LLAW’s All Things Nuclear #554, Wednesday (02/28/2024)
“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
“We will take America without firing a shot. We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within....” Russia’s President Nikita Khrushchev in 1956.
LLAW’s COMMENTS, Wednesday (02/28/2024)
Tonight’s lead article up for comment is from my Substack colleague Steve Schmidt who tells us what our failure to continue to protect Ukraine from Russia’s invasion may mean to the United States’ future, as well as the rest of the free world . . . Is this what the American citizens want to see happen with the crazed right wing Republicans’ desire to remove our democratic way of governing in favor of dictators like Putin and a Hitler-style copy-cat and demented lifelong criminal Donald Trump who barely remembers his own name? ~llaw
What the abandonment of Ukraine will mean
FEB 28, 2024
Multitudes of Americans have forgotten something that was once known by most all in our country, and certainly understood by presidents of both parties.
Take a look at this image:
This is the USS Maine. Her mission is deterrence. She is one of 14 Ohio-class SSBNs in the American nuclear triad. Each stands as a terrifying peer of the other as the most powerful and deadly weapons platforms that have ever existed in human history. Each ship carries enough nuclear weaponry to classify them as the Earth’s 6th ranking nuclear power.
After the global cataclysm of the Second World War it was broadly understood that humanity would not survive another world war, and that humanity now possessed the power of the gods. Humanity had breached a threshold where it was capable of summoning its extinction and evaporating any trace of civilization in an instant. This is why Douglas MacArthur talked about the necessity of a “spiritual recrudescence” among man as the gateway to lasting peace. While awaiting mankind’s evolution into peaceful beings the fall back option for preserving the peace was massive deterrence based on mutually assured destruction, anchored by the nuclear arsenals of the United States, United Kingdom and France. These were the victorious powers that shattered and pacified Nazi Germany after appeasing its rise and ignoring its danger. The horrors of fascism were thought to be indelibly carved into human memory under banners such as “Never Again” and “Never Forget,” but those turned out to be slogans that whisked away for millions like puffs of smoke.
A great collective security treaty was signed by most all of the world’s most important democracies and bulwarks of liberty after the horror of war that promised an attack on one was an attack on all. The purpose of this was not belligerence, but rather peace. Peace through overwhelming strength was the basis of NATO. It has kept the world from spiraling into the apocalypse for nearly 80 years. The only time its collective security obligations have ever been invoked was on the occasion of the 9/11 attacks against the United States. Many Americans and the whole of MAGA seem utterly ignorant of the scores of dead who died defending America, and were buried under foreign flags most of us couldn’t name. Their families remember their names though, and they understand the price of defending freedom.
The great threat that united the free countries of the world was a vast, powerful and dangerous nation, ruled over by a ruthless dictatorship and security apparatus that exported totalitarianism, terror and menace. That nation was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the dominant power within it was Russia. Today a revanchist Russia is led by a dictator who rationalizes his war of conquest, murder, rape, kidnapping and destruction with the same ideology, same logic, same dogmas that the 20th century’s deadliest fascist employed. The difference between Hitler and Putin exists in the space between the known and unknown. The thousand-year Reich died in a dank Berlin bunker when the shattered Führer poisoned his dog, next his wife, and then shot himself in the head. We know where Hitler ended, and precisely what he did. We know the full tale from 1923 all the way through the final moments.
The whole world understood for decades the incomparable evil of humanity’s greatest nemesis. Where Putin’s story will end is an open question. Perhaps it is the case that he will be little remembered for his first 20 years in power. Maybe Vladimir Putin remains a figure of our future still. Perhaps it is his destiny, like that of his predecessors, to shatter the world again and test humanity’s capacity and resolve to survive the new slavery — again.
The war he began in Ukraine is estimated to have killed almost 400,000 Russians. This is a staggering number, as is the 32,000 combat deaths sustained by Ukraine as the war enters its third year.
What is happening in Ukraine is much closer than most Americans grasp. Kyiv is just a plane flight away. It is the capital of a European country that is being attacked by a larger country under an old dogma of nationalism that declares that the smaller country and its language, history and customs don’t exist, and never have. The war at hand is one where subjugation and eradication are the goals. A single man has dreams of empire and restorations dancing in his head, and he has the power to do anything he wants. His name is Vladimir Putin and this simple fact of human history should be remembered when his name is discussed. Each century of humanity’s recorded story has been deadlier than the last, and 75 per cent of the 21st century lies ahead of us.
