Rasmussen 'Out of His Mind' for Thinking NATO Should Commit Troops to Ukraine
If Poland or other Eastern European states were to try and send troops into Ukraine, it would make widening the war almost inevitable, including into their own countries, a former Pentagon analyst told Sputnik. Fortunately, few in Brussels are likely to take the "insane" advice of the former NATO chief that suggested it.
SputnikOn Wednesday, former NATO Secretary General Anders
Rasmussen told reporters that several Eastern European members of the alliance were prepared to
send troops into Ukraine to support the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if Washington refuses to give Kiev certain security guarantees at the forthcoming summit in Vilnius next month.
"If NATO cannot agree on a clear path forward for Ukraine, there is a clear possibility that some countries individually might take action," Rasmussen said. "We know that Poland is very engaged in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine. And I wouldn’t exclude the possibility that Poland would engage even stronger in this context on a national basis and be followed by the Baltic states, maybe including the possibility of troops on the ground ... I think the Poles would seriously consider going in and assemble a 'coalition of the willing' if Ukraine doesn't get anything in Vilnius."
Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik on Thursday that “for Rasmussen to make such irresponsible comments either tells me he had a bad day or he's just out of his mind."
"As a practical matter, it will not be done. I think he's out of his mind. And I think to try and engage and involve Europe further into that conflict is insanity."
The Brussels-based alliance operates off a principle of collective self-defense, meaning an attack on one member state is interpreted as an attack on all 31 member states. It’s unclear if NATO would attempt to trigger the rule, known as "if a member’s troops come under fire while operating in another non-member country’s territory. Ukraine has long sought membership in the alliance, but so far been rebuffed due to ongoing problems with corruption and its unresolved territorial disputes with the Russian Federation.
"What it seems to represent, I think, is that the eastern part of Europe is basically trying to take over NATO in terms of direction and influence. And also, Poland especially, has designs on the western part of Ukraine. I don't think their intention would be to defend Ukraine, I think it is to take it apart."
“Once you put NATO troops in Ukraine, they then become targets, and that will almost definitely guarantee that the conflict will have widened, and it will be on NATO," Maloof said, adding that "all the NATO countries have to agree to it. So as a practical matter, I just don't see it."
"Unless they do what the United States did when we invaded Libya, going with the so-called ‘countries of the willing’. If that happens, you might as well just kiss NATO goodbye. NATO will be over. And for that matter, the conflict indeed will enlarge. It will definitely bring in Belarus, it'll bring in the Central Asian countries - I mean, this thing could just blow out of control entirely. And it'll be on Europe's head."
Maloof said Rasmussen, who previously served as NATO’s secretary general from 2009 to 2014 and was also the Prime Minister of Denmark, "should know better, frankly," than to make such a comment.
"I think it's desperation on the part of Europe generally. I think it represents a desperation that Ukraine is not winning. And I think that's what it basically shows. And so they're trying to look for all avenues to try and help Ukraine. Their stockpiles of spare weapons are depleting very, very quickly. So are ours," Maloof said.
"We can't continue, the United States cannot continue to endlessly backfill those countries [weapons supplies] and not have them take up their fair share of the load, if that's the policy approach that they want to take. But they're in a bind. Their industries can't support this any longer. And in some cases they've completely depleted their storages in stockpiles of weapons, including ammunition. I mean, it's an insane thing. And I think it's just a call of desperation."
Maloof dismissed Rasmussen's suggestion that NATO give Kiev written security guarantees, which only alliance members can receive.
"I don't think we have any hold on Ukraine. Ukraine has no hold on NATO. So I don't see where we have any obligation to do anything as an alliance, as the NATO alliance, toward Ukraine - because they're not members, pure and simple. They've got to get over it. They are NATO wannabes. They are not members of NATO. Period. End of story."
Indeed, if Brussels did so, it would be “totally disastrous,” he noted.
"I can't imagine that NATO would seriously consider it, even though Rasmussen formerly was in charge. I just can't imagine that the NATO countries would even contemplate anything like that considering their own situation. They've already gone up far enough out on a limb that they're basically sawing it off on the wrong side. And they have to consider their own population and their preservation and their quality of life."
"Europe today in its quality of life has declined so much as a result of this war because they voluntarily decided to cut off their nose to spite their face just to send a message to Russia that 'we don't need or want your energy any longer'. But look [at] what they did to themselves, to the people. Now, some of those countries are in a recession and their industry cannot support such a thing. I mean, they are out of their minds if they give this serious contemplation."
Maloof said that if Poland and Baltic states did send troops into Ukraine, they “would then become the subject to any consequences deriving from that decision and that would include conflict on their own soil.
Russia isn't all that far away and they have
hypersonic missiles and they can travel within seconds, given the proximity and locations. So they've got to really, really give this serious thought and start climbing down off of their high horse and start looking at reality and not ideology.”
Turning to the previously-raised question of Warsaw’s territorial desires in Ukraine, Maloof noted the government of Polish President Andrzej Duda was already issuing passports to ethnic Poles in western Ukraine.
"They basically want to start picking apart what is western Ukraine along with Hungary and Romania. They have historical ties. There are ethnicities in those areas that now live in those areas, pretty much like Russian-speaking people are in the eastern part of the country. I see the 19th century coming back to life. All of these connections go back and even further. So it's like revisiting history," he explained.