Heading towards global war?

 

   By Reginald Johnson

            (Editors note:  As this article was being published, President Trump announced that the war on Iran would be over "soon." This is a bizarre statement. Just the day before, his war secretary Pete Hegseth said the war was "just beginning." On Saturday, Trump said ground troops could be sent to Iran. The administration doesn't seem to know what it is doing. If the war ends soon, that will be a good thing. But I'm very skeptical this will actually happen, because nothing that Trump says can be trusted. Remember this is the same president who ordered bombing attacks against Iran in the middle of what were supposed to be good faith negotiations with Iran over that country's nuclear development program. He did this twice, last year, and then again this year.) 

        As the Iran War ratchets up in intensity, there is fear the war could spark a global conflict with disastrous consequences.

       In the nine days since the United States and Israel launched their unprovoked attack on Iran, the war has already spilled over into many other countries in the region, with Iran hitting US bases and other targets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Dubai and Qatar. Israel has moved again into Lebanon, attacking the pro-Iranian group, Hezbollah.

   Missile attacks have also taken place against targets in Turkey and Azerbajan, with Israel blaming Iran. But the Iranians have denied responsibility and claim that Israel conducted "false flag" strikes trying to draw Turkey and Azerbajan into the war.

  In still more developments, Russia reportedly is providing Iran with intelligence on US targets in the region and US President Donald Trump is considering giving arms to the Kurds in Turkey, so they can invade Iran. Trump is also said to be weighing sending US ground troops to fight in Iran.

 Finally, as oil prices skyrocket due to shipping lanes being closed through the Strait of Hormuz, there are concerns about how China will respond to the situation. China gets 60 percent of its oil from Iran, and now that supply may be threatened with the strait closed.

    One of those who's deeply disturbed about the trend of events is Columbia Professor Jeffrey Sachs.

 "We are probably in the early days of World War III," said Sachs, a former UN official and a noted foreign policy critic. "The question is, whether it is contained."

   Speaking on a podcast with Prof. Glenn Diesen, Sachs said he's both concerned about the escalating trend of the war and also the irrational behavior of Trump.

  He described Trump as "mentally unhinged" and a "madman" determined to establish American hegemony around the world, despite the risks.

   Sachs said the world has seen madmen before who were bent on conquest, such as Napoleon and Hitler.

  But, Sachs said, "we've never had a circumstance like this in the nuclear age."

  "I would say the world is in a more dangerous situation than ever before. Period," he said. 

  Despite the gravity of the moment and Trump's reckless policy, Sachs said there are few in Washington, DC willing to call out Trump and demand that the war end before it is too late.

  "We're wondering, where, if any, are the grown-ups in the United States in positions of authority who will speak truthfully about this?" he said in another interview with Danny Haiphong.

    "I don't see almost any. There are a few voices in Congress, (Senator) Rand Paul is one of them, Congressman (Thomas) Massie is another...but there are very few others and this is what is alarming," Sachs said.

  Two other military/foreign policy experts, Ret. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson and former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said in interviews recently that due to economic pressures relating to the price of oil, and Israel's losses in the war, the Iran conflict would probably not last long. Both said that contrary to the glowing reports in the US media about US progress in the war, Israel was being hit hard by Iranian missiles and US bases have been badly damaged, too.

 Another concern for Israel is they are running out of interceptors to block incoming missiles.

Speaking on a podcast with Danny Haiphong, Wilkerson said his biggest worry is that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu might resort to using a nuclear weapon if Israel is losing badly.

  "I have no doubt he'll use one," Wilkerson said. "That's really the problem."

US preparing for nuclear war, expert warns

 

     

     By Reginald Johnson

   

    

    As the war between Russia and Ukraine grows more intense, a former UN weapons inspector and intelligence analyst is warning that military officials in the United States are now actively preparing for a nuclear war with Russia.

 Scott Ritter, a former Iraq weapons inspector and intelligence official with the US Marines, claimed that as one option the United States is considering actually starting a nuclear war with Russia by firing a preemptive strike to knock out all of Russia’s nuclear weaponry and emerge victorious, despite maintaining massive human losses.