A great hour of moral reckoning has arrived in the United States. Are we prepared to surrender a burden that has saved us all? Are we prepared to welcome the darkness, and next, the abyss? Are we ready to abandon a brave people fighting for freedom and survival against a tyrant? Are we ready to appease the tyrant? Are we ready to lure him into the next country? How about the one after that?
By the way, have you thought about what the world looks like as America abandons her friends, alliances, and turns toward Russia in admiration, as opposed to revulsion?
It looks like this, as captured in a Reuters’ “In pictures: Two years of war in Ukraine.”
There should never be a world where there is a German, Japanese and South Korean nuclear weapon. Yet, as America abandons the realities of grave dangers facing us, and ignores the gathering threat, it is precisely what will happen.
The war drums are beating between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The situation in the Balkans is fragile. Conflict in the Middle East is escalating, and China is rapidly building the naval forces designed to take Taiwan by force.
Ukraine is the linchpin. Ukraine is Czechoslovakia in 1938, with Speaker Mike Johnson playing the latter day role of Neville Chamberlain.
A most dangerous hour has arrived at the doorstep of a fanatic who believes in fantasies, simplicity, power, dogmas and certitude. Speaker Mike Johnson is hostile towards democracy in America and around the world. Eighty-five years ago, America was blessed that such a man of meager abilities and extreme positions could never become the speaker of the US House of Representatives. This appalling hour is testimony to the irreducible truth that courage is the first virtue and its absence obliterates all others.
What is the right thing to do? What is the necessary thing to do? What is the American thing to do? What would our greatest leaders tell us to do?
Perhaps these words from John Kennedy’s presidential inaugural address on January 20, 1961, might help illuminate the question, and shine a light on the American path:
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage, and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.
The abandonment of Ukraine will mark a moment of national shame and ignominy that will make our descendants shudder in anger and fear. The consequences will be catastrophic. The Ukraine War is the worst European war since World War II. Vladimir Putin has made clear wherever ethnic Russians may live, or where the Russian language may be spoken, is a border he refuses to abide. He has assessed American leadership, and found it wanting. He has gained the upper hand through a refusal to bend and blink. During the past 12 months he has faced down an armed rebellion and blew its plotter out of the sky before murdering his chief political opponent and most famous dissident. Now he sits enthralled to the slow motion strangulation of hope in Ukraine, as the world’s most powerful nation and force for freedom turns its back with indifference towards people who are making a stand for their existence. What has happened to the American spirit that would ever allow such indifference toward the fate of tens of thousands of kidnapped children?
The price of 21st century global war will be more than we can comprehend. When it comes, the violence will be shocking. When a small child looks up, and asks why things are the way they are, the answer will be simple.
Appeasement.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING ACCESS TO “LLAW’S ALL THINGS NUCLEAR” RELATED MEDIA:
There are 6 categories (including a bonus category at the end for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcanic and caldera activity that also play an important role in humanity’s lives) as do ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links to the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
All Things Nuclear
Nuclear Power
Nuclear War
Nuclear Power Emergencies
Nuclear War Threats
Yellowstone Caldera (There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available in tonight’s Post.)
Whenever there is an underlined link to a Category media news story, if you press or click on the link provided, you no longer have to cut and paste to your web browser, since this Post’s link will take you directly to the article in your browser.
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (per above). If a category heading does not appear, it means there was no news reported from this category today. There are three Yellowstone Caldera bonus stories available tonight.
(A reminder, just in case: When linked, the access to the media story will be underlined. If there is no link to a media story of interest you can still copy and paste the headline and lead line into your browser to find the article you are seeking. Hopefully this will never happen.)
TODAY’S NUCLEAR WORLD’S NEWS (02/28/2024):
All Things Nuclear
NEWS
Expanding wildfires force Texas nuclear facility to pause operations - NPR
NPR
"Everything south of Highway 146 in Fritch evacuate now!" city officials said on Facebook. Officials with Hutchinson County emergency management and ...
