AMAC Exclusive – By Ben Solis
In the Russian assault on Ukraine, one type of weaponry increasingly appears to be playing a decisive role in wearing down the Ukrainian defenders – ballistic missiles. For the United States and the rest of NATO, Russia’s effective use of missiles should be a dire warning about the need to bolster their missile defenses and develop adequate response capabilities in the event of future Russian aggression.
According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny, as of earlier this week the Russians had fired 113 missiles on the country, including the Kalibr cruise missile and short-range Iskander missile. Many of these were aimed not just at military targets, but also residential areas. In Kharkiv, an advisor to the Ukrainian Minister of the Interior reported that Russians had shelled residential buildings with Grad ballistic missiles, leading to dozens of civilian casualties.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, has also alleged that Russia has used a thermobaric weapon, known as a “vacuum bomb,” in its invasion of her country. While there has been no official confirmation of this claim, Ukraine State News has also reported that Russian forces dropped a vacuum bomb on the city of Akhtyrka, in the northeastern region of Sumy. Vacuum bombs can be particularly devastating in urban warfare, as they create a huge fireball and massive shock wave that can destroy reinforced buildings.
While Russia’s extensive use of ballistic missiles in Ukraine has certainly produced shocking images of destruction, it should perhaps not be all that surprising. In fact, President Ronald Reagan warned of the threat from Russian ballistic missiles all the way back in 1983 in an address that outlined an ambitious new plan for missile defense called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Europe is also all too familiar with this danger. It is impossible to forget how disgruntled Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic’s army in November 1993, with 600 bombs and more than 20,000 shells, attacked downtown Sarajevo, shattering the peace euphoria that rose after the collapse of Soviet Union.
President Reagan’s prescient warnings about Russian missiles carried through to later administrations as well. During the first enlargement of NATO in March 1999, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright emphasized missile defense in remarks that were reminiscent of Reagan’s vision of an anti-nuclear umbrella.
Following growing aggression from Putin in the early 2000’s, the U.S. and NATO again began to take steps toward bolstering their missile defenses. The U.S., working with Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania, developed the Ground Based Interceptors system with supporting radars that could detect and eliminate the latest Russian missile technology. Notably, the system would also have been part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System that could have in the future intercepted long-range missiles from Iran.
However, following a meeting of NATO leaders at the Bucharest Summit in April of 2008, where all were in agreement on the project, Russia began sowing discord through its ambassadors in several key Eastern European countries, creating the false impression that the U.S. had hostile intentions.
First, Russians claimed that the proposed updated missile defenses could be used for the deployment of Tomahawk cruise missiles. Second, the Kremlin asserted that the radar stations would be able to detect the launch of Russia’s strategic weapons, diminishing its deterrence strength. Third, Putin opposed the establishment of further U.S. military bases on Russia’s borders.
None of Russia’s claims were true. All of the U.S. military installments would have been open for Russian inspection, and even Russian military specialists knew that the claims of Tomahawk missile deployments were false, as Russian specialist Alexander Golz recently wrote.
However, President Obama soon capitulated to Russian pressure, halting construction of a radar site in the Czech Republic. Mr. Obama defunding the project narrowed the deployment of U.S. military personnel, eliminating a need for new military bases. In the service of his idealistic goals about a renewed relationship with Russia, President Obama threw away the greatest chance for long-term security in Eastern Europe in a generation.
Obama’s defense spending cuts also undermined the development of new U.S. missile technology to keep pace with the Russians, and increasingly the Chinese, who have now successfully tested hypersonic missiles for which the U.S. has essentially no defense against.
At the same time, Putin continued to demand the complete dismantling of the entire missile defense infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe. Now, the West sees clearly Putin’s goal: to leave the U.S. and its NATO allies defenseless against an onslaught of Russian missiles. For decades U.S. leaders naively bought Putin’s line about Russian security concerns, drawing down their defenses while Putin stockpiled weapons.
Thankfully, President Trump began a buildup of U.S. military capabilities again soon after taking office, and demanded that NATO allies meet their military spending requirements and not remain reliant on U.S. aid. That in part explains Putin’s reluctance to take aggressive action during President Trump’s tenure, as he has done now under every other American president in the 21st century.
While the West, and particularly eastern flank NATO countries, should stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, they should also view the conflict as a dire warning about what could soon await them. Absent adequate defenses, Putin could soon turn a hail of missiles on any other country along his borders, all under the same false pretenses of ensuring Russian “security.” As President Reagan recognized, the best deterrence is strength, and investment in new defenses to counter whatever new weapons Putin hopes to use to expand his evil empire.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, theologian, and researcher.
