A comment to my recent post about the impending Russian invasion of Ukraine was:
These uSA have no business in Ukraine. The comparison with the USSR’s attempt to put missiles in Cuba is apt.
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What is happening in the Ukraine is very important to the US and its defense. Let me explain how:
In 1994, the Soviet Union had just broken up, and one of the new nations was the Ukraine. Ukraine had on its territory the world’s third largest nuclear arsenal- an arsenal that was larger than the nuclear arsenals of Britain, France and China combined. There was a lot of concern at the time that one of these warheads would wind up in the wrong hands, and there was a lot of pressure on Ukraine for them to turn those warheads over to Russia.
To make this happen, Ukraine needed some reassurances against aggression. The Ukrainians asked for certain things, one of which was a security assurance that the United States and Russia would pay attention and respect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, that there would be no use of force or threat of force against Ukraine.
Enter the Budapest Memorandum, which was signed on December 4, 1994. It now appears as though the countries who swore to honor Ukraine’s borders in exchange for Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons are going back on their word.
Yet another example of the US being unwilling or unable to honor its international commitments. The world is watching.
There are a list of countries that have given up their nuclear weapons: Libya, South Africa, and now the Ukraine. Each of those governments were subsequently overthrown. What message does that send to other countries with nuclear aspirations? Iran, North Korea, Israel, Pakistan.
This to me is the opening of a new, more dangerous phase of nuclear proliferation. The possibility of a nuclear weapon being used is now dependent on whichever of those governments is the LEAST stable. What this means is that North Korea or Iran is likely to use a nuclear weapon in the near future.
Couple this with a feckless US president who has the intelligence of a potato. The situation in the Ukraine makes it all the more likely that we will see a nuclear exchange within the next 4 years. It would not surprise me to see Israel and Iran trade a couple of nukes before our next Presidential election. Even more worrisome is the possibility that the US winds up catching one of them.
