K.T. McFarland to Newsmax: Putin Doesn't Want War to Get What He Wants

Ukraine won't be invaded because Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn't want to have to go to war to get what he wants, former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland said Wednesday on Newsmax.

"What he wants is Ukraine pledging never to go to into NATO, and he wants Ukraine back under the wing of Moscow," McFarland, who served under former President Donald Trump, said on Newsmax's "National Report." "He wants to call the orders and there are a lot of things he can do to make that happen short of war."

Such "hybrid warfare" steps could include false flag operations or even shutting down Ukraine's energy grid and leave them "shivering and in the dark," said McFarland.

Putin has "perfected" such actions, she continued.

"No, I don't think he wants to have those tanks go over the border. I don't think he wants a war. It could be messy. There'd be a lot of civilian casualties," said McFarland, adding that Putin got "all the options" because of the actions of President Joe Biden.

The United States has sent troops into Germany and Poland, as well as military aid and equipment, but McFarland said she does not think Putin is "nervous" about those steps.

"We're shoring up NATO," she said. "It's important to remind people that Ukraine is not a member of NATO. We are not obligated to defend Ukraine … we're sending a handful of troops to serve as a tripwire and saying to Vladimir Putin, 'you know you may take Ukraine, but you can't come into NATO countries.' "

She added that she believes that the troops have been sent in so they will be in a position to evacuate Americans and others from Ukraine, should war end up breaking out.

Meanwhile, it would send a message to Putin if Biden would close off the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, but he "can't pull that off," said McFarland.

"Biden was at the White House, and he met with the new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and President Biden got up and said, 'well, Russia has tanks across the border. We're going to shut down that Nord Stream 2 pipeline before it even gets going,' " said McFarland. "I looked over at the German chancellor and this expression on his face was like, 'no, we don't.' "

When Scholz was asked about shutting down the pipeline, he had a "really dodgy answer," she continued.

"No, Germany is not with the United States on that threat, nor could it be because half of the German economy depends on Russian oil and natural gas," said McFarland. "They are not going to jeopardize that relationship in order to bail out Ukraine. I don't even question whether they would jeopardize that relationship to bail out other NATO members. You know, Joe Biden let Russia be dominant in energy in Europe, and now the result is a rich Russia, a dependent Europe, and an isolated United States."

McFarland also discussed an article in The Washington Post detailing a U.S. Army report that the White House and State Department had been too late in reacting to the Taliban's final offensive in Afghanistan, placing U.S. troops that had been ordered to carry the withdrawal in greater danger.

"The national security community has known about this for a long time," said McFarland. "The intelligence community warned that the Afghan government would collapse very quickly. Everybody knew it was going to happen. Even the military knew it was going to happen yet the guys in the White House were still having briefings and meetings and trying to decide their strategy when they should have been getting Americans out of there."

The problem is that the Biden administration, just as with Ukraine, "fails to see a step or two down the road," said McFarland. "They don't understand the consequences of their actions."

With Afghanistan, the United States left Americans behind "and we look like idiots on the world stage," she continued. "Vladimir Putin made a [move] after he saw Afghanistan, after he saw Biden give up the U. S energy industry."

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