Weak compromised Democratic leadership starting with Obama, presently his puppet Biden
Our weak minded president needs to stop paying Putin for oil and open up our pipeline again. What in the world is our dumb VP going to do over in Europe? End the war? LOL
Once again I don’t whether to laugh or cry on yet another article on the European continent concerning Russian aggression, i.e. hostilities towards border states under the auspices of NATO by a once again nameless writer, i.e. a pen name…
I do agree however, Trump did have his finger on the pulse of European nations with respect to paying their fair share to NATO, as up until Trump, America paid the majority of the bill due to a feckless EU & the previous administration under Obama/Biden & here we are today…
Now look what we have under a woke induced American military that is more concerned with the training of how transgender people are treated within the US military structure, all branches now have it in place & it goes all the way to the Pentagon under ( 2 ) woke retired generals, i.e. Austin & Milly, what a crying shame we have actually reached this level within our military ranks…
Furthermore, let Europe & Ukraine deal with the Russian/Ukrainian border disputes, period, for both of these nations are equally corrupt & will say anything to discredit the other through the propaganda machine as both these nations are well scripted in propaganda…The propaganda I speak of is now on FULL display from MSM & a fully complicit woke administration & DOD…
Meanwhile, the JRB regime has it’s much coveted ” Wag the Dog ” distraction going on in the Ukraine, meanwhile, back here in the states, we have a WIDE OPEN southern border per the Biden/Harris administration that is willfully & intentionally ignoring.
We are being invaded by unvetted illegal immigrants 24/7 from across the globe & worse still, Biden is flying them all across this nation in the dead of night, i.e. unvetted Afghani immigrants, picked up in Qatar & flown back to primarily RED states for resettlement amongst families, i.e. look at Virginia as a shining example for they get 2000 a month of Afgannis alone each & every month, was any of this mentioned in the SOTU speech? NO it was not… More of the same at the southern border, that Biden lied about in his SOTU speech, the border is NOT secure, contrary to what he stated in the SOTO speech, nothing but lies with more lies piled on top of lies in what had to be the worst SOTU speech I have ever suffered through in my ( 69 ) years…
MAGA & yes, Trump won…
God Bless America,
Bill… :~)
This isn’t a conflict. It’s an invasion. There is a BIG difference.
National defense is a crucial part of ensuring that the American people retain their rights and freedoms from all those that would seek to eliminate them, both foreign and domestic. As Bill on the Hill below states, we have a national security problem right on our own southern border caused directly by a Presidential administration, that decided to disregard its oath of office and the laws of our land to allow unlimited and unfettered access by over 2.4 million illegals into our country in just the first year of its term. That amounts to an invasion, by foreign entities, into our country. Seems like a perfectly acceptable and legal justification for the use of our military to halt this invasion and expel those back across our southern border. For all you weak-kneed snowflakes who say the military can’t be used for law enforcement, this is NOT a law enforcement issue. This is a national security issue where the country is being invaded by millions of unknown nationalities, whose primary intent is to occupy this country and drain its resources for their own wants and needs. Every other major country on this planet protects its borders with military troops, to ensure the national security of their respective countries. Only in the United States, do we choose to pay word games and dance around the real costs of unfettered, illegal immigration in the millions per year.
As to national defense, as discussed in the article above, Democrats in general are always soft on national defense. They are more closely aligned with the leaders of western Europe, who starved their individual military capabilities to feed their ever-growing social welfare states. The western European leaders could get away with this, because until President Trump, virtually every President since Reagan’s term ended was content to shoulder the costs and military load most European leaders chose to let erode over time. We were their backstop to the point where the United States was providing nearly 70 percent of NATO’s current military capability and budget when President Trump took office. The problem with allowing the military capabilities of the United States to erode, as most Democrats would constantly like to see happen, so that the defense budget could be diverted to grow our own social welfare state domestically, is that is there is no other country picking up our loss of military readiness.
Neither Russia nor China are standing still in terms of expansion of existing military readiness and capabilities. The same can be said for Iran and North Korea, as well as many other hostile forces around the planet. The world is NOT the sunshine and lollypops that Democrats keep pushing to justify their desire to get their hands on the defense budget and waste it on a myriad of ineffective government welfare programs that only foster government dependence. None of our global adversaries are they standing still. They are all building and deploying new weapons systems, like hypersonic missiles (both China and Russia have them and we are still trying to build one that works), kinetic satellite weapons to neutralize our high-tech weapons systems by destroying military GPS satellites in orbit (China has already field tested one version a few years ago), advanced, high speed torpedo systems to sink our carriers, and an array of tactical, battlefield nukes and mid-range missile systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear in the near future that both Russia or China will be deploying both land-based and ship-based rail guns, now that that program has been killed after being successfully tested on both land and sea here. That will be a real game changer for naval warfare and as an effective missile defense system. Given our reliance on state of the art technological weapons to off-set the manpower differences between the U.S. and Russian and China militaries, we can ill afford to lag behind in strategic modernization of certain weapons systems. Of course, I don’t expect the Biden administration or the Democrat run Congress to green light any meaningful projects in these areas. That would go against the “leading from behind” strategy of waiting to be hit and hit hard before reacting to any threat. All part of the Democrat “America needs to be punished” for whatever perceived sins the deluded Democrats have rattling around in their sick little minds. We just pay the consequences for their destructive actions.
