Annie Jacobsen, an American investigative journalist, had unprecedented access to sources involved with the design, deployment, control, and policy for nuclear weapons for a book released last year titled Nuclear War; a Scenario. The book is factual in the sense that it provides a detailed explanation of the workings and risks associated with nuclear arsenals. Its use of a scenario to describe what happens once a nuclear weapon is used and how quickly things could spiral out of control is horrifying. As conveyed,” the world is one misunderstanding or miscalculation away from nuclear war”.
As the events in Ukraine and Russia have unfolded, this book has come to mind. The US has become involved in a proxy war, and the world’s two major nuclear powers are moving closer to direct conflict.
In 1990, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, did Russia misunderstand perceived assurances from the US and other NATO nations that NATO would not expand any further east?
Is NATO miscalculating Russia’s threats concerning attacks on Russian soil?
The US has a major influence on the war in Ukraine, and politicians and citizens from both parties of this nation have turned the war into a political issue. This is very dangerous.
We have been conditioned to believe that nuclear war will never happen due to deterrence but what happens if deterrence fails? The use of nuclear weapons has been threatened during this war, and what happens when red lines are no longer allowed to be crossed?
Putin is a former KGB operative and a cold-blooded murderer who feels he is being pushed into a corner. Last year, on 19 November, Russia officially adopted a new nuclear weapons doctrine (announced in September). The new policy states that Russia could launch nuclear weapons in response to an attack on its territory by a non-nuclear-armed state backed by a nuclear-armed one.
A negotiated settlement will be very challenging but not impossible. The stakes are very high, but should this war continue and escalate, humanity itself could be at risk.
Harry Fox
Talbot County
Talbot County
Deirdre LaMotte says
As HCR said this week which confirms Trump as a Putin asset:
During the 2024 campaign, Trump said repeatedly that he would end the war in Ukraine. Shortly after the election, a newspaper reporter asked Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Putin, if Trump’s election would mean
“positive changes from Russia’s point of view.” Patrushev answered: “To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them.”
Today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a reporter: “The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision.”
The US is now on our enemy’s side. Because our enemy owns him. Withholding intelligence 3 days ago just cost the lives of Americans and Ukrainians in
a mass attack on hospitals and maternity wards. Putin is a killer. Nothing else is more important to him than eliminating “enemies” and restoring the boundaries of the USSR. He controls Trump, I understand since the 1980s,
and the relationship was established also through his marriage to a Czech, while a part of the USSR.
His disgusting abandonment of a fellow democracy has put the stability of our would in question. Will the Germans
now pursue nuclear weapons? Will Japan, knowing we will not defend Taiwan?
And the Republicans in Congress stay silent. Why? They are receiving death treats. Too bad. What pundit who crosses him has not? Welcome to the MAGA Age! These characterless men and women cannot give up their power to do what they were elected
to do. Go home and find another job, you are all cowards. No one respects you and it is time for leaders to emerge.
Oh, Susan Collins who is running for re-election? You are no Margaret Chase Smith nor Olympia Snow and you have recked your little legacy by accepting Billionaire money for your votes on the worst Cabinet in our history.
Bring on righteous anger everyone!
Mickey Terrone says
Mr. Fox, I’d suggest that Donald Trump is a bigger threat to destroying humanity than Putin, Chairman Xi, or Kin Jong Un or anyone else. Nuclear weapons are a daily threat that we’ve lived with throughout most of our lives. With Ukraine, both Russia and Ukraine (with the US and NATO) have avoided a humanitarian holocaust staying within the boundaries of modern warfare despite both sides being threatened under well drawn lines.
Now that balance has changed by Trump’s almost inexplicable abandonment of Zelenskyy, Ukrainians, NATO and our own American traditions of opposing murderous authoritarians. Putin has broken numerous cease fires with Ukraine and clearly cannot be trusted without ironclad protection assurances. Trump will not assure Ukraine that the US will protect their country if and when Putin goes back on the attack. In do doing, Trump has destabilized NATO and the balance of power in Europe. He refuses to acknowledge Putin as a murderous dictator but called Zelenskyy a dictator despite the Ukranian president’s legitimate election. Germany and others will now be forced to develop their own nuclear arsenals because the US is no longer trustworthy.
Now, NATO has to worry about threats from both Russia and the United States, while Trump seems to maintain some glassy-eyed idolatry with Putin. This is a clear and present danger to our American national security. Ceasing offensive surveillance of Russia and cutting off military intelligence to Ukraine flirts with danger to this country and it places Putin is a far more powerful position with a weakened opposition. Trump seems to trust Putin and appears to want to please him. He is probably jealous of Putin’s stranglehold over the Russian people and makes wistful references to wielding extraconstitutional and unconstitutional power.
The fact that a tiny percentage of Americans feel even remotely positive toward Putin appears to have no impact whatsoever on Trump. Virtually no one in the Republican Party utters a peep of criticism or protest of Trump’s abject failure to defend NATO or the free world from authoritarians. It is very dangerous that Trump speaks so warmly about being more of an authoritarian himself. It appears he is perpetrating that upon this country right now.
America and the free world are now in crisis on several levels because of Donald Trump and his narcissism. Republicans are frozen with fear of death threats if they speak out. The ultimate sacrifices of thousands of Americans in WWII have been forgotten by Trump, Republican politicians and deluded voters who pulled the lever for Trump or those who failed to vote against him.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Well said. I read recently that the Putin respects people like John Bolton who are tough
to deal with and who have no illusions about Putin’s goals. Trump on the other hand is thought to be an easily
influenced clown. He will do anything to gain Putin’s affections, including destroying our nation’s
strongest alliances and throwing a democracy under the bus.