The danger and likely outcome of trying to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine is open warfare between multiple nuclear powers. But that outcome be damned by The View’s Sunny Hostin on Monday as the ABC co-host demanded that NATO institute a no-fly zone. And according to her back and forth with co-host Sara Haines, Hostin seemed to think NATO was already at war with Russia.
“[W]e have to do something,” Hostin implored. “When you are seeing whole families, generations being taken out by Russia, and it feels like just with impunity.”
She then placed her ill-informed call for a no-fly zone, citing other successful implementations of the move:
And in terms of the no-fly zone, we've done it before. We did it in Iraq. We did it in Bosnia. We did it in Libya, and we did it because we had a coalition. There is such a strong -- there's such strength in numbers. There's such strength in coalitions and this is NATO we're talking about. I think that it's time now to start talking about the no-fly zone because when will Putin stop?
But Hostin was oblivious to key differences that made those viable options at the time: none of those had a military capability on par or even nearing par with the U.S., none of those were major powers, and – this one is the biggest reason – they didn’t have nukes!
That’s not to mention the dangers enforcing a no-fly zone entail. Not only would you be required to shoot down any Russian aircraft that enters the space, but it also requires destroying Russian surface-to-air missile (SAMs) batteries on the ground in Russia aimed at Ukrainian airspace.
Of course, all this flew over the head of co-host Sara Haines who claimed: “the no-fly zone makes sense.” “In the beginning, I thought, why aren't we just doing it,” she wondered, before suggesting Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was “almost tempting us to do it. One aircraft comes across, you shoot, that's act war, we are in a war.”
In response, Hostin seemed to be under the impression NATO was already at war with Russia and Haines seemingly argued that it’s going to become a nuclear war at some point anyway so why not start now:
HOSTIN: But aren't they already in a war?
HAINES: That's what I mean. The other side of that is we're understandably afraid of a nuclear war, but right now he's firing at nuclear plants. So, is it not going to be nuclear regardless? Like, I don’t know where you go from here.
Sara, that’s the reason you don’t put up a no-fly zone; and there’s a difference between launching nukes across the globe and a possible (though unlikely) local radiological crisis.
A few minutes later, co-Host Whoopi Goldberg suggested that we needed to chat with “mothers with children who are boys who are 18” because “at some point, this is going to require feet on the ground.”
All of this came the day after the Ukrainian military proved, yet again, that they can be their own no-fly zone after they reportedly downed numerous Russian warplanes. That’s not to mention that Hostin pushed the no-fly zone after talking about seeing people “killed by shelling.” This means they were killed by artillery and not aircraft, which is means such a zone wouldn’t have stopped it.
The View’s dangerous and ill-informed calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Carvana and Purina. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 7, 2022
11:04:57 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: I rarely -- I think that Manchin has been, you know, so obstreperous when it comes to Biden's administration plans, but I think he's right about this. I don't think we can at this point seeing the devastation in Ukraine, seeing -- I saw this photo this weekend of a family of four trying to flee, and they were just killed by shelling.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yeah.
HOSTIN: And I really, you know, felt that at that point, we have to do something. When you are seeing whole families, generations being taken out by Russia, and it feels like just with impunity. And I think what Manchin was saying is we can't take anything off the table.
And you and I agreed on this last week in terms of, you know, the oil sanctions. I mean, even Jonathan Karl, our colleague and friend said on the This Week program that it's “extraordinary that the Biden administration is sanctioning everything but Russian oil,” which is the thing that drives their economy. It is the thing that drives their economy. If you are going to sanction Russia, sanction that, you know, sanction the oil.
And in terms of the no-fly zone, we've done it before. We did it in Iraq. We did it in Bosnia. We did it in Libya, and we did it because we had a coalition. There is such a strong -- there's such strength in numbers. There's such strength in coalitions and this is NATO we're talking about. I think that it's time now to start talking about the no-fly zone because when will Putin stop?
SARA HAINES: Well, the tricky part is because Ukraine is not a part of NATO that you have to get that consensus from NATO –
HOSTIN: Right.
HAINES -- to do it or you’re kind of a bad faith actor in being part of that organization of 30 nations.
I tend to see what Ana is saying. We're the most powerful nation in the world. We're a wealthy nation, and I feel like there's not a good answer here because the no-fly zone makes sense. In the beginning, I thought, why aren't we just doing it? But I feel he’s almost tempting us to do it. One aircraft comes across, you shoot, that's act war, we are in a war.
HOSTIN: But aren't they already in a war?
HAINES: That's what I mean. The other side of that is we're understandably afraid of a nuclear war, but right now he's firing at nuclear plants. So, is it not going to be nuclear regardless? Like, I don’t know where you go from here.
(…)
11:08:07 a.m. Eastern
GOLDBERG: It is, you know, it's a question that you have to ask mothers with children who are boys who are 18. You have to talk to them also because at some point this is going to require feet on the ground.
And, you know, I think Biden and everybody else in the world is trying to do as much as they can before going to the nuclear, because we haven't been the only ones with nukes for a long time. Russia is not the only one with nukes. China has nukes and Pakistan has nukes. There's nukes everywhere. Everybody's armed here.
So this is -- this is different than it's been for 40, 50 years when you could go in and sort of muscle it, and I don't think anybody's taking anything off the table. I don't think anybody wants to rush in, and I have to say I'm glad, you know, they kept saying that woman who used to run the U.N. I guess, you know, she said this would not be happening if --
HAINES: Oh, Nikki Haley.
GOLDBERG: Yeah. If bonehead had been president, and I say what I said last time. There wouldn't have been any issue because that guy would have handed Ukraine over to the Russians.
ANA NAVARRO: And bonehead kept -- bonehead kept aid from Ukraine precisely to try to do the quid pro quo.
GOLDBERG: Yes. Yes.
(…)
