Putin’s speech underscored the humility with which Moscow had to deal with in the aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. But more importantly, Putin stressed the notion that Crimea is an inseparable part of Russia and a cornerstone of its emergence as a civilization and an empire. Keeping Crimea is an act of righting an egregious historical injustice committed against Moscow. Crimea and Donbas are Russia’s red lines.

Regardless, the authors have paid little attention to Russia’s history and historical disinclination to concede defeat. Russians preferred to set Moscow ablaze rather than concede defeat to Napoleon. The Red Army struggled against the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union along the Eastern Front. This largest invasion in history included some 3.5 million German and nearly 700,000 German-allied troops. Yet, the Red army stood its ground at a staggering cost and dealt the Wehrmacht a severe blow. By repelling the Nazi invasion, Moscow paved the way for the Normandy landing.

Significantly, the authors tied Ukraine’s defeat of Russia on the battlefield to maintaining the security, stability and prosperity of the transatlantic community. In this respect, they supported providing Ukraine with offensive and defensive weapons making the theatre of war inseparable from territorial borders. By so doing, they committed a fatal strategic error by making a NATO-Russia war almost inevitable. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has constantly reversed its position on weapons it initially deemed provoking a bigger war by delivering them to Ukraine. Not surprisingly, the timing of the letter coincided with Ukraine’s counteroffensive and the Biden administration’s apparent approval to provide Ukraine with long range missiles (ATACMs) and cluster munitions, which could make Washington a party to violations of laws of war since they are indiscriminate weapons that disproportionately harm civilians at the time of use and for years after a conflict has ended. One could also expect the Administration will eventually send combat aircrafts to Ukraine, all in all to help Ukraine prevail on the battlefield.

But have the authors considered Russia’s possible reactions? It’s hardly possible that a leader armed with a nationalist history and the largest inventory of nuclear warheads—whose use in conventional warfare is official military doctrine—and resentful of egregious historical injustices will not lethally respond to NATO and Ukraine’s strategy of defeating his regime. In this respect, the authors will have made supporting Ukraine’s victory on the battlefield the trigger to WWIII and the plausible destruction of Europe and Eurasia.

Gripped by a false sense of morality enveloped in hubris and Machiavellian calculations, the Biden administration is steadily taking Americans and many nationalities the world over to the precipice of nuclear abyss and global destruction over faraway lands demographically, politically, and historically conflicted. The time has come for Americans to take a stand and push back against this concerted but foolhardy march to WWIII. Americans must stop this madness and disabuse the Western alliance of its mantle that “weapons are the path to peace.”

Robert G. Rabil is a professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. Follow him on Twitter @robertgrabil. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Florida Atlantic University.

Francois Alam is an attorney at Law and Secretary General of the Christian Federation of Lebanon and the Levant. Follow him on Twitter @francoisalam.

Image: Shutterstock.