The transatlantic alliance has no strategy, says former Pentagon adviser Theodore Postol. In an interview with Dialogue Works, he talks about the incompetence of Western leaders: they do not own the situation and are just floundering in despair. Besides, if the West hands over Patriot systems to Ukraine, Russia will have no trouble finding and destroying them.
Can we understand NATO’s current official policy towards Ukraine? On the one hand, as reported by Bloomberg news agency, there is talk about the impossibility of providing Ukraine with weapons for many years into the future. Zelensky, as we see, is talking about peace talks. On the other hand, right now, eight Patriot systems are being shipped from Israel to the United States for subsequent transfer to Ukraine. In your view, how should these NATO actions be understood?
THEODORE POSTOL, ex-Pentagon advisor: First of all, I think it’s wrong to think that NATO has any strategy. They’re supposed to have a summit soon, sometime in early July — the seventh of July, right?
Yes.
THEODORE POSTOL: Macron will go there as a lame duck (his power will already be severely limited because the opposition party is likely to have a majority in parliament. – Inotv note). As for Biden, based on the international reaction to his performance in the debate with Trump, it’s impossible to think that he will be a competent leader. I think what people will be most anxious to see is whether he’s competent in any way. That’s what’s going to be a big part of the summit in many ways: in face-to-face interactions with Biden, people are going to be looking to see if he’s in command of the situation.
And Olaf Scholz is nothing at all in that sense…. During his speeches, he can’t even say some simple truths about what he himself is involved in. So I don’t see NATO having any strategy. In my opinion, they are floundering and desperate.
My guess is that if the Patriot systems you mentioned are indeed handed over to Ukraine, the Russians will find them and destroy them. The Russians have collected a lot of data and gained experience in how to deal with Patriot. The various ways of UAV attacks against these systems are very effective, because if you have a ten thousand dollar attack drone coming at you that can destroy your radar or your launcher, you just have to intercept it. You can’t just wave it off saying, “I’m not going to shoot it down.” You have to launch a $4-5 million interceptor missile to do it.
Once the Russians detect one of these calculations, they will immediately make it their priority target. And it would not be difficult to force them to shoot off the entire stock of interceptors, get to it and destroy it. I don’t see how the Ukrainians will be able to avoid it.
I would also like to know who operates these complexes, as I have not heard that Kiev has personnel trained for such tasks. So, when Ukraine starts losing such calculations, and losses cannot be avoided, I would like to know who will be killed.