Final Word from Monday, September 16, 2024

Russia and the U.S. are in an escalation race in Ukraine that's modeled on the arms race of the Cold War, as we wrote last week, but the propaganda aspect of it isn't being fronted for the most part by the Kremlin or White House. Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden leave it to proxies in the media, so that it isn't too obvious that there's mutual interest in ramping up the war. In Russia these are often KGB-trained political scientists or generals. Hon. Chair Sergey Karaganov of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy calls for lowering the threshold for using nuclear weapons. Ret. KGB Gen. Vladimir Dzhabarov talks about destroying the train stations that allow Western politicians and weapons to enter Ukraine and about destroying all the bridges over the Dnieper. One of the leading Czech escalationists, Army Chief of Staff Karel Řehka, spoke again over the weekend about allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons to hit Russian targets. Russian escalationists claim that the White House has already made this decision, so they're already talking about the next round of escalation. In which case it will soon be Řehka's turn again. [ Czech Republic United States Sergei River ]