It is unequivocally clear that if France or any other NATO member deploys combat troops to Ukraine, those troops will be targeted and killed by Russian firepower.

In that case, the proxy war in Ukraine becomes an all-out war between the U.S.-led NATO alliance and Russia. That is, World War Three will have started, which in all probability leads inexorably to a nuclear conflagration.

Anyone pushing that trajectory is contemptible and criminal. Step up, Monsieur Macron.

This narcissistic wannabe Napoleon figure has been pushing the envelope for several weeks now since he hosted a conference on Ukraine in Paris on February 26 when he began publicly toying with the notion of sending NATO troops to Ukraine to combat Russia.

This week, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin claimed that a contingent of 2,000 French military personnel were preparing to enter the Ukraine conflict.

France's military commanders vehemently dismissed the Russian intelligence claim, decrying it as an "irresponsible provocation".

Just who is being provocative here?

The alleged French deployment is consistent with the unhinged and belligerent rhetoric of French President Emmanuel Macron over the past three weeks during which he has been hinting at sending troops and of having "no red lines" to make sure that Russia does not win the war in Ukraine.

Macron - like a puerile character - has also taken to goading other European leaders, notably his German counterpart, about not being "cowards" when it comes to supporting Ukraine.

Let's be clear. NATO soldiers and weapons have been in Ukraine since the CIA-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 that installed a Russian-hating NeoNazi regime. The NATO proxy war has been targeting Russia for over a decade and killed more than 10,000 ethnic Russian civilians during a low-intensity war of aggression in formerly Eastern Ukraine. That aggression was finally countered when Russian forces intervened in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

However, the deployment of NATO combat battalions on the ground takes the conflict to the threshold of all-out war. And Monsieur Macron appears to be willing to go there (while directing from his plush leather armchair in Elysée Palace and swirling a tumbler of vintage whiskey, bien sûr.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said on several occasions - and most recently as of last week - that if Russia is threatened existentially, even with conventional weapons, then it reserves the right to use nuclear weapons for its defense. Putin warned that nuclear weapons exist to be used. The Russian doctrine for possible nuclear war is well-defined and long-established. Putin is not saber-rattling as the Western media stupidly make out. He is merely reminding potential enemies of the ultimate reality.

Given the appalling stakes involved, it may seem bewildering that France's Macron keeps talking about the possibility of deploying French and other NATO troops to fight in Ukraine.

What is driving the French head of state to make such crass allusions?

First of all, it should be noted that such military contingents are crass from an objective military point of view. The deployment of 2,000 French troops would change nothing on the battlefield. They would be destroyed in two days, as American military analyst Scott Ritter points out.

The risk is that the casualties inflicted on France would trigger other NATO members to intervene with greater numbers and firepower. That would lead to a spiraling escalation towards all-out nuclear war. As well as France, the Poles and Baltic states appear to be gung-ho about sending combat units.

So, the French military contingency does not make sense from a military point of view, unless that is, the ulterior objective is to incite escalation. In other words, the French battle group is deliberately put forward as a sacrificial lamb to act as a tripwire for full NATO mobilization to war.

There are other factors to weigh up in assessing Macron's machoism. One is the suggestion that he is bluffing about increasing military involvement only as a means to bolster a personal negotiating position vis-à-vis Moscow in trying to broker a political settlement to the conflict in Ukraine.

Macron may have the backing of the smaller Russophobic NATO states like Poland and the Baltics over his military deployment rhetoric. But he seems to have rubbed the larger NATO members the wrong way. The United States, Britain and Germany have balked at Macron's proposals.

That again suggests that Macron is puffing out his chest in a bid to set himself up as some kind of interlocutor with Putin to negotiate a deal over Ukraine. A deal that he can then try to milk for his own political glory as the "peacemaker".

Recall that in the early stages of the conflict, Macron took it upon himself to act as a kind of "Putin whisperer".

Another factor is the forthcoming European Parliamentary elections in June. Macron and other establishment politicians and parties are bracing for a severe electoral backlash from voters across the European Union who are furious over a raft of reasons. The EU's backing of the futile war in Ukraine has taken a huge toll on European industries, businesses, farmers, workers, and public services.

The absurd irony is that Macron, Scholz, Rutte, Von der Leyen, Borrell, and so on, claim that they want to make Europe a global power. The reality is they have destroyed Europe in their abject servility to U.S. imperialism. For Washington, the ruination of Europe's economy is a strategic opportunity to rebuild American hegemony and preserve the dollar as a global currency.

As we discussed in our editorial last week, Macron also has to contend with the ignominy and blow to his ego from numerous African nations repudiating arrogant notions of French neocolonialism.

Furthermore, Macron is no doubt trying to distract from rampant domestic economic and political woes by talking up a war in Ukraine with Russia. This is a desperate maneuver by a desperate politician. And it's not just Macron who is potentially under fire. All of the European political establishment will be made to answer for leading the continent into a bloody and wasteful quagmire in Ukraine.

That brings us to another pivotal factor. The NATO proxy war in Ukraine is a debacle on a mammoth scale. The earlier defeat and disgrace of running from Afghanistan in 2021 will seem like a picnic by comparison. The entire credibility of NATO is at risk of collapsing irreparably from the imminent defeat in Ukraine at the hands of Russia.

Even Macron himself reportedly fears that the Kiev regime could implode very quickly. Therefore, it does not make sense to be considering the deployment of NATO troops to salvage a metaphorical sunken ship.

In sum, we may conclude that Macron's bellicose gambling is a bluff. A demonic and deranged one, too. He is bluffing to pretend that he is some kind of great European leader and burnish his failing authority among French and European citizens.

The real danger is that bluffing and posing can lead to unintended consequences. Macron and arrogant NATO elites may think they can play mind games with Russia, using the threat of troops deploying to Ukraine as a way to intimidate Moscow or to make themselves look tough.

The unforgivable trouble with this charade is that Macron and his ilk are gambling on world peace and the future of the planet based on their petty political egos.

Macron is like a poker player who is piling up stakes based on cards that he doesn't have.

He is daring Russia with nothing but his oversized ego. But the megalomaniac French poodle will find that Russia is not bluffing.
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