‘Are We Actually Governed by Lunatics?’

Sept. 24—For once, a European mainstream publication has written the truth! Weltwoche, a Swiss weekly news magazine, published an online editorial September 23, under the title, “Are We Actually Governed by Lunatics?” Pointing to President Joe Biden, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Swiss President Ignazio Cassis, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Weltwoche, Roger Köppel wrote:

The more the Americans and the Europeans get caught up in their feverish spiral of aggression, the longer and more globally and more dangerous this war will become.

To get out of the quagmire, he says, Europe would have to—

restrain the Biden administration, set limits to the Ukrainians with their camera-toting charismatic President Zelensky, who could yet fall ill with the Messiah syndrome. Risking a world war against Russia is madness. Peace negotiations are called for…. Geopolitically, they have let it come to a nuclear war against Russia, not because Putin is crazy, but because they do not take the Russians seriously, probably also under deep-seated racist prejudices, treating them disparagingly, whistle at their interests, while one puts one’s own interest—power-hungry and self-intoxicated—above everything.

Meanwhile, with the Doomsday Clock now only seconds before midnight, the military, the media, and the U.S. and British political leadership rant that it is all Russia’s fault. It is obvious to the entire world that President Putin means exactly what he says, when he states that once the referenda are completed, Moscow will quickly accept all four oblasts into the Russian Federation. With that, any military assault on one or more of the new states of Russia will be viewed as a foreign invasion of the motherland, and the Russian military will respond. As is clearly articulated in the nuclear posture of the Russian Federation, if the existence of the motherland is threatened, the use of nuclear weapons may be used.

Do the lunatics believe that Putin is bluffing? Do they truly believe that the referenda are a “sham,” as they claim? Will they drag the world into nuclear holocaust in a desperate effort to save their crumbling dollar-based financial system?

It cannot be doubted. Matthew Kroenig, the acting director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council (one of London’s primary assets in the U.S.), wrote in a Sept. 16 “Memo to the President” titled, “How To Deter Russian Nuclear Use in Ukraine—and Respond if Deterrence Fails,” Kroenig posits the situation in which “Russia might use nuclear weapons to achieve its goals in the war in Ukraine.” His “Retaliatory Option 2B” states “The United States could use nuclear weapons to respond to and deter further Russian nuclear use in Ukraine.” The Washington Post, covering Kroenig’s Memo, says that he believes a first nuclear strike by Russia in Ukraine would justify the United States to strike directly against those forces, that it would be calibrated to send a message that this is not a major war coming, this is a limited strike.

This is insane on so many counts! First, Russia has made it abundantly clear that there are no targets in Ukraine warranting a nuclear strike. Russia has not even used conventional weapons on civilian targets in Ukraine and would never launch a nuclear war there. Second, the idea that there could be a “limited war” is a utopian fantasy. The moment one nuclear weapon is used, all or nearly all would be launched immediately, on both sides.

However, in about ten days, four oblasts which are now part of Ukraine will become part of Russia. Any shelling or troop movement by foreign military forces within those regions will be considered an invasion of Russia. Russia has experienced the horrors and destruction of two fascist armies massing on their border in preparation for invasion—that of Napoleon (the first fascist), and that of Hitler. They will not allow it to happen again.

Adm. Charles A. Richard, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, who last year said that a nuclear war was now more “likely” due to the rise of China, told a panel at the Air Force Association conference this past week:

All of us in this room are back in the business of contemplating competition through crisis and potential direct armed conflict with a nuclear-capable peer. The implications of that are profound…. And this is no longer theoretical.

The Russians, meanwhile, held a conference commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Sergei Ryabkov, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, noted:

Ballistic missiles have been equipped aboard Trident submarines, which have warheads of reduced power…. The Americans are deliberately lowering the nuclear threshold.

The Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov told the same conference:

While the Cuban missile crisis resulted in the recognition of the possibility of peaceful coexistence of the two great powers, nowadays Washington pursues the goal of defeating Russia and bringing it to its knees. An even better option seems to be to divide our country and subsequently establish several separate “principalities” within our territory, depriving it of nuclear weapons and a legitimate permanent member seat in the UN Security Council.

You will find two Open Letters to the UN General Assembly in this issue of EIR, one from the Foundation to Battle Injustice, calling for an emergency conference sponsored by the UN to investigate and shut down the Myrotvorets “kill list” in Ukraine, and a second issued jointly by the Schiller Institute and the Foundation to Battle Injustice, calling for the UN General Assembly to remove the causes for the war danger. Please sign both of these letters.