Fears of escalating a conflict with Vladimir Putin by allowing Ukraine to use U.S.-made long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia might be the price of dealing with the Russian president's ambitions, retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, former NATO supreme commander, told Newsmax on Monday.
President Joe Biden on Sunday authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied long-range missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the weapons while Russia deployed thousands of North Korean troops to reinforce its war.
"It's a concern, but if deterrence means anything, if NATO means anything, then you're going to have to come to terms with Mr. Putin," Clark told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren."
Clark, who called Biden's decision long overdue and a "political gesture," said the situation in Ukraine is critical, especially if President-elect Donald Trump can't deliver on a campaign promise of brokering a peace deal in the war.
"The stakes in Ukraine are substantial," Clark said. "If Ukraine were to go down, if Mr. Trump and the negotiations can't get a good settlement, he'll look weak all over the world and it will incentivize China to make a move against Taiwan. So this is all connected. For the American people, yeah, we're worried about immigrants and things like this. And it's total war here in the United States against the immigrants. I get it.
"But for the rest of the world, it's a coalition of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea that have lined up against the United States. And this is just the first theater of operations. And they're all connected. Getting North Korean troops and long-range guns in Ukraine. You're getting Iranian drones in. We know that the Russians are providing air defense assistance to Iran.
"So this is shaping up not to be very pretty. And it's not the kind of thing that we can handle by just releasing a couple of long-range missiles at this stage. From the beginning, the Biden administration has been to sort of stall and wait and hope Putin would relent. And he's not relenting now," he said.
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