Thursday, June 2, 2016

Robert Parry — The Bigger Nuclear Risk: Trump or Clinton?

If the U.S. election comes down to Hillary Clinton v. Donald Trump, the American people will have to decide between two candidates who could risk the future of the planet, albeit for very different reasons, writes Robert Parry.…
 Hillary Clinton made a strong case for why handing the nuclear codes over to a President Donald Trump would be a scary idea, but there may be equal or even greater reason to fear turning them over to her. In perhaps the most likely area where nuclear war could break out – along Russia’s borders – Clinton comes across as the more belligerent of the two…. 
In short, there is reason to fear the election of either of these candidates, one because of his unpredictability and the other because of her rigidity. How, one might wonder, did the two major political parties reach this juncture, putting two arguably unfit personalities within reach of the nuclear codes?
I would not blame the political parties. After all, candidates go through a primary process that vets them with the voting public prior to the election. This is in the lap of the American people and plays to the claim of conservatives that "the people" are not only not qualified to rule, but also not qualified to participate so strongly in the candidate selection process as to give the public a definitive say in the outcome.

Consortium News
The Bigger Nuclear Risk: Trump or Clinton?
Robert Parry

10 comments:

Peter Pan said...

What might happen, for instance, if Ukraine’s nationalist — and even neo-Nazi — militias, which wield increasing power over the corrupt and indecisive regime in Kiev, received modern weaponry from a tough-talking Clinton-45 administration and launched an offensive to exterminate ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine and to reclaim Crimea, where 96 percent of the voters opted to secede from Ukraine and rejoin Russia?

A calculating president would leave the Ukies to their fate, but use the incident to cement the cold war. A sane president would recognize that Ukraine lies within Russia's sphere of influence.

An insane president would escalate the conflict.

Ignacio said...

I would say Clinton is 'calculating' but stupid, so may end up screwing it up and 'escalating' (via Soros and fools peer pressure).

I would say Trump IN THIS CASE would get the sane stance, worst case scenario calculating (to scale up defence spending as stimulus) but most likely not screwing up.

Dan Lynch said...

There hasn't been any serious fighting on American soil since the Civil War. The WWII generation is gone and today's Americans think war is something you watch on TV. Someday we may learn the hard way.

Tom Hickey said...

No military is going to be able to attack CONUS (continental US) on the ground for the foreseeable future. Incoming will be from the air and that pretty much means nukes for devastation rather than precision attacks against military targets. The goal will be to take down infrastructure in order to destabilize the country.

Russia and China have already been working to develop and deploy hypersonic MIRV ballistic missiles that are earth-launchd but travel through space at the apex of the trajectory, making them extremely difficult to counter with a missile shield.

When this is the only alternative you present the adversary short of capitulation, this is what you get.

Tom Hickey said...

I believed I mentioned some time ago the Russian strategists were running the idea of detonating a thermonuclear device over Yellowstone that would active the super-volcano and cover North America with ash.

This is space fiction stuff, but now it is becoming very real.

Dan Lynch said...

Or an underwater nuke off the East coast that creates a giant tsunami that takes out the coastal cities.

If the Russians or Chinese want to mess us up, they can. They wouldn't even have to kill anyone, merely disable our internet, phones, power grid, satellites, etc..

Of course we would try to return the favor but the Russians are prepared for a defensive war, we are not. The Russians and Chinese are willing to take casualties in a defensive war, we are not. Americans lives in a bubble.

Tom Hickey said...

Right. The PLA signaled some time ago that in a nuclear exchange the US won't be able to recover because it is so concentrated. China is not yet as concentrated and would survive.

Kaivey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kaivey said...

Apparently they all have air raid shelters in Russia. The US is such a menace to the world.

Peter Pan said...

Russia is not quite the menace, so Americans only need to hide under a school desk.