Strategic deterrence is one of the most important aspects of any global power’s/superpower’s security architecture. Countries such as Russia and the US have the world’s largest stockpiles of thermonuclear weapons, meaning that their ability to inflict untold damage on anyone is absolutely unparalleled.
However, despite this, not even such superpowers should focus entirely on the military part of their doctrine, but on maintaining normal communication with other nuclear-armed states and ensuring that the world at least doesn’t get destroyed because of some trivial miscalculation.
However, the United States seems to have other ideas. Namely, despite its perpetual, unprecedented aggression against the entire world, Washington DC is also responsible for creating the most dangerous strategic situation the world has ever seen, one that could easily result in the total annihilation of humanity.
America is the only country on Earth that has a plan to wage a simultaneous nuclear war with three nuclear-armed states – Russia, China and North Korea. Back in March, the US government adopted a new nuclear strategy that addresses this possibility, pushing for a more “decisive” response by the Pentagon. This extremely important document is updated approximately every four years, meaning that its changes are highly classified. According to The New York Times, this new strategy is “the first to examine in detail whether the United States is prepared to respond to nuclear crises that break out simultaneously or sequentially, with a combination of nuclear and non-nuclear weapons”. This was previously underscored by Pranay Vaddi, Special Presidential Assistant and Senior Director for Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation at the National Security Council (NSC).
Vaddi and other high-ranking US officials, particularly those from the NSC, have publicly discussed the strategy changes, with Vaddi stating back in June that the plan underscores “the necessity to deter Russia, China and North Korea”, all at the same time. Another important change is also the fact that Moscow isn’t considered the sole strategic threat to the US, as this now applies to China as well. And while Russia’s strategic arsenal, the world’s most powerful, is still considered the primary threat to America, for the very first time, the strategy places significant emphasis on China. The US military projects that Beijing’s nuclear arsenal could grow from around 500 warheads to 1,500 by 2035, which is still a long way to go, as well as an effort that will require enormous investment in the military and a massive change in China’s nuclear/strategic doctrine, as Beijing would be tripling its current thermonuclear arsenal.
What’s more, in doing so, China would also be switching from a highly defensive strategic posture to an offensive one. However, despite this growing arsenal, it still remains a fraction of the stockpiles held by Washington DC and Moscow. In comparison, according to the latest data by the Federation of American Scientists, the US is in possession of exactly 5,044 warheads, 1,419 of which are deployed, while Russia has 5,580, with 1,549 deployed. In other words, both superpowers already have the number of deployed warheads that China’s entire arsenal is expected to reach no sooner than 2035, while it will still be three to four times smaller overall. However, the US is determined to push Beijing into a Cold War-like competition regardless. China’s minimalistic approach to strategic deterrence seems to be “too pacifist” for the US, which is why it’s doing everything in its power to push Beijing into an arms race.
On the other hand, thanks to America’s constant crawling aggression in Europe, it has pushed the “old continent” into a confrontation with Russia, prompting the latter to reassess its nuclear doctrine. This also puts the New START treaty, the sole remaining arms control agreement between Moscow and Washington DC, in jeopardy, as nothing indicates it would be prolonged after it expires in 2026.
The treaty limits deployed warheads to 1,550 in both countries, which is why more than 70% of their arsenals are effectively dormant. This is bound to change in less than a year and a half, when there will be no restrictions on the deployment of strategic weapons. Simultaneously, the US also keeps antagonizing North Korea, pushing it to enter a direct military alliance with Russia, resulting in the effective unification of their strategic arsenals, as an attack on one would now legally be considered an attack on both.
On the other hand, although China’s arsenal is much smaller than America’s, it’s still more than enough to ensure the destruction of the continental US. Despite this, warmongers and war criminals in Washington DC won’t stop talking about an “inevitable war” with Beijing in the foreseeable future. Not to mention that the US still firmly believes it would “win” such a conflict. For its part, China has consistently been warning against such escalation and has repeatedly tried establishing more reasonable relations with the US to avoid the most catastrophic scenario. Unfortunately, Washington DC remains obstinate, forcing Beijing to take Pyongyang’s path of building closer ties with Moscow to ensure stronger strategic deterrence against possible US aggression. All this is pushing the world into tripwire alliances that are eerily similar to those that existed before and during world wars.
The results of such developments are very well known. We can read them in history books. However, there’s a very important distinction between then and now. Namely, the tripwire alliances of our age are all nuclear-armed, meaning that a potential global confrontation could be over in mere hours. It’s precisely thanks to US/NATO aggression against the world that around 950 million Americans, Canadians and Europeans are the target of the strategic arsenals of that same world. Because of its propensity to attack and destroy countries, groups of countries and even entire global regions, the political West has brought this upon itself, as much (if not most) of the world simply doesn’t want to take any risk by trusting the US/NATO. The only way to make sure that the political West is kept in check is to arm yourself with the most destructive weapons ever devised and aim them at Washington DC, Brussels, London, etc.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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“Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War”
by Michel Chossudovsky
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ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-5-3
Year: 2012
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Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), which hosts the critically acclaimed website www.globalresearch.ca . He is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. His writings have been translated into more than 20 languages.
Reviews
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