If they become convinced that we are planning to hit them before they can hit us, that could motivate them to do something really, really stupid.  We are closer to nuclear war than we have ever been before, and we definitely do not need western leaders making provocative statements that are only going to make things even worse.

For example, during a conference in Brussels NATO’s top military official said something that is now making headlines all over the globe.  The following comes from an article posted on MSN News entitled “NATO considers preemptive strikes amid rising tensions with Russia”…

NATO Military Committee Chairman Admiral Rob Bauer stated during a conference in Brussels that NATO leadership is contemplating the possibility of conducting precise preemptive strikes on Russian territory in the event of an armed conflict between Moscow and the Alliance.

It is now being claimed that Bauer was not actually talking about a pre-emptive strike on Russia.

But if you look at his actual words, it certainly seems like that was precisely what he was talking about…

During a question-and-answer session after his address at the European Policy Center in Brussels, Bauer said, “The idea was we are a defensive alliance, so we will only sit and wait until we are attacked, and then when we are attacked, we will be able to shoot down the ‘arrows’ that come to us,” referring to a Russian strike.

He also said that when responding to any attack, it would be “smarter” to “attack the archer, that is…Russia—if Russia attacks us. So you need to have a combination of deep precision (strikes) with which you can take out the weapons systems that are used to attack us.”

Needless to say, the Russians were not amused.

In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov believes that Bauer was essentially announcing NATO’s “real plans”…

The North Atlantic Alliance has ignored all diplomatic protocol, allowing itself to make statements about the possibility of preemptive strikes on Russia, top Russian diplomat Sergey Lavrov said.

“Just the other day, Mr. Bauer, NATO Military Committee Chair, explicitly stated that it’s no longer enough, and ensuring the defense of the North Atlantic Alliance member states requires strikes on targets in Russia that NATO believes may pose a threat to the bloc. I think there’s nothing to comment on here; it’s just that they have forgotten all etiquette, publicly announcing their real plans,” he noted at the 20th meeting of the heads of security and intelligence agencies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

If the Russians become convinced that we are going to hit them first, that will make it much more likely that they will hit us first. We really need to get the Russians to understand that we have no plans to do that.

Meanwhile, a French news source is reporting that European leaders continue to discuss “sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine”…

As the conflict in Ukraine enters a new phase of escalation, discussions over sending Western troops and private defense companies to Ukraine have been revived, Le Monde has learned from corroborating sources. These are sensitive discussions, most of which are classified – relaunched in light of a potential American withdrawal of support for Kyiv once Donald Trump takes office on January 20, 2025.

That is insane!

What in the world are they thinking?

No matter what Donald Trump does when he gets into the White House, our European allies fully intend to continue to escalate this war.

It is madness.

On top of everything else, this week the New York Times has reported that the Biden administration has actually discussed the possibility of arming Ukraine with nuclear weapons.

When Dmitry Medvedev heard about this, he went ballistic…

Moscow will consider any threat of nuclear arms being supplied to Ukraine by the US as preparation for a direct war with Russia, former president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. The actual transfer of nuclear weapons would be tantamount to an attack on the country under Russia’s new nuclear doctrine, he added.

On Tuesday, Medvedev posted a message on Telegram that was quite ominous…

“Give nuclear weapons to a country at war with the largest nuclear power? The idea is so absurd that it raises suspicions about a paranoid psychosis in Joe The Walking Dead and all those who would advise such a move.”

He continued, “Yet I must comment on the nonsense: 1) The very threat of transferring nuclear weapons to the Kyiv regime can be considered preparation for nuclear conflict with Russia;

2) The actual transfer of such weapons can be equated to an act of attack on our country under article 19 of the Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.

The consequences are obvious.”

I don’t think that the Biden administration has any intention of giving Ukraine nuclear weapons right now.

But the fact that they are talking about it is really freaking out the Russians.

I really wish that cooler heads would prevail, but instead both sides just continue to escalate matters.

Over the past few days, Ukraine has launched more long-range missiles provided by NATO into Russian territory, and now the Russians have announced that they are preparing another “response”…

Russia is preparing a response to Ukrainian ATACMS attacks on Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday. Last week, US President Joe Biden authorized Kiev to use US-supplied long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders.

In an official statement on Telegram, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that over the past three days, Ukraine’s forces had conducted two long-range strikes on Kursk Region using Western weaponry.

As I discuss in this video, many are anticipating that the Russian “response” will be even larger than last time.

Let us hope that the Russians only use conventional weapons, and let us hope that they limit their targets to Ukraine.

Because the Russians have previously identified a U.S. base in Poland as a potential target, and the Biden administration is making it clear that such a strike would trigger NATO’s Article 5…

White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. has a ‘rock-solid’ commitment to NATO’s Article 5, should Russia strike the new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland. Article 5 is NATO’s principle of collective defense, that if one NATO member is attacked, all other NATO members go to war with the attacker, a world war-style response.

“We take our Article 5 commitments to our NATO Allies incredibly seriously. It’s rock-solid, and that’s not going to change,” Kirby said on Monday, according to Remix News.

Kirby was responding to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who on Thursday said that Russia is considering attacking a new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland.

