"Is Biden Preparing to take the U.S. to War Against Russia"
by Larry Johnson
sonar21.com July 14, 2023)
https://sonar21.com/is-biden-preparing-to-take-the-u-s-to-war-against-russia/

This is disturbing and alarming — Biden issued an order activating up to 3000 Ready Reserve and Select Reserve military personnel and sending them to Europe for potential combat with Russia. This is not a hoax. It is on the White House website:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility. In furtherance of this operation, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, as they deem necessary, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.

Operation Atlantic Resolve is the name for the U.S. military response to Russia’s Special Military Operation. While the number of troops being activated and deployed is not large, is Biden making a direct threat to Russia that is likely to elicit a very unpleasant response from Putin.

In terms of bolstering U.S. military capabilities this is a nothing-burger. But it is the symbolism and the thinking behind this decision that is frightening. But this is not all.

According to one of my retired CIA buddies, at least two B-52s are on the ground at an U.S. Air Force in Alaska. This is highly unusual, according to another old friend who flew B-52s. Moving these planes forward to Alaska is stupid saber rattling. This is not going to assuage Russian concerns about Western intentions, it is going to move the Russians to hair-trigger status.

And do not forget about U.S. plans to send nuclear capable F-16s to Ukraine:

Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov wasted no time in warning the United States and NATO that if the F-16s arrive in theater, Russia will treat them as a potential nuclear threat:

Russian FM Lavrov: The US and its NATO satellites create the risk of a direct armed conflict with Russia, and this is fraught with catastrophic consequences.

Just one example of an extremely dangerous development is the US plans to transfer F-16 fighter jets to the Kyiv regime. We have informed the nuclear powers, the United States, Britain and France, that Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.

No assurances will help here. In the course of hostilities, our military will not sort out whether each specific aircraft of the specified type is equipped for the delivery of nuclear weapons or not. The very fact of the appearance of such systems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere. The aggressive steps of unfriendly states create an existential threat for Russia. There is no doubt about this. We will have to defend our right to free and sovereign development with all available means.

I think Lavrov makes it very clear that Russia will destroy those planes “with all available means.” If faced with a nuclear threat Russia will respond in kind. Biden ratcheting up tensions with Russia at the very moment that Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield are catastrophic. Instead of seeking to de-escalate the war and find an off-ramp, Biden and his team appear intent on provoking a nuclear war.

Here is an interview I did yesterday (Wednesday) with Stephen Gardner. We did not know about what I have just presented. Might have been a very different podcast. The Lies are Coming Out

--- Interview Transcript (partial) ---

Stephen Gardner: “Is there any reason why NATO would allow Ukraine to join the alliance because as I see it, Zelensky is probably thinking, ‘Wait a minute. It we’re inducted into NATO that either shuts Russia down or gives us this huge network of people that will immediately go to war. ‘On the other hand, I believe NATO nations are like, ‘Wait a minute. If we let you in right now, we’re immediately opening up World War Three.’ What are your thoughts on this situation?

1:28 Larry Johnson: "Well, I'm shocked that Biden -- and it looks like Olaf Scholtz of Germany -- actually got something right where they said that if we bring in Ukraine now while it's fighting Russia, then according to Artical 5 of the NATO charter, the rest of NATO would be obligated to enter the war against Russia. And were that to happen, that would likely result in a nuclear exchange with Russia coming out on top of that exchange and Europe being just a smoldering mass of ruins, including the United States. So, they don't want to go that far. And yet they continue to provoke and openly assault Russia by publicly declaring the weapons they're going to send and how much aid they're going to give."

2:19 "If you think back during the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union was providing military assistance, significant military assistance to the North Vietnamese. But they weren't doing it publicly. They weren't rubbing it in our face. Similarly, we were providing ample covert military aid to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan during that war against the Soviets. So, the superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States learned to play these games where they would provide military aid and assistance without disrupting their diplomatic exchange and without closing off negotiations. What the West is now doing by being so overt about this and that these weapons systems are killing Russian citizens and that at the summit both France and the United Kingdom announced that they're going to supply long-range cruise missiles that are capable of striking inside Russia. And what that means if they do that Russia may be compelled to strike against France and the United Kingdom , against military bases where the factories that produce those weapons. So, this has the potential, really, to spiral out of control."

