Author Archives: RDoug

WILL RUSSIA USE CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST UKRAINE?
(Why not? Vlad “Tepes” Putin has used them before!)

Back during the previous Cold War I had the honor of serving with NATO forces in our standoff against vastly superior Warsaw Pact forces. We understood that in the event of war we would be overrun. Indeed, we were told that our mission was to merely attempt to hold out for 72 hours to give U.S.-based forces sufficient time to respond.

We also understood that the Soviets would at some point resort to chemical weapons, and we trained accordingly. I was issued a gas mask, but as the filters degraded over time, we were told that we would be issued new filters once hostilities began. I was also trained in the use of autoinjectors. In the event of war we would be issued two — one to counter Soviet nerve agents, and the other for Soviet blood agents. In training we were instructed that we had perhaps 90 seconds to decide which agent was killing us, choose the correct autoinjector, then drive that autoinjector forcefully into our thigh. Misidentify what agent was killing you and you die; if not from the weapon, then from the cure.

Today the calculus has shifted. NATO conventional forces vastly outnumber an unmotivated Russian Army of conscripts that so far appears poorly equipped, inadequately trained, ineptly lead, and incompetently commanded (looking at you, Vlad “Tepes” Putin).

Since the end of the previous Cold War Russian chemical weapons have advanced considerably, with Novichok being Vladimir Putin’s recent assassination weapon of choice. He ordered its use against Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018. That latter act of war against a NATO nation occurred in the U.K., seriously wounding four and killing one.

Having used banned chemical weapons already, once on NATO soil, it’s only a matter of time before Vladimir Putin gives the go-ahead to use it against civilian centers in Ukraine. We must be prepared for that, and we will need to respond accordingly.

And do not buy into the latest Russian deceit that it is we or the Ukrainians who are the ones plotting to use these banned substances. Don’t allow the Russian propagandists in the employ of the traitorous Rupert Murdoch convince you otherwise. This latest Carlson/Hannity-led conspiracy nonsense is just that — Russian propaganda designed to heap future blame for Vladimir Putin’s impending war crimes onto the actual victims of his probably inevitable chemical warfare attack.

I say “probably inevitable” because the Russians historically telegraph their punches by laying the groundwork to blame others. That is why we are now being treated to this latest disinformation campaign blitz coming from the Putin sycophants at Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News.

— R. Doug Wicker