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Nuclear War With Russia? No, Thanks

Can we please get peace negotiations started before the world goes up in a flash?
Screen Shot 2022-09-23 at 12.54.22 AM

The Washington Post is leading tonight with a piece about how Biden is warning Russia not to use battlefield nukes in Ukraine. Excerpt:

Matthew Kroenig, a professor of government at Georgetown University and director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, has argued that the best option for the administration, if faced with a limited Russian nuclear strike in Ukraine, might be to step up backing for Ukraine and conduct a limited conventional strike on the Russian forces or bases that launched the attack.

“If it’s Russian forces in Ukraine that launched the nuclear attack, the United States could strike directly against those forces,” Kroenig said. “It would be calibrated to send a message that this is not a major war coming, this is a limited strike. If you are Putin, what do you do in response? I don’t think you immediately say let’s launch all the nukes at the United States.”

But even a limited conventional strike by the U.S. military against Russia would be viewed as reckless by many in Washington, who would argue against risking a full-scale war with a nuclear-armed Russia.

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Gosh, you think?! My God. Is there nobody eager to step in and try to get Ukraine and Russia to the peace table?

It's good that Russia got its nose bloodied hard, but can we please put a stop to this before it gets out of hand? At the UN yesterday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that unnamed Western countries that are militarily backing Ukraine -- that would include the United States -- are seen by Russia as part of this war. I, for one, would rather not risk nuclear war over Donbas. Look, I'm not saying Ukraine should surrender to Russia, whose invasion was immoral and contemptible. Putin's scarcely-veiled nuclear threat is disgusting, and reveals his thuggish character, just as the mass graves of Izyum disgrace the Russian nation. But I am saying that it is insane that there is serious talk now of nuclear exchanges, and nations aren't rushing to try to de-escalate tensions and end this war. This is not normal. Nobody wins if nuclear weapons are used. The world changes forever, even if they are used in a limited way by Russia. If that happens, Russia will be a pariah ... but a hell of a lot of incinerated people won't be around to appreciate the world's contempt for Moscow.

UPDATE: Here is the first tweet of an important thread. The West's understandable hatred of Moscow for its war on Ukraine is preventing a lot of smart people from thinking clearly about an end game that could prevent more death, more destruction, and an escalation that could end God knows where.

It's the same kind of thing as with Iraq. Saddam Hussein was an evil man. We all knew that. But whenever skeptics of the coming US war asked "end game" type questions, and raised objections to the plan to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, they were shouted down by warmongers -- neocons, in particular -- who accused them of being cowardly in the face of Evil, and even of being racist (e.g., "What, you think Arabs aren't capable of liberal democracy?!"). Our hysterical moral idealism led us into a catastrophe. Last night in Canada, I met an Iraqi Catholic refugee who showed me photos of his church back in Iraq that was destroyed by ISIS -- the rise of which is directly tied to US intervention there.

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Giuseppe Scalas
Giuseppe Scalas
We're in the hands of madmen. I'm afraid the reckoning for our sins gets closer and closer.
schedule 2 years ago
JON FRAZIER
JON FRAZIER
At this point the best hope is that Xi can talk some sense into Putin. Nuclear war is in no one's interests.
schedule 2 years ago
    John Phillips
    John Phillips
    Who is going to talk sense into Biden? Even if Putin backs off the nuke threats, will Biden support a truce? I doubt it.
    schedule 2 years ago
    Zenos Alexandrovitch
    Zenos Alexandrovitch
    That's not true. Dr. (Gwaltney) Darwin has made the case that nuclear war would be the best way to kickstart humanity towards higher levels of evolution. And sorry, but he's a big thing in classic globalist circles.
    schedule 2 years ago
Eusebius Pamphilus
Eusebius Pamphilus
The solution to being shouted down as a coward, at least when in person regarding neocons trying to start a war, is to make it a rule that if someone does that, you attack them like an insane animal and beat them to within an inch of their life.
schedule 2 years ago
Zenos Alexandrovitch
Zenos Alexandrovitch
"If you are Putin, what do you do in response? I don’t think you immediately say let’s launch all the nukes at the United States.”"

I think you do something like that. I studied Russian Nuclear Policy at the University of St. Petersburg. Russia will respond in kind. If the U.S. directly assaults the Russian Military, Russia will respond in kind - which may include wiping a military base off the face of the earth with a nuke. And considering the reality of NATO's senseless escalation, Russia has motivation to move immediately beyond that initial attack to meet expected escalation.

Keep in mind that Putin is merely restating long-standing policy. The west has no case to plead ignorant.
schedule 2 years ago