I have often posted articles about the threat of nuclear war. The United States and Russia each have thousands of nuclear missiles pointed at each other and ready to launch in minutes. Since the end of the Cold War, these facilities and launch systems have been in decline in both countries. Funds have been cut for maintenance and training has declined in quality. There have already been a couple of incidents since the end of the Cold War that almost resulted in nuclear war. With the seizure of Crimea by Russia, relations between the U.S. and Russia have cooled. Now members of the U.S. Congress are proposing a law that could move us closer to nuclear war with Russia.
Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) has introduced the Russian Aggression Prevention Act (RAPA) bill in the U.S. Congress. The bill “provides major non-NATO ally status for Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova for purposes of the transfer or possible transfer of defense articles or defense services. In essence RAPA would make Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova de facto members of NATO. Under the provisions of this bill, the new non-NATO major ally status would allow the U.S. to move substantial weapons, supplies and troops into these countries without having to seek NATO approval. This is a crucial point because Germany has been strongly opposed to the U.S. request to make these countries official members of NATO.
When the Soviet Union fell, the Western powers make a deal with Russia and her neighbors. In return for removing nuclear weapons from countries in the old Soviet Union, NATO would not take countries that neighbored Russia in Easter Europe into NATO. This was also part of the negotiations to scale down the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. Some members of the U.S. Congress would like to bring NATO to Russia's doorstep. We here in the U.S. cannot imagine what it was like to be invaded by a neighboring country and have millions of its citizens slaughtered. Russia is understandably paranoid.
The civil war in Ukraine is already close to becoming a Ukraine-Russian war. If the U.S. moves troops and serious military hardware such as the Ballistic Missile Defense system into Ukraine, this will be seen as a major provocation by Russia. If Ukraine and Russia go to war in such a circumstance, it will be very difficult for the U.S. not to be drawn into the conflict. A state of war between the U.S. and Russia would result in nuclear forces in both countries going to high alert. Both countries have plans for pre-emptive nuclear strikes on the other country if it appeared that a nuclear attack was imminent. The possibilities for misunderstandings and accidents triggering a full scale nuclear war would be raised. As I have said often before, a full scale nuclear war would be the end of human civilizations and lead to the death of billions of people. This bill is a very bad idea that would make a dangerous international situation much worse.
Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn)