3:43 "The other dynamic that's going on here, though, is NATO's frantic. It's desperate because it didn't matter how much intelligence they provided to Ukraine, how much military equipment, how much money, how much ammunition, NATO is running dry, tapped out, and Ukraine is losing, and losing badly."

4:06 "So what do they do? They can keep sort of doubling down and with each passing day, the Ukrainian military is degraded. It is not strengthened. So, NATO is in trouble. And they tried to put the best face on this, like putting lipstick on a pig." Maybe a little pretty but still a pig."

And NATO is not more unified. It is less unified. It's split over what to do with respect to Ukraine. You have countries like Bulgaria and Hungary, albeit the smaller members, of NATO saying We're not giving any more weapons or support to Ukraine where some of the other countries are saying, Yeah, we're going to promise to keep pumping money and material in, except as Joe Biden admitted to CNN the other day 'We've run out. That's why we're having to send cluster munitions because we don't have conventional artillery shells so we're going to send these artillery shells that contain all these little bomblets that when they fall to the ground don't explode and can be picked up by a child years later and have it blow off their hands, legs or arms." So you've got that mess going on."

5:20 "And they give these assurances to Ukraine, Well, we'll have your back. But there is no treaty obligation to do so."

"And then, finally, you had Turkey. And Turkey basically betrayed Russia in its behavior. ..."

. . .

8:04 "... We could see Russia begin to shoot down the US Predator drones and other drones that are used in Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance activities. They might even go after some of the fixed-wing aircraft that are collecting intelligence. Before they do that I think they'll disrupt, if not destroy the Starlink system of Elon Musk. Russians have been taking some blows, but none of them fatal. There have been more irritants than serious. But I think that's changing now. Russia recognizes the West is keen on destroying it and it is going to have to protect itself."

10:25 "... Russia has [informants] in those [joint operations] locations. So, you're not going to bomb and blow it up if you've got human sources there because you know what's going on. And so you don't want to make yourself blind."

12:17 ... Ukrainians in the process of decimaing their third army."

. . .

"16:21 "They're trying to create a reason for NATO to intervene. They're counting on that as their only hope. And it's a vain hope because NATO is militarily not equipped to fight and beat the Russians. They don't have the troops. They don't have the armor. They don't have the artillery. And they certainly don't have the artillery shells necessary. What we have witnessed is the de-industrialization of both the United States and Western Europe."

. . .

[21:19] Larry Johnson: “In 2018, Wagner – or Prigozhin – cut a deal with a Syrian warlord who wanted to get access to the Conoco oil in Kurdish territory. It meant that they had to cross a river to get to it. Well, that oilfield was defended by US Special Operations forces. And at that time, there was daily communication between the U.S. military command – in Qatar – in what they call the Joint Operations Center and their Russian counterparts. So the Americans call up their Russian counterparts because, what Wagner did was they got paid off, they took money under the table, to go in and attack that oil field and take it over. That was the deal. And this was Prigozhin running operations on the side to make himself rich. And I fully believe that in doing that he was also providing payoffs to the intelligence officers in GRU who are supposed to run him and manage him. So they cross over, they’re attacking this U.S. military outpost. The U.S calls up the Russians and say ‘Hey, are these your guys that have crossed over?’ And the Russian military commander said ‘No. Not our guys.’ Because it wasn’t an official Russian action. It was an independent job being carried out by Wagner under Prigozhin’s direction. A lot of those Wagner guys got killed that day. So that is a source of anger that festered with Prigozhin. And I fully believe at some point last fall, he had contact with Ukrainian intelligence because he had had an experience in previous ties in Kiev. And they hooked him up with someone from MI-6. And at that point, the West became convinced that they had recruited Prigozhin as somebody who was going to work for Western intelligence. Now I don’t know at what point after that that Prigozhin was informed by Russian counter intelligence, the FSB, ‘We know about your contacts. We know what you’re doing. You’re either going to cooperate with us or you’re going to die.’ It’s that simple. We don’t have a choice. And Prigozhin being the greedy fat bastard that he is opted for staying alive. So, at that point he begins acting out to support the narrative that he is really pissed at the General Staff and the Minister of Defense. And he’s wanting to betray them. So he has all these emotional outbursts that are widely reported on Telegram.”

[24:15] “Now, Stephen, think about this. We’re told in the West ..."

[28:39] It was laughable. ... We got played.

[35:37] end of program