American politicians, mainstream media, and most Americans are alarmed that Putin — during his illegal war in Ukraine — has said he might launch nuclear weapons.
The world should be EQUALLY ALARMED that the U.S. has been threatening to launch nuclear weapons since the 1940s (and we actually did drop atomic bombs on two civilian cities in Japan in August 1945. For decades the U.S. has maintained a “first-strike” policy – the willingness and intention to start a nuclear war.
Since the late 1960s the U.S. has been designing and building nuclear weapons NOT to retaliate against an attack, but rather specifically to be used to start a nuclear war. The nuclear weapons the U.S. has been designing, building and deploying since the 1960s have been specifically to carry out our “first-strike” policy of starting a nuclear war!
For more than half a century the U.S. has designing, building, and deploying missiles that are so extremely precise that they can destroy another nation’s missiles while they are still in their silos, before they can launch them. This makes frightening real the U.S.’s “first-strike” policy.
Some people think deterrence has worked because we have not used nuclear weapons since 1945. Actually the U.S. has used them by always keeping our nuclear weapons ready to attack in an instant, and also by repeatedly threatening to attack certain other nations (especially nations that do not have nuclear weapons of their own) on many occasions. This is “using” nuclear weapons in the same way that a robber stealing your wallet at gunpoint is guilty of Armed Robbery even if he never shoots. In criminal law, threatening with a weapon is “using” it. During an international crisis when a president says “all options are on the table,” this is an explicit threat to use nuclear weapons!
Why haven’t people reacted to the U.S.’s reckless threats of nuclear war in the ways they have been reacting to Putin’s comment? People are correct in damning Putin for this, but people should ALSO have been damning the U.S. for the past half century!
The U.S. has NEVER had a “no-first-use” policy, but Russia and China have pledged “no-first-use” for decades! (Putin is actually violating Russia’s long-standing policy of “no-first-use.”
If you want to know more about “no-first-use,” contact me at glenanderson@integra.net