(DCWatchdog.com) – The United States and its allies in the NATO pact should inform Russian leader Vladimir Putin that using nuclear weapons will cause him to lose his life, former US National Security Advisor John Bolton declared.
In an interview for The Sunday Times radio, Bolton said the US and NATO had been “intimidated by the Russians” because of the latter’s threat to use tactical nuclear weapons over the war in Ukraine.
The former US National Security Advisor, who served under President Donald Trump from 2018-2019, also insisted that America and its allies had to define clear objectives to “win the war” for Ukraine.
Bolton’s comments came after, on Friday, the world marked the first year since Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, in an apparent quest to resurrect the former Soviet empire.
“We’re intimidated by the threat of tactical nuclear weapons. I think for one year, Putin has bluffed. It’s been entirely an effort to psyche out the United States and the West, and it’s succeeded,” Bolton stated on Sunday.
“I think we need to make it clear to the Russians generally that any use of tactical nuclear weapons would result in devastating retaliation, including a direct attack on Vladimir Putin’s life personally,” he declared, as cited by Newsmax.
“If there’s a better way to deter Putin, I’m happy to hear about it. But what I’m looking for is the most convincing argument to convince the Russians that they can just leave their tactical nuclear weapons in their arsenals where they are now,” the former National Security Advisor elaborated.
He also called for more radical US and Western actions to support Ukraine as it is fighting off Russian aggression.
In his words, the US and NATO should define it as a war objective to clear all of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, of all Russian troops, and should pay up for this to be achieved.
“We have not provided adequate weaponry to the Ukrainians. We don’t have a strategy to win,” Bolton insisted.
“It really endangers support for the war, at least in the United States, when we’re afraid to say conclusively that our objectives are the removal of all Russian troops and the restoration of full Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty — meaning and including Crimea,” he stressed further.
The former Trump aide said the US-led NATO alliance acted “pathetically weakly in response to the first invasion” when Russia seized Crimea and Donbas in 2014 as the Obama administration stood by.
He argued that all 30 member states should boost their defense spending to reach 4% of their GDP to “restore NATO’s credibility.”
“We need substantially greater defense expenditures across the board. The [current] 2% NATO target is inadequate. It ought to be 3% or 4% of GDP,” Bolton said.
“The notion we can have defense and deterrence on the cheap has been brutally destroyed by Russia’s aggression. Let’s learn the lesson. It’s right in front of us,” the former US National Security Advisor stated.
“Let’s win the war. If that’s what our objective is, let’s tell the people of our countries, and let’s get on with it,” he added.
Bolton said Putin was “all-in now” and that Communist China’s support for the Russians was growing.
“This is not a European war anymore; this is a global war,” he concluded.
The United States and NATO have been "intimidated by the Russians" by the threat of tactical nuclear weapons use, and they need to define clear objective to "win the war," former National Security Adviser John Bolton said. https://t.co/hHBWlFtYhd
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) February 26, 2023
