Speaking at the Project Atom 2024 event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Nov. 20, Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan, the spokesman for the Pentagon’s Strategic Command, was asked about a nuclear exchange with Russia. He responded: “If we have to have an exchange then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States,” meaning the U.S. would still have enough nuclear weapons left over to have the U.S. “continue leading globally.”
“We must have reserve capacity. You wouldn’t use up all your resources to win because then you’d have nothing left to deter future threats,” said Admiral Buchanan, whose formal title is Director, Plans and Policy, J5, U.S. Strategic Command.
Earlier in his prepared remarks Buchanan had said that “we should always be ready to have a conversation,” a reasonable comment that was swept away by his later remarks. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian protested on Nov. 21, according to Sputnik that “the relevant statements by U.S. officials reflect the outdated thinking of the United States, which seeks hegemony and absolute strategic superiority.”
Scott Ritter, speaking at the International Peace Coalition meeting Nov. 22, said this statement demonstrates that the U.S. has already crossed Russia’s red lines, and is furthermore advocating the possibility of nuclear war—which shows Buchanan is clinically insane.
The full quotation from Buchanan in the video above is as follows:
We certainly don't want to have a [nuclear] exchange. I think everybody would agree. If we have to have an exchange, then we want to do it in terms that are most acceptable to the United States. So, it's terms that are most acceptable to the United States that puts us in a position to continue to lead the world. Right, so we're largely viewed as the world leader, and do we lead the world in an area where we've considered loss? The answer is no. And so it would be to a point where we would maintain—where we’d have to have sufficient capability, we’d have to have sufficient reserve capacity. You wouldn’t expend all of your resources to gain winning, right, because then you have nothing to deter from at that point.
