John F. Floyd Commentary: Abrams tanks to Ukraine is dangerous move for US

Russia has the capability to launch a nuclear strike on the United States. It has missiles that are locked in on certain targets in the U.S., and even with a sophisticated defense system, a few nuclear missiles will get through the shield.

What is the Biden administration, along with some Republicans, thinking. Bold headlines in the Charlotte Observer read, “US poised to approve Abrams tanks for Ukraine.”

It is unbelievable the U.S. would get further involved in a war that means nothing to us as a country.

I have empathy for the Ukrainian people. I think Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, is paranoid and psychotic. As the U.S. and other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have continued to expand that organization’s membership, Putin has further digressed into paranoia.

When there was talk of Ukraine joining NATO, Putin took it on himself to draw a line in the sand, and it just happened to be Ukraine with its proposed NATO membership. In his paranoid state, Putin saw this as a definite threat to Russia.

The introduction of the Abrams tanks to the Ukraine was not President Joe Biden’s decision, because I believe he only makes decisions that are dictated to him by his handlers. The decision was made by Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

U.S. officials have said the details are not finalized, but the tanks would be delivered through an upcoming Ukraine Security Assistance Package, which provides longer-range funding for weapons and equipment to be purchased from commercial vendors.

The hole we are digging for ourselves keeps getting deeper and deeper.

Most of the aid to Ukraine has been from present military inventory, but the Abrams tank is a different animal. The U.S. has resisted providing such tanks to Ukraine because of their sophistication. The Abrams is reported to be complicated, expensive, difficult to maintain and hard to train men to operate. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said, “We should not be providing the Ukrainians systems they can’t repair, they can’t sustain and that they, over the long term, can’t afford, because it is not helpful.”

I wonder how Lloyd figured that out. Regardless, the purchase/loan/gift or otherwise of the Abrams tanks is another poke in the eye for Putin. How many such provocations by the U.S. and its NATO allies will Putin take before he takes the Ukraine war to the next level?

And if he takes the conflict to the next level, what form will the war take. Russia has the means to directly engage the U.S. in a global conflict. It has the geographic and psychological advantage in a nuclear associated conflict. Russia has been there before and is accustomed to suffering.

The Grand Armèe of Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia from Poland in 1812. The French army of 500,000 men was met with a disaster. Strained supply lines and the Russian winter caused the failure of Napoleon to defeat his enemy.

Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, with an operation code named “Barbarossa.” The Germans learned nothing from Napoleon’s defeat. Here again, supply lines and the Russian winter were detrimental to the German invasion.

I hope an expanded conflict never occurs, but with the current level of participation by the U.S., the further infusion of sophisticated warring equipment and ignoring the warnings of a madman, escalation could happen. And then it would be too late.

The U.S. takes these risks over a country a world away, one that most Americans couldn’t locate on a map before the Ukraine war. I have total empathy for the Ukrainians, but not at all costs.

Russia responded for the first time on Jan. 26 regarding the decision to send Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine. It accused the U.S. of “direct involvement in the conflict.” An ominous declaration — just what does it mean and what are the consequences?

John F. Floyd is a Gadsden native who graduated from Gadsden High School in 1954. He formerly was director of United Kingdom manufacturing, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., vice president of manufacturing and international operations, General Tire & Rubber Co., and director of manufacturing, Chrysler Corp. He can be reached at johnfloyd538@gmail.com. The opinions reflected are his own. 

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: John F. Floyd looks at potential escalation of Ukraine conflict