Rubio Argues It’s Safe To Escalate Conflict with Russia

Aug. 1—What passes these days for “strategic competence” is beyond dangerous and literally insane. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked, in a Fox News interview with Brian Kilmeade on July 31 about President Donald Trump’s “10 days for peace ‘or else’” ultimatum to Russia. Rubio, Cuban background who blames Russia/Soviet Union for Fidel Castro, reported that that U.S. officials “continue to engage with the Russian side.” Talks were held July 28 or 29, “not with Putin but with some of Putin’s top people—in hopes of arriving at some understanding on a path forward that would lead to peace,” he said.

Then came the threats. “However, we’ve not seen any progress on that,” so, at some point, President Trump “has got to make a decision here about how much to continue to engage in an effort to do ceasefires if one of the two sides is not interested in one.” The President “has options,” said Rubio, naming “secondary sanctions on oil sales of Russia oil, which is a huge part of their revenue. There are banking, sectoral banking sanctions that would also be very powerful.” We “hope” to avoid those “options…. But obviously the President’s not going to wait forever.”

Rubio dismissed the “Dead Hand” warning delivered by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in response to such ultimatums, as “not a factor.”

When Fox’s Kilmeade asked the big, inconvenient question—“Do you think Russia’s in a position to confront America militarily?”—the U.S. Secretary of State ruled that out, arguing that, outside of the possibility of the use of a tactical nuclear weapon or some miscalculation occurring here or there, “we” should not even think about such a possibility:

“That’s not even a fathomable thing. I mean, understand a war between the United States and Russia is not something we can ever see. These are the two largest nuclear weapons militaries in the world, and the danger would just be too great.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that from a conventional military capability the Russians could not take on the United States, or, frankly, many of the countries in Europe, for that matter…. They’ve struggled with Ukraine, who now is the largest army in Europe, but at the time of being invaded was not. I think they would struggle on a conventional front greatly.

“I think what you worry more about is not an all-out war with Russia. I think what you worry more about, is a skirmish, or a miscalculation that leads up to the start of conflict, because since the Russians are not very good at conventional weaponry, they would almost invariably have to rely on some other means, like a tactical nuclear weapon on the battlefield to sort of escalate in an effort to de-escalate a fight. So, you would worry about that. But we shouldn’t even think about it, because that’s not something that is plausible or frankly feasible for either side.”