Nuclear Brink?

   By Reginald Johnson

 

                  Commentary

 

 

                  The eastern world, it is explodin’

                  Violence flarin’ bullets loadin’

                   You’re old enough to kill, but not for votin’

                  You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin?

                  And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin’

                  But you tell me, over and over again and over again, my friend

                 Ah, you don’t believe

                  We’re on the eve of destruction.’

                      (Barry McGuire, The Eve of Destruction, 1965)

 

   The spirit of this song, sadly, is so apt today.

  We’ve reached a very dangerous point in the war in Ukraine, where there’s a real chance of a direct confrontation between Russia and US-NATO forces. And if such a confrontation takes place, nuclear weapons will likely be used.

 Humanity cannot survive a nuclear war.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin has said not once, but twice recently that if Russia feels its territory is threatened by NATO, then they may resort to using nuclear weapons. In the beginning, that might mean using only short-range tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

  But how will the West respond to that? NATO may in turn fire tactical nukes at Russian forces.

  Can the field of combat be limited to tactical weapons? It's doubtful. Russia might well say at a certain point --- particularly since it has a larger arsenal of strategic nuclear weapons than NATO --- that it was time to go all the way and win what they perceive as an existential conflict with the West by firing long-range nuclear missiles at the US and NATO countries. Then, all bets are off and it's full-out nuclear war.

  Whole cities would be leveled during nuclear strikes and tens of millions of people would be instantly killed. Just multiply the devastation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima by 50 times. Those who were able to survive in rural areas would eventually die of radiation poisoning and cancer.

Armageddon.

Tens of millions of people will die instantly in a nuclear attack.

 Now I know, many people are likely to reject this dark, apocalyptic scenario and say,  ‘Come on, it’ll never get to that point. They’ll stop it.’

 But will they?

 The Biden administration has been resisting getting behind negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to bring an end to this war right from the start. In April, Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France agreed on a framework for a tentative peace agreement and it was rebuffed by Washington. US officials, using former UK leader Boris Johnson as their intermediary in talks with Ukraine’s president Volodomyr Zelensky said they had no interest in a negotiated settlement.

 Right now there is absolutely no evidence of any push for negotiations by Washington. And billions more in military aid keeps being sent to Ukraine to prolong the war.

 It’s clear to everyone with eyes to see that the US does not want peace in Ukraine and instead is using the Ukraine war as a means of weakening Russia and eventually bringing about regime change in Moscow. The Ukrainians are being used as cannon fodder in a US proxy war. Biden and other officials are apparently willing to engage in nuclear brinksmanship ---- and put the world at risk --- while they pursue this wild and morally reprehensible geopolitical objective.

  Biden this week went off script in a speech to donors and warned that the situation in Ukraine presented the greatest risk of nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. He was right. But the question needs to be asked, just who put the world in this situation?

  It’s a little bit like an arsonist that runs into a dry forest, lights a match, starts a fire and then runs out and yells, 'Fire! Fire! Hurry, call the fire department!

  It is troublesome that so many in the media have not been taking the situation in Ukraine as seriously as they should and have done little in recent months to question US policy in Ukraine and ask why the United States and NATO continue to pump weapons into Ukraine, without any corresponding push for negotiations, while the danger of an all-out war with Russia continues to grow.

 One commentator who has been sounding the alarm about the Ukraine policy is Tucker Carlson of FOX who since the beginning of the war has sharply criticized American policy.

  On a recent show --- after reporting Zelensky’s rash comment that it was time for the West to nuke Russia --- Carlson said: "If there was a moment for the Biden administration to shut this whole thing down and force negotiated peace, which they could do in an instant, that moment is right now before huge numbers of people die." 

  "But that’s not what the Biden administration is doing. They are moving in the other direction at high speed and doing all they can to bring the West to the brink of destruction,” he said.

  Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet union implementing arms control treaties and also oversaw the disarmament of WMDs in Iraq, wrote recently in Consortium News that the situation in Ukraine is dire and it is absolutely necessary for both President Biden and President Putin to step up to the plate and engage in serious talks to make sure that the war in Ukraine doesn’t become a nuclear holocaust.

  “We are, literally, on the eve of destruction," he wrote. "Now is the time for the kind of political maturity leaders rarely demonstrate. The onus is on Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin to make sure that even while events on the ground in Europe devolve into chaos and violence, the leaders of the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals do not allow emotion to get the better of reason.  The consequences of failure in this regard are, for humanity, terminal,” 

  It's clear we are heading in a deadly direction and everyone who cares about the fate of the planet needs to step up. Call your senators and congress people and demand that they push the administration to stop fueling the war with more weapons and instead work for a negotiated peace settlement. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121. Call the White House line at 202-456-1111 and tell them you don't want nuclear war and you want the administration to help bring an end to the Ukraine war. You can also write a letter to the local newspaper and demand peace. 

   Also, various peace and anti-war groups are planning events to protest the US policy in Ukraine. Check them out. One is CODE Pink and another is the United National Anti-war Coalition (UNAC).

 In Connecticut, the Connecticut Peace and Solidarity Coalition and the Greater New Haven Peace Council are also taking actions to build support for peace in Ukraine.

  About 20 years ago, I attended an anti-war rally in Times Square in New York City just before a congressional vote on authorizing an American invasion of Iraq --- something that led to the disastrous Iraq War, which killed over 1 million people. Ramsey Clark, the former Attorney General and noted peace activist, was urging people to raise their voice in opposition to war.

  "Your life may depend on it... believe me," he said.

