In an article in the American Conservative from Oct. 4, author and former State Department advisor James Carden argues that it is the US, not Russia, which is escalating toward a nuclear conflict. In addition, as his subtitle reads: “There are fewer guardrails against nuclear annihilation than at any time in the past 50 years.”
Carden notes that the US had withdrawn from treaty after treaty after George Bush’s withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, with each withdrawal having given Russia a reason to worry. When Aegis defense systems were installed in Poland and Romania, this escalated even further because, as Carden quotes nuclear expert Ted Postol: “there would be little way for Russia to know whether Aegis systems were loaded with missile defense interceptors or nuclear-armed cruise missiles.”
