The news that Russia would place nukes in Belarus sent a jolt through the blog-sphere with a wealth of dire predictions of the world to come.
Looks like July may start the warnings all over again.
Why is that, Professor?
I am glad you asked.
Putin said last week that Russia will send tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus next month once the construction of storage facilities is completed, which is expected to happen by July 8.
And of course Poland had to thump its chest at the news….
Polish President Andrzej Duda said Monday that NATO must respond to Russia deploying nuclear weapons to Belarus.
“I absolutely believe that such a situation demands an unequivocal response from NATO,” Duda said at a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to Bloomberg.
Duda didn’t specify what kind of response he had in mind, but he has previously said Poland wants to host US nuclear weapons. In October 2022, Duda said he was discussing the idea with Washington.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his plans to deploy nukes to Belarus, he compared the move to NATO’s nuclear sharing program, under which Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey host US nuclear weapons.
(antiwar.com)
This appears to be a replay of the Cold War years…..and the usual dire predictions have begun from those god awful think tanks….
A Swedish think tank that keeps tabs on nuclear weapons around the world issued quite a statement Monday to describe the state of things: “We are drifting into one of the most dangerous periods in human history,” said Dan Smith of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, per the Guardian. The assessment comes as the group’s latest assessment found that the number of operational nuclear warheads ticked up again in 2022.
- SIPRI counts 9,576 in military stockpiles ready for use in various countries, which is up 86 from the previous year, per Reuters.
- The new 86 belong to China (60), Russia (12), Pakistan (five), North Korea (five), and India (four). The group acknowledges this is a best guess given that China has never disclosed its numbers. SIPRI estimates China now has 410 in all.
- Nuclear-armed states are listed as the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. The US and Russia account for 90% of the world’s total, according to SIPRI. Counting warheads that have been retired and are awaiting dismantlement, the world total is 12,512.
- The group said diplomacy over nuclear arsenals has taken a hit since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in particular. “It is imperative that the world’s governments find ways to cooperate in order to calm geopolitical tensions, slow arms races and deal with the worsening consequences of environmental breakdown and rising world hunger,” said Smith.
A closing thought….Nations wasted $157,000 per minute on nukes….
A new report published Monday by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons shows that the world’s nine nuclear-armed countries spent more than $157,000 per minute on their atomic weaponry last year, enriching private contractors at the risk of imperiling humankind.
Combined, nuclear-armed nations spent $82.9 billion on their arsenals last year, according to ICAN. The United States was the biggest spender, dumping $43.7 billion into its already massive arsenal in 2022—more than all of the other nuclear-armed countries combined.
“The U.S. Congress allocated $16 billion for the [National Nuclear Security Administration] in 2022 to spend on weapons activities,” ICAN’s report notes. “In 2022, the Department of Defense requested $27.7 billion for ‘nuclear modernization,’ including the ‘Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, B-21 Bomber, Columbia class submarine, and Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications.'”
Overall, the report shows global spending on nuclear weapons increased for the third consecutive year in 2022.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/nations-wasted-nuclear-weapons
What say you?
Is this end times that all the religious sort have been waiting for for so many years?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
We have nukes close to Russia, so no surprise they want to put some in Belarus. The problems begin if the current government in Belarus falls, leaving people in power that we know little about. Then they may well have their fingers on a nuclear launch button.
I am old enough (and so are you) to remember the Cuban missile crisis. What goes around, comes around…
Best wishes, Pete.
That is the point that I make and most people miss it because of some deluded impressions that are usually false. chuq
The Christian extremists wanted this in the first place. It’s just a different group being targeted than they wanted, they wanted Israel to get in a fight with Russian. Look up in searchable internet bible a verse about a Bear attacking Israel.
There is a quote from the Bible that covers just about everything…..chuq
It may not be the end times that the religious folks have been waiting for, but it could be the practical side of an authentic expectation that sooner or later some fool is going to ignite the conflagration that will end up with half of civilization incinerated … and I say that because I believe that mankind, as a whole, is dumber than a box of rocks, cannot think beyond their own quest for instant gratifications and are prone to repeating mistakes of the past …yes, sooner or later, somebody is going to set the nuclear firecracker off –If it is there, someone will light the fuse — it is inevitable — the only question is “When?”
When indeed…but that question has been asked since 1945. chuq
I guess we will just have to wait and see
I can do that….since I have been waiting for 70 years a little longer will be no problem….chuq