The Lead

Nobody Wins a Game of Nuclear Chicken: Humanity, Not Brutality, Must Win

by Jason Ross (EIRNS) — May. 27, 2024

Reckless attacks on the missile attack warning systems of the Russian strategic forces risk the destruction of human life, globally. Russia’s policy on nuclear weapon use includes as one of the conditions, an “attack by adversary against critical governmental or military sites of the Russian Federation, disruption of which would undermine nuclear forces response actions [emphasis added].” Attacking the system designed to provide warning of nuclear missile launches is insane; there could now be a circumstance in which Russian strategic forces perceive a nuclear attack and have an extremely short window of time to decide not to launch the counterattack inherent in nuclear deterrence.

Ukrainian military “intelligence” has taken credit for an attempted attack on another radar installation, 1,800 km deep inside Russia, nearly to Kazakhstan. Whose interests are served? Certainly not the people of Ukraine, living under the caprices of the Zelenskyy whose presidential term has already expired. Is he worried that the horrors being inflicted upon Rafah will distract attention from his losing, hopeless conflict?

Do those playing a game of nuclear chicken understand the stakes?

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov’s May 5, 2022 responses to questions from Newsweek provide a still relevant answer:

“The current generation of NATO politicians clearly does not take the nuclear threat seriously. In this regard, I would like to quote the Soviet and American leaders who went through the Second World War and knew from personal experience what the blood and torment of millions of people are.

“Marshal Rodion Malinovsky’s notebook, [who was] the Minister of Defense of the U.S.S.R. (1957-1967), states: ‘We are in a dire need of military intellectuals. Not just highly educated officers, but people who have mastered advanced culture of heart and spirit a humanistic outlook. [The] Modern weapon of such destructive power cannot be entrusted to a skillful person who has only a firm grip. To wield it one needs a clear head capable of foreseeing consequences as well as a sensible heart—that is a mighty moral instinct.’

“For his part, John F. Kennedy, then President of the United States, after the Caribbean crisis commented on the relations with the U.S.S.R.: ‘If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.’”

This publication’s efforts to make widely known the existential danger of the present moment, through the article “Ukrainian Strike on Russian Early Warning Radar Threatens To Unleash Nuclear World War” must be amplified internationally, and new visions for the world must be implemented, before time runs out. Helga Zepp-LaRouche had the opportunity to express such a vision in her interview in Global Times published May 22.