The longer Ukraine President pushes for a No Fly Zone over the Ukraine?
The more pressure the American Presiddnt is gonna come over accepting the idea
President Biden is STRONGLY against the idea….
ON THE NO-FLY ZONE: The group of 27 foreign policy heavyweights has signed an open letter to the Biden administration calling for a “limited no-fly zone.” The campaign is led by ROBERT MCCONNELL, co-founder of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation.
As you’ve no doubt read by now, a no-fly zone over Ukraine has been ruled out by Biden and a wide cross-section of foreign policy leaders. Sen. MARCO RUBIO (R-Fla.) succinctly described the idea as leading to “World War III.” To set up a no-fly zone, NATO (i.e. American) pilots would first have to destroy Russian air defenses. To enforce a no-fly zone, NATO would have to shoot down Russian planes that violate it.
Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN warned Saturday that Russia would view any nation declaring a no-fly zone “as participants of the military conflict.” It’s one of the few things that Biden and Putin seem to agree on: A no-fly zone would start a war between NATO and Russia.
But in their new letter, these signatories are calling for something a little different:
“We, the undersigned, urge the Biden administration, together with NATO allies, to impose a limited No-Fly Zone over Ukraine starting with protection for humanitarian corridors that were agreed upon in talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials on Thursday. NATO leaders should convey to Russian officials that they do not seek direct confrontation with Russian forces, but they must also make clear that they will not countenance Russian attacks on civilian areas.”
This strikes us as a sincere attempt to answer the nagging question that many in the West have about wanting to do something about the humanitarian catastrophe Putin has unleashed without escalating into a potential nuclear conflict. The proposal described here is strictly about protecting civilians and enforcing the humanitarian corridors that Putin claims to back.
“President Biden and NATO Secretary General [JENS] STOLTENBERG have stated that neither the United States nor NATO will engage Russian forces on the ground in Ukraine,” they write. “What we seek is the deployment of American and NATO aircraft not in search of confrontation with Russia but to avert and deter Russian bombardment that would result in massive loss of Ukrainian lives.”
No doubt, members of Congress, and officials at the White House, Pentagon and State Department will be pressed on this today. (The proposal does not change the fact that NATO would be in a position of engaging Russian forces that violate the limited no-fly zone, so we think we know what the answer will be.)
Some of the big names who signed…