Expanding wildfires force Texas nuclear facility to pause operations | WJCT News 89.9
WJCT News
"Everything south of Highway 146 in Fritch evacuate now!" city officials said on Facebook. On Tuesday evening, the fires were 20 to 25 miles from ...
Q&A: Pete Miller's Journey as a Black Nuclear Engineer | Department of Energy
Department of Energy
Q: Tell us about your early life. A: I'm from the inner city of Chicago. On the South Side, all of us lived in segregated neighborhoods. We were ...
Nuclear Power
NEWS
Germany considers getting its own nuclear weapons despite rejecting nuclear energy
Fox News
Developing nuclear weapons may be on the minds of Germany, despite shunning nuclear power in recent years.
Nuclear energy in the spotlight at the World Governments Summit
Nuclear Energy Agency
... Nuclear Power Plant in Abu Dhabi. With projections that twenty-five percent of the country's energy consumption will be powered by nuclear energy ...
Nuclear weapon factory forced to evacuate as Texas wildfires threaten plant
The Independent
Early Wednesday Pantex posted on X, formally known as Twitter, the plant “is open for normal day shift operations” and that all personnel were to ...
Nuclear War
NEWS
China Urges Largest Nuclear States to Negotiate a 'No-First-Use' Treaty - USNews.com
USNews.com
BEIJING (Reuters) -States with the largest nuclear arsenals should negotiate a treaty on no-first-use of nuclear weapons against each other or ...
Germans Debate the Once-Unthinkable: Do We Need Nuclear Weapons? - WSJ
The Wall Street Journal
The discussion is especially fraught in Germany, which has renounced nuclear energy and the atomic bomb. People lay a peace sign out of candles ...
Russia planning nuclear strike to counter 'Chinese invasion'? Report shares details of leaked ... - Mint
Mint
... nuclear weapons. President Joe Biden has cautioned that a conflict between Russia and NATO could trigger World War Three. Meanwhile, it is being ...
Nuclear Power Emergencies
NEW
QCA nuclear emergency response plans evaluated | OurQuadCities
OurQuadCities
The Quad Cities' nuclear power station emergency response plans are being evaluated. Personnel from both Iowa and Illinois participated in the ...
Texas: Disaster declaration issued and nuclear weapons plant shut down as wildfires spread
Sky News
Republican governor Greg Abbott proclaimed 60 counties were in a state of disaster and called for extra emergency services to support local ...
USPA Mobilizes Emergency Fire Watch Service In Hartford In Response To Structure Fire
Barchart.com
The International Atomic Energy Agency projects nuclear generation will increase 50% by 2050. Meanwhile, many nuclear power plants that were scheduled ...
Nuclear War Threats
NEWS
South Korea, US to stage annual drills focusing on Korea nuclear threats - Reuters
Reuters
"The two countries are jointly developing a counter operation concept against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and it will be applied to ...
Letter: Comparing threats: Global warming vs. nuclear war - Alton Telegraph
Alton Telegraph
Comparing threats: Global warming vs. nuclear war; Alton letter writer says Biden is wrong on the greater threat.
South Korea, US to Stage Annual Drills Focusing on Korea Nuclear Threats - USNews.com
USNews.com
Seoul and Washington say the exercises are defensive and a response to the North's threats. (Reporting by Hyonhee Shin. Editing by Gerry Doyle).
Yellowstone Caldera
NEWS
What is 'normal' earthquake activity in Yellowstone National Park? - Idaho Capital Sun
Idaho Capital Sun
The Yellowstone National Park region experiences 1500–2500 earthquakes per year, according to the volcano observatory's seismic data.
Looking at the Most Recent and Most Extreme Earthquakes in Idaho - KIDO Talk Radio
KIDO Talk Radio
... Yellowstone National Park, situated on top of the Yellowstone Caldera, also known as the Yellowstone "Supervolcano." This volcanic caldera is ...
Yosemite Has Its Own Grand Canyon, Here's How To See It - TheTravel
TheTravel
The Yellowstone River in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone Photo by Rico Gore on Unsplash ... The chamber of the volcano collapsed, leaving a caldera ...