PRESS RELEASE
Perry Warns: There’s a Very Real Danger We Will Blunder into a Nuclear War with Russia
Dec. 4, 2017 (EIRNS)—Former Secretary of Defense William Perry delivered a speech on Nov. 28 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., in which he warned that a confrontation between the United States and Russia, much more dangerous than that of the Cold War, is being created.
"Today, inexplicably to me, we’re recreating the geopolitical hostility of the Cold War, and we’re rebuilding the nuclear dangers," Perry said.
"We are doing this without any serious public discussion or any real understanding of the consequences of these actions. We are sleepwalking into a new Cold War, and there’s very real danger that we will blunder into a nuclear war.
"I believe that the likelihood of some sort of a nuclear catastrophe today is actually greater than it was during the Cold War,"
he said later in the speech.
"Why do I believe that? Because the United States and Russia today are confronting each other with a hostility that is recreating the geopolitical dangers of the Cold War, and because the United States and Russia are rebuilding their Cold War nuclear arsenals, they’re recreating the military dangers of the Cold War. So, today, we are still vulnerable to blundering into a nuclear war if we have a crisis with Russia comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis."
Perry noted that both the United States and Russia have their nuclear forces in a launch-on-warning posture, which greatly increases the danger from a false alarm. He said he knew of five false alarms, three on the U.S. side and two on the Russian side, all of which were averted by thoughtful watch officers who questioned the warning data that they were seeing.
"That means ultimately the future of civilization will depend on the judgment of an anonymous watch officer and the judgment and the temperament of the American President or the Russian President, who have the sole authority to launch a nuclear attack."
The problem that needs to be addressed, he said, is that,
"We do not now have the political will to act in reducing nuclear dangers, because we do not understand fully how real and how great those dangers are."
The report and partial transcript of Perry’s speech published by Zero Hedge does not indicate that Perry mentioned that President Trump’s intention towards Russia is one of good relations that would, in fact, reduce the danger of a nuclear war, and that Robert Mueller’s so-called Russiagate investigation is actually intended to thwart Trump’s desire to have good relations with Russia.
