Russia has already “rattled the ultimate saber” in its war with Ukraine, and the United States and NATO should be prepared to launch a “devastating” response, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is urging.
In a Saturday commentary for The New York Times, the 2012 GOP nominee for president said “Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would unarguably be a redefining, reorienting geopolitical event.”
“By claiming that Russia is readying its weapons, by warning of a ‘serious’ risk of nuclear escalation and by declaring ‘there are few rules left,’ they purposefully rattled the ultimate saber,” he wrote.
“We should imagine the unimaginable, specifically how we would respond militarily and economically to such a seismic shift in the global geopolitical terrain.”
NATO forces could engage with Russia in Ukraine and crush out their attempts to reclaim the peaceful former Soviet territory, he suggested, and the United States could pressure China and other Russia allies to turn against Moscow.
“You are either with us, or you are with Russia — you cannot be with both,” Romney wrote.
He added that any nation that aligned with a post-nuclear Russia would be a “global pariah,” and would be forced to endure an “economic Armageddon” that would be “far preferable to nuclear Armageddon.”
“The potential responses to an act so heinous and geopolitically disorienting as a nuclear strike must be optimally designed and have the support of our NATO allies,” Romney declared.
“Mr. Putin and his enablers should have no doubt that our answer to such depravity would be devastating.”
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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