuclear weapons. He\u2019s sending a clear warning that Ukraine\u2019s use of U.S. and Franco-British missiles like ATACMS and Storm Shadow deep within Russia could draw a nuclear response. To my knowledge, the U.S. has not yet approved of the use of ATACMS deep within Russia, though Ukraine is pushing for it.<\/em><\/p>\n

It seems many brain-dead, zombie-like advisers and \u201cexperts\u201d insist that Russia is bluffing. They\u2019re willing to bet the health and safety of the world that Russia won\u2019t respond with nuclear weapons. And for what? ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles aren\u2019t war-winning weapons. The Russia-Ukraine War is a slog, an attritional struggle, featuring trenches and artillery and high casualties, a situation akin to World War I. It\u2019s not going to be won by conventional tactical missile strikes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet certain \u201cexperts\u201d seemingly want it to escalate to World War III with nukes.<\/em><\/p>\n

Just about 80 years ago, we humans entered the atomic age at the Trinity test site in July of 1945. We still haven\u2019t come to grips with how the world changed when the first atomic \u201cgadget\u201d exploded in the desert in New Mexico. We had better hurry up and grow up before we all burn.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, Putin has warned that deep strikes within Russia could draw a nuclear response, and Biden has now approved said strikes just before he leaves the White House. \u201cStupid\u201d and \u201cridiculous\u201d are indeed good descriptors here.<\/p>\n

The obscenity of war knows no handcuffs in America.<\/p>\n

William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and history professor, is a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN)<\/a>, an organization of critical veteran military and national security professionals.\u00a0He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. I woke to this disconcerting story from CNN: President Joe Biden has authorized Ukraine to use powerful long-range US weapons deep inside Russia. Why now? Biden is a lame duck president, shuffling out the door, and now he decides to allow Ukraine to use American ATACMS missiles, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-50094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"Feeding the Obscenity of War"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50094"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50100,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50094\/revisions\/50100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50094"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=50094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}