{"id":130723,"date":"2022-12-16T17:16:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-17T00:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=130723"},"modified":"2022-12-16T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T00:16:08","slug":"putins-conundrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/12\/16\/putins-conundrum\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin’s Conundrum"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIKE WHITNEY<\/a>\u00a0 Courtesy The Unz Review<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n


\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary purpose of the Nuclear Posture Review(NPR) is to deceptively rebrand\u201d the offensive use of nuclear weapons as a justifiable act of defense. The new criteria for using these lethal WMD has been deliberately maligned with the clear intention of providing Washington with a green light for their use and proliferation. Accordingly, US foreign policy warhawks have established the institutional and ideological framework needed launch a nuclear war without fear of legal reprisal. These arduous preparations were carried out with one objective in mind, to preserve America\u2019s steadily-eroding position in the global order through the application of extreme violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vladimir Putin is worried. Very worried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent press conference, the Russian President expressed his concern that the United States might be planning a nuclear strike on Russia. Naturally, Putin did not state the matter in such crude terms, but his comments left little doubt that that\u2019s what he was talking about. Here\u2019s part of what he said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United States has a theory of a \u2018preventive strike\u2019\u2026Now they are developing a system for a \u2018disarming strike\u2019. What does that mean? It means striking at control centres with modern high-tech weapons to destroy the opponent\u2019s ability to counterattack.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Why would Putin waste time on the various theories circulating among foreign policy wonks in the United States if he wasn\u2019t concerned that these ideas were actionable?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only explanation is that Putin is worried, and the reason he is worried is because he knows that these ideas (preemption and \u2018disarming strike\u2019) hold-sway among the elite cadres of powerbrokers who decide these matters in Washington. Putin probably realizes that there is a sizable constituency in Washington that support the use of nuclear weapons and who believe they are essential to preserving the rules-based order\u201d. In short, Putin believes these ideas are actionable\u201d which is why he expressed concern<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let\u2019s think about the point Putin is trying to make. He\u2019s saying that the US tacitly supports a preemptive first strike\u201d policy<\/strong>, that is, if the US feels sufficiently threatened, then it claims the right to launch nuclear missiles at an enemy whether that enemy has attacked the United States or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that sound reasonable to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what about Russia; does Russia support the same policy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, it doesn\u2019t. Russia\u2019s Nuclear Doctrine explicitly precludes the first use of nukes.<\/strong> Russia will not launch a first strike. Period. Russia will only use Nuclear weapons in retaliation and only in the event that the nation faces an \u2018existential threat\u2019. In other words, Russia will only use nuclear weapons as a last resort.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Report
Putin’s Conundrum, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIKE WHITNEY\u00a0 Courtesy The Unz Review The primary purpose of the Nuclear Posture Review(NPR) is to deceptively rebrand\u201d the offensive use of nuclear weapons as a justifiable act of defense. The new criteria for using these lethal WMD has been deliberately maligned with the clear intention of providing Washington with a green light for their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}