We are dangerously close to a point of no return.

Once nuclear missiles start flying, there will be no going back.

The Russians have been working extremely hard to prepare for a nuclear war, and meanwhile the U.S. is still relying on hopelessly outdated systems from the 1970s and 1980s.

We must change course while it is still possible to do so.

Unfortunately, it appears that we are about to witness another series of escalations which will push us even closer to the unthinkable.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Britain and France are in talks to send troops to Ukraine to deter Vladimir Putin, it has emerged.

London and Paris want to create a “core of allies in Europe” as fears intensify that President-elect Donald Trump could withdraw military support for Ukraine.

This was one of the top stories on the Drudge Report today.

Our allies in Europe are making it very clear that they plan to continue with the war no matter what Donald Trump decides to do once he is inaugurated.

NATO’s top military official is warning that Europeans may have to make sacrifices in order to support Ukraine if Trump reduces the level of U.S. funding for the war…

Europeans must be ready to sacrifice some “luxuries” to pay to support Ukraine and to prevent a “wartime scenario” coming to the nations of the continent if they are insufficiently prepared, NATO’s most senior military officer said in a speech namechecking both Russia and China as threats.

Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, who probably has no idea what a real war looks like, is also encouraging European businesses to “adjust their production and distribution lines” for a wartime scenario…

A top NATO military official on Monday urged businesses to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly, in order to be less vulnerable to blackmail from countries such as Russia and China.

“If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence,” the chair of NATO’s military committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said in Brussels.

It certainly does not sound like he expects the war to end any time soon.

In fact, it very much sounds like he expects it to escalate significantly.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that the Biden administration has actually discussed giving nuclear weapons to Ukraine…

So U.S. and European officials are discussing deterrence as a possible security guarantee for Ukraine, such as stockpiling a conventional arsenal sufficient to strike a punishing blow if Russia violates a cease-fire.

Several officials even suggested that Mr. Biden could return nuclear weapons to Ukraine that were taken from it after the fall of the Soviet Union. That would be an instant and enormous deterrent. But such a step would be complicated and have serious implications.

Needless to say, the Biden administration should not be discussing such a thing, and the New York Times should not be printing such a thing.

If the Russians think that there is even a small chance that nuclear weapons are going to be given to Ukraine, that is going to make them even more paranoid than they are now.

Most people in the western world have no idea how the Russians view this conflict.  They were promised that NATO would not expand one inch eastward, and now NATO is right on their borders and long-range missiles provided by NATO are being fired into their territory.  The Russians truly believe that they are engaged in an existential struggle with western powers, and they also truly believe that those western powers want to overthrow their government and carve their beloved homeland up into dozens of little countries.  They have seen “regime change” happen in so many other nations in recent years, and now they fear that the exact same thing is being done to them.

If the Russians feel that they have been backed into a corner with no other options, they will use nuclear weapons.

Alarmingly, it is being reported that FEMA has just released “a spine-chilling survival guide for a nuclear attack”…

As global tensions mount, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has released a spine-chilling survival guide for a nuclear attack amid the escalating Ukraine conflict and intensifying Middle Eastern disputes.

Echoing Cold War-era preparedness, the agency’s updated advice aims to shield Americans from the horrors of a nuclear explosion. A nuclear simulation grimly tallies the death toll should Russia target Washington DC with a nuke – the numbers are staggering, reports the Irish Star.

If the Russians use nuclear weapons on U.S. soil, they won’t just hit one city.

Instead, they would hit hundreds of targets simultaneously, and America as we know it would cease to exist.

The Germans are so concerned about the possibility of all-out war with Russia that they are actually creating a list of bunkers that civilians could potentially use when missiles start falling…

Germany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians, the interior ministry has said, at a time of rising tensions with Russia.

The list would include underground train stations and car parks as well as state buildings and private properties, a ministry spokesperson said.

A digital directory of bunkers and emergency shelters will be drawn up so people can find them quickly using a planned phone app. People would also be encouraged to create protective shelters in their homes by converting basements and garages, the spokesperson told a press briefing.

I don’t know if they understand what they are potentially facing.

Those shelters may do some good if conventional weapons are used, but if nukes start flying entire cities will be pounded into oblivion.

Let us hope that cooler heads will prevail.

But for now, fighting continues to rage in Ukraine.  In fact, the Russians are telling us that they hit 149 locations inside Ukraine in just one 24 hour period…

Russian forces carried out strikes on Ukrainian military airfields, personnel and equipment over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported.

“Operational-tactical aviation, strike drones, missile forces, and artillery targeted the infrastructure of military airfields as well as concentrations of enemy personnel and military equipment in 149 locations,” the Mod said.

Even though we have been warned about this exact scenario for many, many years, we continue to march toward the unthinkable.

I don’t understand why so many people out there want an all-out war with Russia.

I hear from readers all the time that are absolutely obsessed with “defeating” the Russians.

But there will not be any winners in this war.

When push comes to shove, the Russians will use nuclear weapons, and by then it will be way too late for the warmongers to admit that they were wrong.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing and expanding the circumstances under which nuclear weapons may be used.

