So argues Brandon Weichert, my guest on this episode, publisher of the Weichert Report and author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower.
Brandon, who has been called a “brilliant and anxiety inducing scholar,” believes mainstream American analysts have been wrong from the start on the war in Ukraine. “Even if they have gotten some details correct, they are missing the picture: there is no rolling Russian power back in Ukraine and should Russia exhaust itself militarily, there is no guarantee that Putin will not attempt to escalate into a wider regional war–with WMDs having been deployed–nor is there a guarantee that any diplomatic settlement will be conducive to Washington or Kiev.”
Putin has banked his entire regime on the notion that he will reestablish the Russian empire by expanding Russia's geopolitical influence into the former Soviet Eastern European states, notably Ukraine.
Is the Biden Administration playing with nuclear fire in its brinksmanship with Putin? The question answers itself. “You’ve got to think about escalating the conflict in the way the Russians do,” explains Brandon. “The Russians look at tactical nuclear weapons as just big artillery pieces.”
America may be facing its most dangerous time since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
President Biden should be on the phone with Putin every day, trying to deescalate. But as far as has been reported, this isn’t happening. “You look at the last 30 years, the people who've been running foreign policy and economic policy in this country are the same people who got us into Iraq,” reminds Brandon.
Agree or disagree, for a deep understanding of the dynamics at play, listen in to this conversation with Brandon Weichert.