I don’t have enough info to make an informed decision. However I believe it’s wise to turn to God especially in times like these.
No enemy weapon ever created will ever be as effective against us as a democrat in the White House.
It’s easy to see how the socialist/democrats have systematically weakened America in so many ways whenever they could. As one once said: War is hell; but unfortunately it is a reality. America CANNOT allow the socialist/communists in our own government to disarm us in ANY fashion. Nations and people recognize strength as a deterrent, not weakness. The nuclear arsenal is a terrible thing but is a reality. Any nation that does not have this deterrent will be at the mercy of any tyrant that has. We see that happening right now in our world. We do not live in a utopia. We can and should strive for peace but should never give up our defenses as some would like to see happen.
I’m 80 years old with a fading memory but I’m sufficiently lucid to remember what Kruschev and Russia did to the heroic, brave souls who revolted in Hungary in the late ’50’s and I have never felt our national conscience deserves any slack from its failure to provide them aid. We seem to be reliving history; watching these people tilt at the windmills of Vladimir Putin. I asked my did why we didn’t help those poor victims of this kill hungry madman. I was in the Army in 1961-64 (I qualified expert with the venable M1 rifle) and would gladly shoulder an AK47 if I could get the kids to let me work from a stationary position. We should have our collective head in shame at allowing this neanderthal to slaughter children whose parents are just trying to get them to cancer treatment (this was reported on The Five just today) or get them out of the line of high explosive artillery shells. How long will we allow a feckless administration bring world condemnation to this beloved country of ours.
I could go on.
We have a very big fight facing us. Get with it USA.
Weak compromised Democratic leadership starting with Obama, presently his puppet Biden
Our weak minded president needs to stop paying Putin for oil and open up our pipeline again. What in the world is our dumb VP going to do over in Europe? End the war? LOL
Once again I don’t whether to laugh or cry on yet another article on the European continent concerning Russian aggression, i.e. hostilities towards border states under the auspices of NATO by a once again nameless writer, i.e. a pen name…
I do agree however, Trump did have his finger on the pulse of European nations with respect to paying their fair share to NATO, as up until Trump, America paid the majority of the bill due to a feckless EU & the previous administration under Obama/Biden & here we are today…
Now look what we have under a woke induced American military that is more concerned with the training of how transgender people are treated within the US military structure, all branches now have it in place & it goes all the way to the Pentagon under ( 2 ) woke retired generals, i.e. Austin & Milly, what a crying shame we have actually reached this level within our military ranks…
Furthermore, let Europe & Ukraine deal with the Russian/Ukrainian border disputes, period, for both of these nations are equally corrupt & will say anything to discredit the other through the propaganda machine as both these nations are well scripted in propaganda…The propaganda I speak of is now on FULL display from MSM & a fully complicit woke administration & DOD…
Meanwhile, the JRB regime has it’s much coveted ” Wag the Dog ” distraction going on in the Ukraine, meanwhile, back here in the states, we have a WIDE OPEN southern border per the Biden/Harris administration that is willfully & intentionally ignoring.
We are being invaded by unvetted illegal immigrants 24/7 from across the globe & worse still, Biden is flying them all across this nation in the dead of night, i.e. unvetted Afghani immigrants, picked up in Qatar & flown back to primarily RED states for resettlement amongst families, i.e. look at Virginia as a shining example for they get 2000 a month of Afgannis alone each & every month, was any of this mentioned in the SOTU speech? NO it was not… More of the same at the southern border, that Biden lied about in his SOTU speech, the border is NOT secure, contrary to what he stated in the SOTO speech, nothing but lies with more lies piled on top of lies in what had to be the worst SOTU speech I have ever suffered through in my ( 69 ) years…
MAGA & yes, Trump won…
God Bless America,
Bill… :~)
This isn’t a conflict. It’s an invasion. There is a BIG difference.
