Dear Friends + Interlocutors,

Once again, I bring you the outlook of ex-CIA executive Ray McGovern. He and some of his like-minded, retired spooks have submitted a public memo to the nominal POTUS, Joe Biden, about the Washington proxy war in Ukraine. 

Subject of the memo is: “Nuclear Weapons cannot be uninvented”. McGovern discussed the memo on “The Critical Hour” radio show a few days ago. You can listen to it here. He is concerned that the conflict will lead to a nuclear exchange.

By its actions, Washington indicates the belief that it can fight this proxy war with impunity, suffering no serious consequences. So far, it seems to me that the consequences have been positive, from Washington’s cynical point of view.

Its NATO and European vassals, most importantly Germany, have rallied around Washington’s fraudulent narrative and embraced its unwise leadership. 

Washington has successfully decoupled Europe from Russia. Europe has played the economic sanctions card, which is Washington’s all-purpose prescription for dealing with perceived reprobates.

Europe has gone a step further, especially Germany. NATO and the Europeans are sending lethal weapons to Ukraine to kill Russians. In effect, Europe has declared war on Russia. The U.S. is already at war with Russia. 

A current article in the NY Times, the paper of record with a pipeline to the CIA, reveals that Washington has provided covert intelligence to Ukraine which successfully targeted Russian generals.

McGovern feels that Washington is recklessly risking a nuclear war with the Kremlin. Hence the memo to POTUS. I’m not so sure. The risk is there, but it could be considerably less than what McGovern fears.

At least Gideon Rose of the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations thinks so. He recently (April 25th) penned  an article for Foreign Affairs entitled, “Why the War in Ukraine Won’t Go Nuclear”. He was the editor there from 2010 to 2021.

Rose explains why, and suggests that the conflict will end like what exists in Korea. A divided country, still nominally at war. This would suit officials in Washington perfectly. It would be a dangerous outcome.

Everything would revert to Cold War status. But now an enlarged NATO would be even more firmly under Washington’s control. No more talk of European independence.

No more talk of economic cooperation with Russia. No rapprochement. No treaties to stop nuclear weapons proliferation. Instead, a reinvigorated Cold War. Open-ended confrontation leading nowhere.

In point of fact, the present conflict and its uncertain outcome could have been entirely avoided by an honest approach to American foreign policy. That perspective simply does not exist. It has been missing for a long time.