John Bolton, a former U.S. national security adviser, told Newsmax that, although the United States won't give Poland nuclear weapons, the Pentagon "might consider basing" them there.
During a Thursday interview on "The Record With Greta Van Susteren," the longtime foreign policy insider said that increased Russian nuclear threats against NATO might lead the Biden administration to host nukes within the country.
"This idea of hosting U.S. nuclear forces — to be clear, we're not going to give Poland nuclear weapons. That's not going to happen. But we might consider basing nuclear weapons in Poland, especially tactical weapons," Bolton stated, adding that he believes Poland views it as increasing "the deterrent threat against Russia."
Bolton said the U.S. needs to publicly tell Russian President Vladimir Putin, "If Russia uses a nuclear weapon, even for a demonstration purpose in Ukraine, Putin is signing his own death warrant.
"He needs to know, and the people around him need to know, that when we say it's unacceptable — by God, we mean it's unacceptable," he stated. However, Bolton acknowledged that Putin "is counting on the U.S. being long on rhetoric and short on action."
"And he has reason to believe that's accurate," Bolton pointed out. "In Syria — how about in Ukraine in 2014 — when the Obama administration said, 'Oh, this invasion is just terrible.' And yet, the response was only a fairly minimal set of sanctions."
Still, Bolton made it clear that if Moscow gets away with a nuclear strike in Ukraine "without a more than proportionate response," U.S. enemies like China, Iran and North Korea will be emboldened to flirt with their nuclear arsenals.
"This is a very serious moment. I think we've got to be coldblooded about evaluating what Putin's going to do to try and stop him," he stressed. "We shouldn't overstate the threat. But if he does actually use one, we cannot be hesitant in our response."
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