#BREAKING: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing and expanding the circumstances under which nuclear weapons may be used.

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) November 19, 2024

Maybe I’m smoking the hopium pipe on this one but the idea that Russia, after nearly three years of war with Ukraine, is ready to tangle with NATO seems absurd. But here’s the thing. If there’s a one percent chance that we’re on the verge of World War III, then we have to address it. Moreover, I would not put it past the UniParty Swamp and their puppet masters in the Globalist Elite Cabal to try to start a war before Donald Trump is inaugurated. This is, after all, 2024 and if we’ve learned anything this year it’s that the bad guys have no limits to their depravity. Here’s Snyder…

(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Now Joe Biden has really done it.  By giving the green light to long-range missile strikes deep inside of Russian territory, he has brought us closer to nuclear conflict than ever before.  As you will see below, Russian officials have become convinced that “NATO has gone to war with Russia”.  I feel like I am watching a slow-motion train wreck that I am powerless to stop.  I have been warning about this for so many years, and now it is here.  Steve Quayle, Henry Gruver, Dumitru Duduman, Marty Breeden and so many others have also warned America about what is coming.  If we stay on the path that we are on, nuclear weapons will be used.  Do we really want to go down that road?

The corporate media here in the United States is trying really hard to convince us that Joe Biden’s decision wasn’t really a big deal.

But the Russians sure do think that it was a big deal…

In Moscow, meanwhile, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky slammed Mr. Biden, accusing him of deciding “to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe’.”

Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov, meanwhile, told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that Biden’s decision represented “a very big step toward the beginning of the third world war.”

The official newspaper of the Russian state, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, warned “the madmen who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon be in great pain.”

And according to the Washington Post, one former Kremlin official is warning that “Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia”…

A former Kremlin official told The Washington Post that Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia and that “they will proceed accordingly.” The official spoke on the basis of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

That is rather chilling. Of course that language echoes something that Vladimir Putin said himself back in September…

Putin had personally warned against the eventuality previously, issuing a warning in September that U.S. permission for Ukraine to fire American-supplied long-range missiles at his country, “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries, are parties to the war in Ukraine.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced that previous statement by Putin when he was specifically asked how the Russian government is viewing the latest developments…

“And here the position of our President, the position of the Russian side, was very clearly and unambiguously formulated by our Head of State in his statement that he made in St Petersburg.

“It says everything very clearly. I simply recommend that you read these words of the President once again.”

Wow.

War with Russia is here.

Sergey Markov was asked if Vladimir Putin would actually use nuclear weapons once long-range missiles start falling deep inside Russian territory, and he warned that in a worst case scenario “nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year”…

Asked if Putin would use nuclear missiles in response, Mr Markov said ‘not now’ and said it was more likely that bases in eastern Europe could be hit by smaller, tactical nuclear missiles.

But he added: “I think Biden, Macron and Starmer want escalation which could lead to, from my understanding, in the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year.

“Probably you will not be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ because you will stay in the hole trying to hide away [your] family from the nuclear catastrophe. It can develop very, very quickly.”

Personally, I don’t think that it will happen quite so fast. But we are definitely on a road that leads to nuclear war.

After Biden’s announcement, U.S. Representative Thomas Massie stated that Biden had just committed an impeachable offense…

By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens. This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state.

I agree with Massie 100 percent.

But there won’t be a move to impeach Biden now.

Most Republicans in Congress are way too lily-livered to do anything like that.

Donald Trump Jr. was also horrified by Biden’s decision…

Trump Jr., 46, tweeted that the “military-industrial complex” is trying to undermine his dad before he takes office by pushing the war further into chaos.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he tweeted.

Yes, Joe Biden is still in the White House, but this was a decision that Donald Trump should have been allowed to make.

Trump needs to come out and immediately denounce what Biden has done, but if he does that he will be accused of “colluding with Putin” and that is something that Trump very much wants to avoid. But Trump can’t be concerned about what others will think at this point.

We are literally on the brink of nuclear war, and we are running out of time to reverse course. In fact, Sweden is so concerned about the possibility of nuclear war that it has “issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water”…

Sweden has issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water – just hours after Volodymyr Zelensky’s chilling video address to Vladimir Putin warned US missile strikes “will speak for themselves.”

If our leaders had any sense, they would be doing the same thing.

But instead, they keep assuring us that the Russians are bluffing and that they would never actually use nuclear weapons.

In the end, we shall see who was bluffing and who was not.

Interestingly, on Monday it was being reported that Internet cables under the Baltic Sea have been “suddenly disrupted”…

Two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been suddenly disrupted, according to local telecommunications companies, amid fresh warnings of possible Russian interference with global undersea infrastructure.

A communications cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning around 10:00 a.m. local time, a spokesperson from telecommunications company Telia Lithuania confirmed to CNN.

Did the Russians do that? Were they trying to send us a message?

I just wrote about how vulnerable our undersea Internet cables are last week.

Cutting two cables is not going to disrupt much, but what if the Russians started cutting dozens of cables?

We really are in uncharted territory. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because right now the road that we are on only leads to pain.

Michael’s new book entitled “Why” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.