Shouldn’t Biden and the Pentagon Watch Their
Steps Given the Hazardous Global Tensions?
Progressive Hub
(July 15, 2024) — In recent times, have there been more troubled regions bearing conflicts with potential to instigate nuclear war, than Ukraine in Eastern Europe and Palestine in the Middle East?
As Commander in Chief, Joe Biden has overseen the US arming of Ukraine and Israel in their respective conflicts with Russia and Hamas and, in effect, helped prolong them. He has also committed to modernizing US nuclear weapons, over which he has singular authority to order their use in a conflict.
In this international context, Biden’s leadership has been abysmal from the perspective of peace.
Sadly, he once offered promise in seeking nuclear disarmament.
Days before the inauguration of President Trump, then Vice President Biden called for the US to adopt a “no-first use” of nuclear weapons policy. He believed such weapons should only be used as a deterence against other nuclear nations from employing them.
Stumbling Toward Nuclear Armageddon
Scott Fina / Santa Maria Times
(July 13, 2024) — In recent times, have there been more troubled regions bearing conflicts with potential to instigate nuclear war, than Ukraine in Eastern Europe and Palestine in the Middle East?
As Commander in Chief, Joe Biden has overseen the US arming of Ukraine and Israel in their respective conflicts with Russia and Hamas, and in effect, helped prolong them. He has also committed to modernizing US nuclear weapons, over which he has singular authority to order their use in a conflict.
In this international context, Biden’s leadership has been abysmal from the perspective of peace.
Sadly, he once offered promise in seeking nuclear disarmament.
Days before the inauguration of President Trump, then Vice President Biden called for the US to adopt a “no-first use” of nuclear weapons policy. He believed such weapons should only be used as a deterrence against other nuclear nations from employing them.
Biden went further, claiming:
“If we want a world without nuclear weapons — the United States must take the initiative to lead us there. Moreover … as the only nation to have used nuclear weapons, we bear a great moral responsibility to lead the charge.”
Biden reiterated his no-first use and deterrence-only positions for nuclear weapons as a candidate in the 2020 presidential Democratic primary. These were among his many concerns for international peace that he published in an article in Foreign Affairs.
In fact, his article called for fundamental change in US foreign policy, noting that our nation has “too often … relied solely on the might of our military instead of drawing on our full array of strengths,” that “the use of force should be the last resort, not the first,” and that “diplomacy should be the first instrument of American power.”
But oh where, oh where, has that Joe Biden gone?
In 2022, the US Department of Defense released its Nuclear Posture Review under Biden’s leadership. The document in no uncertain terms reaffirmed a first-use of nuclear weapons policy, and disclosed that the US might use such weapons to counter even a non-nuclear attack.
What a remarkable — and unfortunate — shift in Biden’s position.
During one week in May this year, Ukraine used drones to attack two long-range radar facilities hundreds of miles within Russia. The facilities are part of Russia’s early warning system for incoming, nuclear-armed ballistic missiles.
From Russia’s perspective, the drone assault was an attempt to compromise its defense against a nuclear attack: a provocative poke in the eye of the key nuclear opponent of the US
The US has been no less reckless with, nor insensitive to, Russia’s potential to use nuclear weapons.
Within one week this recent June, the US launched two (unarmed) intercontinental, ballistic missiles from Vandenberg Space Force Base, sending them 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
The US Air Force Strike Command proudly referred to the missile testing as “showcasing its readiness” to employ US nuclear missiles.
Was this not the US flexing its nuclear muscle before its nuclear opponents? Shouldn’t our president and the military he commands, watch their step in such hazardous international tensions?
Then there’s Israel and Gaza.
Israel is the only nation in the Middle East to have nuclear weapons. While the US brags about its nuclear arsenal and delivery systems, Israel refuses to admit it has them.
Nonetheless, it’s widely known that Israel has as many as 90 nuclear war heads. American leaders, including President Biden, have facetiously kept this “false secret,” even though two elected officials in Israel have openly suggested their country use its nuclear weapons on Gaza.
It’s baffling how Biden has tolerated Israel’s nuclear program and Israel’s refusal to disclose it.
How can he not have second thoughts about this exception the US extends to Israel?
It’s unfair to measure Joe Biden’s competence to serve a second term on the basis of his performance in a single 90-minute debate. However, Biden’s failure, over nine months, to intervene in the slaughter of thousands of innocent Palestinians in Gaza and destruction of their homes, schools, hospitals, water and power systems — enabled by American munitions — speaks volumes to our current president’s questionable judgment and morality, especially concerning nuclear war.
And how tragic for Americans and the world, that currently, the leading alternative candidate for president seems no more rational or trustworthy.
ACTION: Tell Your Senators & Representative
To Demand the Elimination of ICBMs
More than 60 organizations have issued a joint statement calling for elimination of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
“Rather than being any kind of deterrent, ICBMs are the opposite — a foreseeable catalyst for nuclear attack,” the statement points out. “ICBMs certainly waste billions of dollars, but what makes them unique is the threat that they pose to all of humanity.”
THE LETTER
As a constituent, I urge you to read two short documents.
The first is a coalition statement from 2022 that explains the urgent need to dismantle ICBMs for the safety of our country and the planet:
RootsAction: “Organizations Call for Elimination of ‘Launch on Warning’ Land-Based Nuclear Missiles in the United States” (https://www.rootsaction.org/news-a-views/2694-organizations-call-for-elimination-of-qlaunch-on-warningq-land-based-nuclear-missiles-in-the-united-states)
The second details a golden opportunity created by the dramatic cost overruns on a project that should be shut down regardless of cost: (https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/new-us-ballistic-missile-may-cost-so-much-that-project-risks-being-terminated/ar-AA1lvty5)
I hope to hear from you soon about this crucial matter.
ACTION: Sign Petition Here.
