Senior Biden inter-agency advisors remain silent.
In short, Europe might also face a U.S.-led insurgency war fought from its territory, spilling over and across other states; giving birth to a new breed of radical ’jihadis’, and dilating around Europe. And to yet a new wave of sophisticated weaponry (as happened in the wake of the Afghan war) circulating amongst opposition groups, as Stinger missiles were sold on to who knows whom (and then had later to be bought back from them).
In a likely planted piece, the NY Times reports that:
For years, U.S. officials have tiptoed around the question of how much military support to provide to Ukraine, for fear of provoking Russia.
Now, in what would be a major turnaround, senior Biden administration officials are warning that the United States could throw its weight behind a Ukrainian insurgency should Putin invade Ukraine.
How the United States, which just exited two decades of war in Afghanistan, might pivot to funding and supporting an insurgency from just finishing one — is still being worked out: "Biden has not determined how the United States might arm insurgents in Ukraine; or, who would conduct the guerrilla war against Russian military occupation. Nor is it clear what Russia’s next move might be ... But Biden Administration officials have begun signalling to Russia [that eventually it] would find the costs of an invasion ... prohibitively expensive in terms of military losses.
"If Putin invades Ukraine with a major military force ... And if it turned into a Ukrainian insurgency, Putin should realize that after fighting insurgencies ourselves for two decades, we know how to arm, train and energize them", said James Stavridis, a retired four-star Navy admiral, who was the supreme allied commander at NATO.
This talk in the U.S. of an insurgency mounted via Ukraine has acquired a frenetic quality. Discussion has slipped into neurosis as the U.S. mainstream melts-down at any suggestion of selling out the cause of democracy and liberal values. See here the reaction when the Tucker Carlson’s guest said, "the world is perched on the edge of an abyss. We may soon see the worst combat in Europe since WW2 — killing thousands of people and raising the likelihood of nuclear war. It didn’t have to be this way".