{"id":64866,"date":"2023-01-26T10:26:23","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T15:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=64866"},"modified":"2023-01-26T10:26:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T15:26:23","slug":"natos-war-against-russia-inches-closer-to-direct-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=64866","title":{"rendered":"NATO\u2019s ‘war against Russia’ inches ‘closer to direct conflict’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NATO\u2019s ‘war against Russia’ inches ‘closer to direct conflict’<\/a><\/h3>\n

“We are fighting a war against Russia,” German\u2019s Foreign Minister says, as the US and Germany authorize tank shipments, and new dangers, in the Ukraine proxy war.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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(US M1 Abrams tanks at a training site in Germany, 2018. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Sharon Matthias \/ 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Since the\u00a0first week<\/a>\u00a0of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has\u00a0repeated<\/a>\u00a0a mantra on behalf of his NATO partners: \u201cWe are not at war with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly one year in, that notion has officially been dispelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting a war against Russia,\u201d German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock\u00a0said this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Baerbock was trying to assuage NATO allies\u2019 frustration\u00a0over German reluctance<\/a>\u00a0to send Leopard 2 tanks into Ukraine. She can now claim vindication. In a reversal of its initial position, the German government has announced it that will deliver Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainian army.<\/p>\n

To overcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz\u2019s jitters, the White House engaged in an about-face of its own, approving the shipment of 31 US-made M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Scholz had insisted on conditioning any German tanks to a similar US commitment. Up until this week, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin was \u201cdead set against providing<\/a>\u201d the M1s, and\u00a0declared<\/a>\u00a0there to be \u201cno linkage between providing M1s and providing Leopards.\u201d Austin had argued that the M1s are too cumbersome for Ukraine, requiring costly jet fuel, heavy maintenance, and lengthy training.<\/p>\n

Just last month, a senior US defense official declared that \u201ceven one M1 was out of the question,\u201d\u00a0according to the Washington Post<\/a>. When used by US troops in Iraq, the M1s were \u201chard for us to sustain and maintain,\u201d the official noted. For Ukraine, \u201cit would be impossible.\u201d…<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATO\u2019s ‘war against Russia’ inches ‘closer to direct conflict’ “We are fighting a war against Russia,” German\u2019s Foreign Minister says, as the US and Germany authorize tank shipments, and new dangers, in the Ukraine proxy war. (US M1 Abrams tanks at a training site in Germany, 2018. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Sharon Matthias […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[32579,359,4035,553,1150,694,821,862,891,1823],"class_list":["post-64866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-aaron-mate","tag-germany","tag-hot-war","tag-nato","tag-proxy-war","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-world-war","tag-world-war-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64867,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64866\/revisions\/64867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}