So it is today. Speak out against prolonging the Ukraine War  and demand peace. 

 Your life may depend on it.

 

 

  

 

                  

Why is the US spurning Ukraine peace deals?

 

    By Reginald Johnson

      Commentary 

 

      The question is arising now:  is the United States really interested in ending the war in Ukraine?

   Top US officials such as Secretary of State Anthony Blinken have always said that the US is interested in talks with Russia and arriving at some fair agreement that would end the terrible war.

  But you have to wonder.

 Tuesday night, in an interview with ABC news, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in terms of creating a peace deal, he was open to the idea of Ukraine not being part of NATO and that he was also open to talking with Russian President Vladimir Putin about determining the future status of the breakaway republics in the Donbass part of Ukraine.

  The comments represented a possible breakthrough for resolving the dispute between Russia and Ukraine, as the US and Ukraine have always insisted that Ukraine should be part of NATO, which is something that the Russians had vehemently opposed. His comments about the Donbass area also presented a new basis for negotiation.

  However, the Biden administration has said nothing about Zelensky’s proposal.

  Biden officials were also quiet when Putin two weeks ago said that a peace plan could come about if Ukraine agreed to a status of neutrality and not accepting NATO arms.

  The American silence on Zelensky’s comments is disturbing given the horror that is taking place in Ukraine, as Russia continues its invasion. Hundreds if not thousands of civilians have been killed, infrastructure has been destroyed, and more than 1 million refugees have been sent out of the country to escape violence.

  Russia launched its invasion after years of talks with the US and Ukraine concerning the secessionist republics went nowhere and the US kept insisting that Ukraine be allowed to enter NATO, an anti-Russian military alliance that has bases throughout Europe and missile installations in countries close to Russia, such as Poland and Romania.

  Russia made clear that Ukraine being part of NATO was a red line for them, and that they would not tolerate having an enemy military alliance with armies and bases sitting on their long border with Ukraine.

 Continued bloodshed in Eastern Ukraine, where 14,000 thousand ethnic Russians were killed in attacks by Ukrainian forces in violation of the Minsk Accords covering the region, also angered Russia.

The Ukrainian military has received billions of dollars in support from the United States in the past eight years. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
 

Russians then launched their attack on Feb 24, claiming that they had to stabilize the region and also prevent an ongoing security threat from NATO.

However, the Russians have been harshly criticized --- and justifiably --- first for launching an invasion which had no legitimate basis under international law.

Russia has also been justifiably criticized for their brutal military tactics, hitting civilian targets, including the shelling of residential areas.

Meanwhile, the US has responded with sweeping economic sanctions against Russia and an embargo against Russian oil.             

Billions more in lethal aid is also being sent to Ukraine.    

There’s no question this invasion has to end, and the fighting must stop. Lives are being lost on a massive scale and all of Europe is being destabilized.

An agreement must be reached between the principal parties --- the US and its ally Ukraine, and Russia.

There has to be compromise on both sides. Russia must withdraw its forces. But in return there must be firm guarantees in writing that Ukraine will not be part of NATO and Ukraine can’t be an arsenal filled with US weapons. There should also be some degree of autonomy granted to Donetsk and Luhansk.

 These are a achievable goals. The Russians I think, would end their operation if they got those key guarantees. Now, the head of Ukraine says he’s willing to talk about those guarantees.

But is the US willing to talk about the guarantees and bring about an agreement?  Do they want the fighting to end?

 You have to be skeptical.

One leading political figure who’s saying the US wants the war to continue is former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.

 Speaking on the Laura Ingraham show on FOX TV Tuesday night, she praised Zelensky for offering a “window of opportunity” to build a peace deal.

 “Really, he’s sending an olive branch,” she said.

Then she asked, “Why isn’t the Biden-Harris administration charging forward to take advantage of and support President Zelensky in this opening he has created in trying to bring about an end to this conflict and bring about an end to the suffering that we are seeing every single day?

 She added, “Nothing that the Biden administration has done has helped to make this situation better, to help de-escalate the situation. Which is why the only conclusion I can draw about why they have been completely silent and not engaging at all on this window of opportunity President Zelensky opened last night is that what is happening before our eyes right now is exactly what they wanted to see continued.

 “Why is that? Because it’s good for the military industrial complex, it makes politicians look tough, and really, it allows them to have this proxy war with Russia, something that Hillary Clinton laid out just recently, what the aims are, this war machine, this power elite in Washington, they want to turn Ukraine into another Afghanistan …… bleed out and kill as many Russians as possible for who knows for how long,” Gabbard said.

  I agree with Gabbard and add that a continuance of the Ukraine war appears to be part of a long range regime change operation directed against Russia. Bleed ‘em dry and take ‘em down.

 Afterwards, a new Boris Yeltsin can be brought in, and western capitalists can have a field day.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian people are caught in the middle, suffering and dying.

Lending credence to the theory that the US is using the Ukraine conflict to trigger regime change in Russia is that the RAND Corporation --- a think-tank which has a long history of influencing American foreign policy --- produced a report for the Pentagon in 2019 called "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia." The study basically assessed ways of bringing Russia down.

  Specifically, the report said Russia could be weakened by having to respond to a greater NATO and US military presence directed at Russia and that "providing lethal aid to Ukraine would exploit Russia's greatest point of external vulnerability."

  It’s up to peace-loving people everywhere to rise up and say they won’t be party to these deadly schemes. Demand that the US respond favorably to President Zelensky’s offer, forge a real peace agreement and end this disastrous war.