TEHRAN (FNA)- US Vice President Mike Pence is taking us for fools to claim that President Donald Trump had “no choice” but to withdraw the US from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and it is all Russia’s fault.
Pence is also lying to his teeth to claim that the US has repeatedly made of a Russian violation, and the US continues to maintain that they don’t intend to violate the INF themselves, even once it is scrapped.
If you take a good look at what the Pentagon regime has done thus far, you will see that they are already making parts for missiles and other nuclear warheads to violate the INF. Taking Pence at his word, however, the argument that Russia’s tests “pose a risk” to NATO members makes no sense, and moreover, withdrawing from the INF doesn’t prohibit further Russian tests, but rather encourages it.
If the US wanted Russia to stop testing missiles which are arguably in violation of the INF, pursuing them within the treaty makes no sense, much less getting rid of the treaty itself, which gives Russia and others a justification to go further with such developments just to counter the presumptive US missiles the Pentagon wants.
Put simply, this would encourage other nuclear weapon states to modernize and upgrade their nuclear weapons arsenal as well. After all, President Trump has already maintained that the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability” and that he would “outmatch” and “outlast” other potential competitors in a nuclear arms race.
Although his comments have mostly prompted condemnation at the United Nations and around the world, and raised concerns about the direction Trump would take US nuclear weapons policy, still, that’s not enough to rid the world of all nuclear weapons.
As such, the decision by the US to withdraw from the INF and other treaties rests on faulty assumptions and is unnecessary and unlikely to achieve the stated goal. It further sets the stage for an even more unsustainable rate of spending on US nuclear weapons, would accelerate global nuclear competition, and could increase the risk of nuclear conflict in the years ahead.
In addition, the development of new low-yield nuclear capabilities, primarily to counter Russia’s alleged willingness to use nuclear weapons first on a limited basis early in a conventional conflict or crisis, is a bad idea. It will only force Russia to upgrade those weapons if there is any such willingness on the part of Moscow at all.
Washington’s belief that a nuclear conflict could be controlled is dangerous thinking. At this time and age, and with so many conflicts across the Middle East and beyond, the fog of a new war is thick, the fog of nuclear war is even thicker. Such thinking could have the perverse effect of convincing a nuclear weapon state that it could get away with limited nuclear use without putting its survival at risk.
However, it has been estimated that the use of even a fraction of US and Russian nuclear forces could lead to the death of tens of millions of people in many countries. An all-out exchange would kill hundreds of millions and produce catastrophic global consequences with adverse agricultural, economic, health, and environmental consequences for billions of people.
Russian and American leaders should recognize that a nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought at any level. They should further recognize that the only available option is to scrap all their existing nuclear weapons, and make sure other nuclear weapon states follow suit.
They should never scrap the international treaties that keep these weapons of mass destruction in check. Put simply, developing new nuclear roles and capabilities will put additional strain on an already wobbly global nuclear order.
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