By Paul Craig Roberts - October 8, 2023

We are on the verge of nuclear annihilation. Every agreement made during the 20th century to reduce the risk of nuclear war has been abandoned by Washington. Why worry, some ask, mutual assured destruction means neither the US nor Russia would initiate a nuclear attack. Perhaps not, but the greatest danger of nuclear armageddon comes from false alarms from warning systems. During the Cold War there were many such alarms. The false alarms did not result in mutual destruction because both governments were working to defuse, not exacerbate, the situation, and there was time for the validity of the alarm to be verified before a fatal pushing of the button.

Today the situation is entirely different. Washington and the NATO puppets have a policy of provoking Russia, with the 2014 coup in Ukraine and its consequences being the worst to date. Moreover, the hypersonic speeds of the Russian missiles and the closeness of US missiles to Russia’s border cuts time before impact to 5 or 10 minutes, which means no time to verify or confer.

The extraordinary insulting hostility shown toward Russia by the US, NATO and the Western media has convinced the Kremlin that the West intends Russia’s destruction. Russia’s President Putin has stated many times that the West has led him to this conclusion. A couple of days ago at the Valdai Discussion Club Putin expressed concern that the West’s belligerence toward Russia could end in nuclear war. If President Biden were a responsible leader, he would have said that the Russian president is right, and we must stop the escalation of threats. Instead, Biden sent B-2 stealth bombers, aircraft specifically designed for a nuclear first-strike, to European bases, thus escalating the threat, a mindless and irresponsible response to President Putin.

In the US the constant propaganda against Russia (and now China) has convinced many Americans that they face the danger of nuclear attack. This is not a situation in which a false alarm is likely to be recognized. The risk of not believing the alarm is much higher in the environment created by the American neoconservatives, who have controlled US foreign policy in the 21st century.

In US foreign policy and military ranks there are some, especially among the military/security-funded think tanks, who believe, automatically it seems with no evidence required, that the US, being the greatest and most powerful country ever, would win a nuclear war. This belief exists despite the total absence of any US preparation for surviving a nuclear war, assuming such a war is survivable. The most likely outcome would be nuclear winter, a situation in which dust from the massive explosions block the sunlight and the entire world starves to death.

Ask yourself, just how insane, how Satanic do neoconservatives have to be to think that their totally unrealistic pursuit of US global hegemony is worth such a risk?

The minute the Soviet Union collapsed politically when hardline communists arrested President Gorbachev, the neoconservatives penned the Wolfowitz Doctrine, which states that the principle goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any power that could constrain American hegemony. It is this absurdly unrealistic neoconservative doctrine, not Russian or Chinese behavior, that has resurrected the threat of nuclear Armageddon.

The threat is very real. Those who dismiss it are utter and total fools. They are psychopaths. They are insane. They risk the life of the planet. It is the neoconservatives who are the worst danger to life the world has ever faced. Why does Congress put up with them? Why does the Senate confirm them in office? Why is the American media their propagandist? Why do the UK, European, and Japanese governments tolerate such enormous risks imposed by a handful of insane psychopaths?

This is the ultimate insouciance.

For those who think nuclear war can’t happen:

https://time.com/4947879/stanislav-petrov-russia-nuclear-war-obituary/

https://www.military.com/history/russias-dead-hand-soviet-built-nuclear-doomsday-device.html

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