Playing with Nuclear Matches

Vladimir Putin is redefining Russian policy for the use of nuclear weapons. He’s sending a clear warning that Ukraine’s use of U.S. and Franco-British missiles like ATACMS and Storm Shadow deep within Russia could draw a nuclear response. To my knowledge, the U.S. has not yet approved of the use of ATACMS deep within Russia, though Ukraine is pushing for it.

It seems many brain-dead, zombie-like advisers and “experts” insist that Russia is bluffing. They’re willing to bet the health and safety of the world that Russia won’t respond with nuclear weapons. And for what? ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles aren’t war-winning weapons. The Russia-Ukraine War is a slog, an attritional struggle, featuring trenches and artillery and high casualties, a situation akin to World War I. It’s not going to be won by conventional tactical missile strikes.

Yet certain “experts” seemingly want it to escalate to World War III with nukes.

Just about 80 years ago, we humans entered the atomic age at the Trinity test site in July of 1945. We still haven’t come to grips with how the world changed when the first atomic “gadget” exploded in the desert in New Mexico. We had better hurry up and grow up before we all burn.

Be careful when you play with nuclear matches. You may just burn the world.

Afterthought: On 9/8 I submitted the following letter to the New York Times. The NYT rejected it.

In a recent op-ed, Representative Mike Turner called for the U.S. to “invest” in new nuclear weapons.  He was wrong to do so.

Firstly, the U.S. and Russia together already possess more than ten thousand nuclear warheads, enough to destroy life on earth and several other earth-sized planets.  We need desperately to divest from nuclear weapons, not “invest” in them.

Secondly, “investing” in a new nuclear triad will cost the U.S. taxpayer $2 trillion.  The most likely return on “investment” is nuclear winter and mass death.

Thirdly, America’s current arsenal, especially the Navy’s Trident submarine force, is extremely potent, highly survivable, and more than sufficient to deter any enemy.

At the height of the Cold War, I served in Cheyenne Mountain. As a young Air Force lieutenant, I witnessed a simulated nuclear attack on the U.S. by the Soviet Union.  Even on the primitive monitors we had back in 1986, seeing Soviet missile tracks terminating at American cities was unforgettable.

We must stop building genocidal nuclear weapons.  We must instead renew international efforts and treaties to downsize these dreadful and dangerous arsenals.  Spending yet more trillions on more world-shattering nukes is worse than a mistake—it’s a crime against humanity.