Another good one from my friend and brother Marine, Greg. Thank you Greg. Yes March Madness is upon us in more ways than one. BTW, the Lady Vols won there first round. LOL. Yeah I know, my bride and I watch Women’s College Basketball. I get ribbed about that a lot, especially from the book’s editor, my best Marine friend, Dennis. He simply cannot understand why I watch the women play but not the men. Because watching 7′ giants beat each other up, while I can watch what basketball used to be many tears ago i.e., the Bulls in their heyday!
A March to Madness
By: G. Maresca
Not too long ago, March madness meant college basketball rather than nuclear brinkmanship.
By not winning quickly and outright in Ukraine, former Russian president, and prime minister Dmitri Medvedev, a Putin hand puppet, wasted no time threatening the West saying Russia could rip up its nuclear agreements. Putin endorsed such malfeasance by placing his nuclear forces on heightened alert saying we may face “consequences you have never seen.”
In doing so, Russia placed the once remote possibility that tactical nuclear weapons could be exploited on the battlefield making what was once inconceivable, anything but. Moreover, BCA Research set the odds of a “civilization-ending global nuclear war” over the next year at an “uncomfortably high 10%.”
Russia telegraphed their intentions when troops seized the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear plant that in 1986 produced the planet’s worst nuclear accident.
Russia is a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency where an attack against any nuclear facility committed to civilian power production is a violation of governance. This breach is also included in the United Nations Charter, and the Geneva Conventions.
Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, Europe’s biggest, triggered a fire in the plant’s administrative building that fortunately did not affect the facility’s six nuclear reactors or produce a radiation leak. This flagrant assault was nothing short of a war crime proving that conventional weapons are far from the only option available in the Russian arsenal.
Putin made it clear for years what he intended to do given his invasion of Georgia and the Crimea proving he has no intention of stopping until his objectives are met. Having NATO intervene to defuse a nuclear disaster risks further escalation but at some point, may be necessary.
Provided Russia captures all of Ukraine’s nuclear reactors it would hold Ukrainians hostage by manipulating the energy supply where small armed detachments would protect the reactors is certainly strategically feasible.
No nation is sovereign without energy independence of which nuclear plays a major role. President Biden voluntarily surrendered ours in exchange for Russian and Middle Eastern oil. American environmentalists approve of fossil fuels provided they come from such perilous places where tyrants like Putin are able to finance their evil.
Provided Ukraine’s nuclear facilities are unsecure, its spent radioactive matter will risk a nuclear catastrophe far beyond Ukraine’s borders. Ukrainians are diligently laboring in the middle of a war to keep the reactors safely operating – unsung heroes in a crusade teeming with them. Ukrainians need an abundance of aid on many levels most especially securing their nuclear power plants and the radioactive material they produce.
Putin’s invasion is not just about returning Ukraine to the Russian fold, but a siege on the international order that for decades has worked to safeguard the peaceful use of nuclear power.
By closing in on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants that total 15 reactors at four sites, Russia rather than the contracted Westinghouse Electric, will profit from Ukrainian nuclear fuel that they had been supplying. What garnered little media attention is the fact that Westinghouse was in the planning stages to build at least five nuclear reactors in Ukraine over the next two decades. According to the World Nuclear Association, that enterprise is worth more than $30 billion for Westinghouse, an American company.
What kept nuclear war at bay during the longstanding Cold War era was M.A.D. — Mutually Assured Destruction. Both the U.S. and Soviet Union knew that any nuclear launch would be returned and annihilate both countries. However, it is another thing entirely to confront a potential nuclear conflict when one side believes it can win.
Russia is not the only American adversary that could employ its nuclear arsenal as a buffer for a conventional invasion. China is modernizing and multiplying its nuclear forces and covets Taiwan the way the Russians do Ukraine. Regarding Ukraine, the Chinese are trying to appear neutral, but in actuality are Russia’s co-conspirator.
The war raging throughout Ukraine should alarm the international community to reassess suppressing nuclear weapons. Failing to take heed to such a benevolent cause will lead to another and unnecessary nuclear arms race.
Add to this toxic mix, the nuclear starved Iranian mullahs – religious zealots possessed with an Islamic apocalyptic mentality – where “mutually assured destruction” is not a deterrent, but an incentive.