National defense is a crucial part of ensuring that the American people retain their rights and freedoms from all those that would seek to eliminate them, both foreign and domestic. As Bill on the Hill below states, we have a national security problem right on our own southern border caused directly by a Presidential administration, that decided to disregard its oath of office and the laws of our land to allow unlimited and unfettered access by over 2.4 million illegals into our country in just the first year of its term. That amounts to an invasion, by foreign entities, into our country. Seems like a perfectly acceptable and legal justification for the use of our military to halt this invasion and expel those back across our southern border. For all you weak-kneed snowflakes who say the military can’t be used for law enforcement, this is NOT a law enforcement issue. This is a national security issue where the country is being invaded by millions of unknown nationalities, whose primary intent is to occupy this country and drain its resources for their own wants and needs. Every other major country on this planet protects its borders with military troops, to ensure the national security of their respective countries. Only in the United States, do we choose to pay word games and dance around the real costs of unfettered, illegal immigration in the millions per year.
As to national defense, as discussed in the article above, Democrats in general are always soft on national defense. They are more closely aligned with the leaders of western Europe, who starved their individual military capabilities to feed their ever-growing social welfare states. The western European leaders could get away with this, because until President Trump, virtually every President since Reagan’s term ended was content to shoulder the costs and military load most European leaders chose to let erode over time. We were their backstop to the point where the United States was providing nearly 70 percent of NATO’s current military capability and budget when President Trump took office. The problem with allowing the military capabilities of the United States to erode, as most Democrats would constantly like to see happen, so that the defense budget could be diverted to grow our own social welfare state domestically, is that is there is no other country picking up our loss of military readiness.
Neither Russia nor China are standing still in terms of expansion of existing military readiness and capabilities. The same can be said for Iran and North Korea, as well as many other hostile forces around the planet. The world is NOT the sunshine and lollypops that Democrats keep pushing to justify their desire to get their hands on the defense budget and waste it on a myriad of ineffective government welfare programs that only foster government dependence. None of our global adversaries are they standing still. They are all building and deploying new weapons systems, like hypersonic missiles (both China and Russia have them and we are still trying to build one that works), kinetic satellite weapons to neutralize our high-tech weapons systems by destroying military GPS satellites in orbit (China has already field tested one version a few years ago), advanced, high speed torpedo systems to sink our carriers, and an array of tactical, battlefield nukes and mid-range missile systems. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear in the near future that both Russia or China will be deploying both land-based and ship-based rail guns, now that that program has been killed after being successfully tested on both land and sea here. That will be a real game changer for naval warfare and as an effective missile defense system. Given our reliance on state of the art technological weapons to off-set the manpower differences between the U.S. and Russian and China militaries, we can ill afford to lag behind in strategic modernization of certain weapons systems. Of course, I don’t expect the Biden administration or the Democrat run Congress to green light any meaningful projects in these areas. That would go against the “leading from behind” strategy of waiting to be hit and hit hard before reacting to any threat. All part of the Democrat “America needs to be punished” for whatever perceived sins the deluded Democrats have rattling around in their sick little minds. We just pay the consequences for their destructive actions.
I don’t have enough info to make an informed decision. However I believe it’s wise to turn to God especially in times like these.
No enemy weapon ever created will ever be as effective against us as a democrat in the White House.
It’s easy to see how the socialist/democrats have systematically weakened America in so many ways whenever they could. As one once said: War is hell; but unfortunately it is a reality. America CANNOT allow the socialist/communists in our own government to disarm us in ANY fashion. Nations and people recognize strength as a deterrent, not weakness. The nuclear arsenal is a terrible thing but is a reality. Any nation that does not have this deterrent will be at the mercy of any tyrant that has. We see that happening right now in our world. We do not live in a utopia. We can and should strive for peace but should never give up our defenses as some would like to see happen.
I’m 80 years old with a fading memory but I’m sufficiently lucid to remember what Kruschev and Russia did to the heroic, brave souls who revolted in Hungary in the late ’50’s and I have never felt our national conscience deserves any slack from its failure to provide them aid. We seem to be reliving history; watching these people tilt at the windmills of Vladimir Putin. I asked my did why we didn’t help those poor victims of this kill hungry madman. I was in the Army in 1961-64 (I qualified expert with the venable M1 rifle) and would gladly shoulder an AK47 if I could get the kids to let me work from a stationary position. We should have our collective head in shame at allowing this neanderthal to slaughter children whose parents are just trying to get them to cancer treatment (this was reported on The Five just today) or get them out of the line of high explosive artillery shells. How long will we allow a feckless administration bring world condemnation to this beloved country of ours.
I could go on.
We have a very big fight facing us. Get with it USA.