 “It is high time for everyone from every walk of life to understand the path we are currently on,” said Ritter. “Left unchecked, events are propelling us down a highway to hell that leads to only one destination – a nuclear Armageddon that everyone agrees can’t be won, and yet the United States is at this very moment preparing to ‘win.’ “

 Ritter added, “a nuclear exchange with Russia, even if the United States were able to execute a surprise preemptive nuclear strike, would result in the destruction of dozens of American cities and more than 100 million Americans.

  “And this is if we ‘win,’ ” he said. “And we know that we can’t ‘win’ a nuclear war. And yet we are actively preparing to fight one,” he said.

  Ritter added, “This insanity must stop. Now.”

 Ritter made his comments in his Substack column “On the Brink” posted November 24.

   The former weapons inspector spoke out as the Ukraine war has taken a dangerous turn after President Biden gave approval to Ukraine to fire US-made long-range ballistic missiles at Russia. The green light reversed a previous decision by Biden in September not to allow Ukraine to use the missiles, out of concern that such attacks would lead to a confrontation with Russia, which has the largest nuclear stockpile in the world.

  With the approval granted, Ukraine on November 19 fired six US “ATACMS”  missiles at Russia, near the city of Bryansk. On November 20, Ukraine launched up to a dozen British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles against a Russian command post in the Kursk province. Russia responded on November 21, firing a new intermediate range missile called the “Oreshnik” against Ukraine, destroying a major arms factory in Dnipropetrovsk. The facility was used by Ukraine and NATO to produce short and intermediate range missiles.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia almost three years. Now there are worries the conflict could go nuclear. (Wikimedia photo)

 Meanwhile, Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced that his country has changed its nuclear use doctrine, lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

  The ATACMS and Storm Shadow missile attacks met the threshold for a nuclear response by Russia, Ritter said.

 “Russia has decided not to invoke its nuclear doctrine at this juncture,” said Ritter, “opting instead to eject the operational use of the Oreshnik missile as an intermediate non-nuclear deterrence measure.”

  But the question is, how long will the Russians hold off on going nuclear – if Ukrainian attacks continue?

 It’s clear the risk of a nuclear war starting is the greatest since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when the United States and Russia came extremely close to going to war over the placement of Russian missiles on Cuban soil.

 Ritter is a widely respected analyst and commentator on foreign-policy and military issues. He gained fame in 2003 when he called out the Bush administration’s bogus claims that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The administration used the WMD claim to launch an invasion of Iraq, triggering a seven-years-long war, which took 1 million lives.

  Investigations after the war began confirmed what Ritter had said – there were no WMD.

 Despite the severity of the crisis in Eastern Europe – with the possibility that a nuclear war could take place – American media, including progressive media, don’t appear to be overly concerned. Most of the press attention in recent weeks has been focused on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon or Donald Trump’s cabinet picks and most recently the decision by President Biden to pardon his son Hunter. There have been few segments on TV concerning the Ukraine War and the imminent danger of a nuclear confrontation between the US and Russia.

  A few commentators in the conservative media have been sounding the alarm about a possible nuclear war. One of them is Rob Finnerty of Newsmax, who has spent several recent shows talking about the dangerous situation in Ukraine.

  “Russia has more nuclear weapons than any other country on the planet and now Ukraine is firing missiles deep into Russia, and those missiles were made in the United States,” he said.

 “Those are just the facts.  The United States is no longer in a proxy war with Russia. We are at war with Russia,” he said.

  Finnerty criticized Biden for green-lighting the Ukrainian missile attacks, which he said undermine President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for ending the Ukraine war. Trump takes office on January 20.

 “We are a lot closer to World War III then we were yesterday,” Finnerty said.

 

   (A panel discussion about the danger of a nuclear war starting in Ukraine will take place this Saturday in Washington, D.C. The event, called “No Nuclear War --- A Call to Reason” will take place at the National Press Club and run from 4 to 7 pm.  Moderated by Ritter, panel participants include Lawrence Wilkerson, Max Blumenthal, Garland Nixon, Dan Kovalik and Margaret Kimberley.  To reserve a seat, go to www.nonuclearwar.com)