Independent media outlet Consortium News published a memo from the group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity this week warning of the consequences of French President Emmanuel Macron’s increasing bellicosity towards Russia.
“France is reportedly preparing to dispatch a force of some 2,000 troops – roughly a reinforced brigade built around an armored battalion and two mechanized battalions, with supporting logistical, engineering, and artillery troops attached – into Ukraine sometime in the not-so-distant future,” the article reads. “This would be introducing combat troops of a NATO country into a theater of war, making them ‘lawful targets’ under the Law of War.”
“Europe needs to understand that France is leading it down a path of inevitable self-destruction,” concluded the authors. “The American people need to understand that Europe is leading them to the cusp of nuclear annihilation.”
Former US security analyst David Oualaalou joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program on Wednesday to discuss the sobering memo and Macron’s perilous descent into madness.
“Sending 2,000 troops, that's nothing,” said the author and geopolitical consultant. “What are they going to do? Russia can wipe them out in no time.”
“France is saying all this because they wanted to show that we still matter after being kicked out of Africa,” Oualaalou added – the European power has recently been expelled by Niger, Burkina-Faso, and other former colonies. “In the case of Ukraine, that's a different ballgame altogether and Russia is not going to tolerate that.”
The analyst noted Macron has received pushback over the plan within his government and throughout Europe.
“For us in the US, I don't think that the Biden administration is keen towards this,” he added, “because we all know what it means, given what we just did a few days ago with flying our bombers near the Russian border – nuclear bombers, the B-1B – near the Russian border.”
A dramatic scene unfolded over the Barents Sea Tuesday as a Russian MiG-31 fighter jet escorted the bombers away from the country’s border. The Russian defense ministry released a statement confirming their response to the inflammatory act.
“To me personally it looks nothing more than specifically a provocation,” said Oualaalou of the event. “What are we provoking the Russians for, given we already have tensions with Russia? Why are we escalating this to the point of sending a bomber near Russia's border? And not [just any] type, that's the B-1… those are the major ones.”
“Why are we doing this?” he asked. “At some point the Russians are going to say, 'well, we've had it, enough is enough.'”
Oualaalou saw Macron’s threatened intervention in the Donbass conflict in a similar light.
“Should this move forward it's not going to bode well for the French soldiers,” he warned. “And it's just going to add more fuel… to the fire.”
It appears the French public would also reject Macron’s proposed escalatory move. A recent poll found 68% of French people believe his comments about sending Western troops to Ukraine were “wrong.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the French president has defied public opinion. Large street protests have been common after the former banker rose to power in 2017, with citizens rejecting his raising of the retirement age and attacks on labor rights.