There is a World Nuclear War Crisis. Why are We not Talking About It?

More Escalations, but no Real Discussion, Only Denial of Danger.

We spend time discussing which candidate will lead the gerontocracy for another four years. We argue about which candidate is in more rapid cognitive decline. We either laugh, shutter in despair or deny the videos of Biden talking about beating Medicare or watching Jill Biden treat him like a kindergartener. Either way an authoritarian Neoliberal wins. Rationalization is the most powerful force on earth.

If we had an honestly moderated debate, what would have been the key question? "It would be something like “If you become president what will you do to walk back the tensions between the US and Russia, because right now we are on the verge of a planet ending nuclear war”.

We didn’t have an honestly moderated debate, which is no surprise since CNN was hosting it, so that question wasn’t asked. Only no-brainers were asked. But I can’t think of a more important question. There was a question asked about whether Putin’s peace terms require securing NATO neutrality were acceptable. Both presidents dodged the issue. Trump weirdly blamed the Ukrainian war on the Afghanistan withdrawal, while Biden gave the standard “Putin is going to keep marching through Europe” lie. This claim has no validity, any more than the assertion that Putin wants to re-establish the Soviet Union. We are talking about NATO nations here. Attack one NATO nation and the others are required to jump in. Besides, Putin is fighting to keep NATO away from Russia. He’s not looking to confront NATO. Europe is certainly not acting like a nation that is afraid of Russia invading them. Why? Because it’s not a real narrative. It’s evidence-free assertions, just like the Iraqi WMD debacle. It works though, as it is currently the only “justification” given to keep the public supporting the war.

Of course, even if the proposed question was asked, Biden would have said he would stay the course and pepper his response with “Putin”, a few times, just to fuel the national Putin obsession. The essence of Trump’s response would be that he would snap his fingers, and the military industrial complex would bow to him and end hostilities.

The last time we had a nuclear crisis was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Besides the world almost ending, people were terrified. People hid under desks. It was reported heavily in the media. It was a constant dialog among the people of the US. Why aren’t people now shaking and praying for peace or even talking about the threat? After all, United States and Russia are the two largest nuclear armed countries with ICBMs pointing at each other. One misinterpretation of intent by the other party, one mistake, one temper tantrum by a leader, and off we go, into a unseen world of destruction.

Look no further than the mainstream media. To a large degree, US at war doesn’t register seriously with Americans. This is because they have become progressively desensitized. A steady stream of war propaganda is part of American life. Many Americans don’t even flinch when the United States bombs a new country. It’s just what happens. It’s part of the day, like brushing your teeth or traveling back and forth to work. Somewhere in their psyche, many Americans believe that America is simply fighting for democracy.

The forever wars have severe effects on the families of those fighting in them, but by and large the wars have been inconsequential to many Americans; war is an abstract concept. This is why many Americans are not reacting to the gravity of the situation.

One major mainstream media tactic is to show each war as a sudden, spontaneous conflict, where the latest Hitler, unprovoked, is suddenly trying to take over the world. Any larger history or context is ignored. Without understanding the larger picture of the conflict, people are disempowered and lack tools to make rational processes. If more people understood the aggressive role of the West and NATO in causing this war, they might view this war differently. They might understand that their own country is a reckless, aggressive, imperialist country rather than the good guys. They might treat the wars with a greater level of skepticism and be willing to look at these conflicts differently.

Biden has made some breathtakingly dangerous decisions in the last few weeks. I wrote a few weeks ago how the US is begging for World War III. This was based on the Biden administration lifting the rule that prohibited the use of US missiles striking inside of Russia. Things have escalated since. Ukraine has already fired missiles into Crimea, killing several and injuring 150 people on a beach. Putin did not react kindly to this, threatening “consequences”. He claimed the attack had to have been aided by the United States. A foreign minister furthered the claim saying the missiles "cannot be used without the direct participation of the American military, including satellite capabilities".

Putin had this to say:

"If someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, why don't we have the right to supply weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there will be strikes on sensitive facilities of those (Western) countries?

None of this bodes well.

Yet the media continues to downplay the danger, assuring us that Putin won’t use nuclear weapons, that we just need stay the course and eventually we will win. Ukraine has no chance of winning this war. They have taken a beating, The media, sounding like Baghdad Bob, makes it sound like the Russians are getting slaughtered in this war, but reality does not match that. Putin will not back off this war, no matter how far the US pushes him. He sees the idea of NATO troops on his border as an absolute existential threat. He has made that clear since 2007.

Notice the inconsistency of the narrative: Putin is horrible, maybe worse than Hitler. He’s a madman, he’s a cold-blooded lunatic that won’t stop until he has brought back the Soviet Union. He’s erratic and can’t be trusted to negotiate peace. But don’t worry, he won’t use nuclear weapons. We promise.

Perhaps Biden’s “cognitive decline” (I’m being polite) has affected the US role in this constant expanding war. Biden has shown himself to be erratic and confused. Who knows what he’s like behind the scenes. Impaired or not, he’s still the commander in chief and gets to make the final call. Perhaps a younger Biden would have not agreed to let Ukraine send missiles into Russia. Perhaps he’s part of the reason that the US has a no-negotiation policy.

Biden has always been a war cheerleader. He was the single largest voice of the Democrats in favor of the second Iraqi war. His influence was what got his party on board. He may very well have opted to push for the war because of his background, but anyone with their faculties in place would have stepped this down before it got to this point.

Another problem that never gets mentioned: lack of communication. What saved the world in the Cuban Missile Crisis was that Kennedy and Khruschev had a constant dialog. The US and Iran had dialog recently that de-escalated the situation after Israel bombed an Iranian embassy. Nixon opened relations with China. There is currently almost no dialog with Russia. The strategy has been to isolate Russia. There was an instance of communication recently, but nobody knows the purpose of the conversation or what happened on the call. Without any dialog, this conflict can go in only one direction, and that’s towards further escalation.

Yes, there are legitimate reason to be afraid. There is no guarantee that Putin or the US won’t end up in a nuclear conflict. With a lack of diplomatic relations, a country that feels its existence threatened, a relentless US war machine with a mentally compromised leader, events can quickly go south. Putin has tried for a long time to negotiate with the West. He is still willing to, but nobody wants to negotiate with him. If the West tries to corner Russia, Putin will believe his only recourse is to go nuclear. Let’s hope somebody in the US or somewhere in the world steps up and tries to walk this back. Let’s hope there will be history books to write about this war.