The U.S. and its allies must not ease pressure on Moscow despite a series of drone provocations and joint military drills between Russia and Belarus that prompted Poland to close its border with Belarus, former Pentagon official Brent Sadler told Newsmax on Sunday.
"This is not the time to back down on applying pressure to Russia. In fact, it's quite the opposite," Sadler said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend" while warning that the drone flights were likely an attempt by President Vladimir Putin to "sow discord amongst NATO allies."
Putin's strategy, he added, is designed to weaken the alliance by pushing member states to soften their stance out of fear of escalation.
Further, if Putin can sow discord, it would be a repeat of what was seen under former President Joe Biden, "where we were very reactive and we went right into this attritional war that is a Russian hallmark," Sadler said.
Still, he said, "NATO will hold no matter what, I think. So Putin does fear NATO, but he fears the U.S. inside NATO. That's really where the military capability is at that he worries about."
Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer, a former Trump campaign national security adviser, told Newsmax on Sunday that Russia's drone incursion Wednesday over Poland reflect the danger of miscalculation at a volatile moment.
"It's clear that Russia right now feels it's winning on the battlefield," Shaffer said. "This could be part of what I would call a probing action."
Some of the drones may have been launched without official authorization, he said, but cautioned that the greatest risk is an unintended escalation.
"The biggest danger to the escalation is miscalculation," Shaffer said. "That's what I'm most worried about right now: one side or the other going a bit too far and things getting out of hand."
Shaffer emphasized NATO's strength and readiness to deter Moscow.
"We have the largest forward basing of U.S. forces in Poland right now," he said. "There's no doubt that we're prepared to go to war. I don't think there's a stronger military force on the planet, forward right now, ready to go."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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