Why are you showing the enemy your hand?

Joe Biden made it very clear from the start that the United States will not be putting troops on the ground in Ukraine.  Why not keep that to yourself, Joe?  Why not let Putin wonder whether or not that is a possibility.

Poland publicly announced that they thought it would be a good idea to transfer some MIG 29’s to Ukraine (via an indirect route of course).  The United States subsequently said “no.”  But why make any of this public in the first place?  Even if you do send fighter planes to Ukraine, why tell the Russians?  All this public display has done is to tell Putin in no uncertain terms that the west is afraid of escalation.

Why on earth would you tell Putin you are sending Stinger and Javelin missiles to Ukraine?  Let Putin wonder where they came from after they’ve been used to down his aircraft and blow big holes in his tanks.

When you are playing chess and trying to think ahead as many moves as your brain will allow, do you tell your opponent what you are thinking?

We (NATO collectively) have publicly given Putin a whole list of things we “won’t do.”  This is lunacy.  We shouldn’t be telling him anything about what we are or are not willing to do.

We’ve told Putin unequivocally that a “no-fly zone” is off the table.  Now he knows exactly what he can get away with, in the airspace over Ukraine.  Brilliant.  The news media broadcasts NATO troop deployments.  Brilliant.

It makes no sense to telegraph your intentions to your enemy.  By doing this we are laying out for Putin what we consider the parameters and rules of engagement to be.  This allows him to tailor his actions to avoid damage to himself.  We are handing him a gift – stupidly.

Putin should be lying awake at night wondering if a couple of U.S. attack subs are going to slip in a vaporize a few Russian Navy ships (shit Vlad – sorry – don’t know what happened there).  He should be wondering if a few ground support aircraft are going to chew that stalled column north of Kiyv to pieces in a few hours (aircraft launched from some secret base in Shangri La – so to speak).  He should be wondering how close he is to having a nuke land on Moscow.

I’m not advocating or encouraging any of these things.  What I am advocating is keeping our enemy in the dark always, whether during wartime or peacetime.  If we want to put pressure on Putin, deprive him of any information as to our intentions or limits.  The degree to which we’ve voluntarily handed Putin this information borders on criminal negligence.

Gadsden1