(originally published on May 27, 2023) The world continues to inch towards world war, with likely nuclear consequences, and few raise objections. The U.S.-NATO-Ukraine v. Russia conflict has progressed from the West solely provisioning defensive equipment to the Ukrainians, to the provision of missiles, to heavy tanks, to longer range missiles, to training Ukrainian pilots on F-16’s, and soon, certainly, the provision of F-16’s.
This occurs while Ukraine increasingly attacks within Russia’s pre-2014 borders; the USS Gerald R. Ford, the largest warship ever built, along with its armada, heads into “freedom of navigation” activity: code for provocative naval exercises, in the Arctic; and the deputy head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service publicly states that Vladimir Putin is at the top of its assasination hit list.
The two part Russian nuclear policy states: “The Russian Federation retains the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies, and also in the case of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is put under threat”. The second half of that statement is important for our purposes.
The West provision of increasingly powerful offensive weapons to Ukraine, along with attacks within Russia’s internationally recognized borders, the stated public goal to assassinate Vladimir Putin, and the flotation of U.S. warships very near Russian territory are moves which could be perceived to threaten the existence of the Russian state; and according to Russia’s nuclear weapons policy, justifies Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.
One can argue that the Russians shouldn’t think this way and consequently the West should pay no heed, or that the West should not allow itself to be blackmailed through nuclear threats, but that’s kind-of like arguing that sharks shouldn’t eat people so feel free to jump into a pool of sharks.
This is not to state the Russian people are sharks, or at least no more so than those of us in the West, e.g., Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Serbia . . . . but it is to state that we continue to creep into very dangerous territory and there is very little outcry in the West which demands a negotiated settlement to this war.
We are being led into world war with likely nuclear consequences. This, undoubtedly, is the consequence of a nation which has a military budget ten times larger than the next ten nations combined–three times the size of China’s budget, and ten times the size of Russia’s military budget. It is the asset most readily available for the U.S. to achieve its international objectives. The militarization of U.S. society has blinded us to other solutions to the world’s problems.
For those of us who disagree with the military “solution”, the time to speak-out is now; later might be too late.