“This war could’ve been prevented 11 years ago.”
Former NATO Commander General Philip Breedlove said the war in Ukraine could have been avoided 11 years ago — if the West had taken decisive action after the annexation of Crimea. He made the statement in an interview with Radio NV.
“We proposed deploying forces, patrolling the skies—but everything was rejected as ‘escalatory measures.’ In the end, we did nothing—and Russia escalated anyway,” he explained.
According to him, the West missed its window to deter Putin. And because of that, many more now pay the price.
Breedlove believes that neither the U.S. nor NATO was ready at the time to make the political decisions that could have stopped a full-scale war.
“The West still hasn’t imposed the kind of pain on Putin that would stop him. Ukraine can resolve this—if it’s given everything it needs,” he added.
2014 was the moment. Putin tested the waters in Crimea—and the West responded with nothing more than strongly worded emails.
What followed wasn’t escalation because we acted, but because we didn’t.
We gave Putin carte blanche to do it again.
Appeasement isn’t peacekeeping. It’s procrastination in disguise.
Letting war criminals get away with their crimes only makes them more likely to commit more.
As Garry Kasparov said: “The price of stopping dictators only goes up.”
Author: Marijn Markus