‘Cowardly’ Neocons Risk Awakening Russian Bear
“Americans are very cowardly warriors.
I dealt with them in Afghanistan, in other hot spots, in Yugoslavia when they were bombing the country. They are only capable of fighting from within the range of their artillery,” Col. Gen. Georgy Shpak (ret.), a former commander of Russia’s Airborne Forces, told Sputnik, adding that Putin’s warning about NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine was both “timely and correct.”
“The whole world knows that all of the conscience, honor and dignity” among US elites “have long been exhausted,” with the Washington establishment only seeming to respect an adversary that displays “strength,” Shpak said.
“The president demonstrated this strength today. He calmly said that as soon as an American soldier sets foot on the territory of Ukraine, he will be an invader, and the appropriate conclusions will be drawn. The whole world knows that Russians know how to fight. Today, for example, about 1-2 percent of the capabilities of our people are engaged in Ukraine. Well, we can mobilize the whole of the people to fight the interventionists,” Shpak stressed.
“The Russian people know how to pull themselves together, and we have the capabilities, the experience and the plants and factories. Most importantly, our people are hard workers who will stand up for the defense of our Motherland,” the retired general added.
Dr. Joe Siracusa, a US-born international affairs observer, historian and Russia specialist at Australia’s Curtin University, agrees that Putin’s choice of words made it obvious in no uncertain terms that Russia wouldn’t back down in Ukraine.
“He made it very clear that if the United States or its European allies actually put boots on the ground in Ukraine, they’d probably be at war with the Russian Federation. He’s made it very clear what the ‘red line’ here is, and that is the introduction of American or NATO forces there,” Siracusa, the dean of Curtin’s Global Futures program, told Sputnik.