U.S.
Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander
Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, talks at a press
conference July 31, 2014, Gaziantep, Turkey.
(U.S. Air Force photo by
Senior Airman Nicole Sikorski/Released)
By
Niles Williamson
US
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is meeting today at the headquarters
of the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany with two dozen US
military commanders and European diplomats to discuss how to escalate
their economic and military campaign against Russia. They will assess
the impact of current economic sanctions, as well as NATO’s
strategy of exploiting the crisis in eastern Ukraine to deploy
ever-greater numbers of troops and military equipment to Eastern
Europe, threatening Russia with war.
A
US defense official told Reuters that the main purpose of the meeting
was to “assess and strategize on how the United States and key
allies should think about heightened tensions with Russia over the
past year.” The official also said Carter was open to providing the
Ukrainian regime with lethal weapons, a proposal which had been put
forward earlier in the year.
Most
provocatively, a report published by the Associated Press yesterday
reports that the Pentagon has been actively considering the use of
nuclear missiles against military targets inside Russia, in response
to what it alleges are violations of the 1987 Intermediate-range
Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. Russia denies US claims that it has
violated the INF by flight-testing ground-launched cruise missiles
with a prohibited range.
Three
options being considered by the Pentagon are the placement of
anti-missile defenses in Europe aimed at shooting Russian missiles
out of the sky; a “counterforce” option that would involve
pre-emptive non-nuclear strikes on Russia military sites; and
finally, “countervailing strike capabilities,” involving the
pre-emptive deployment of nuclear missiles against targets inside
Russia.
The
AP states: “The options go so far as one implied—but not stated
explicitly—that would improve the ability of US nuclear weapons to
destroy military targets on Russian territory.” In other words, the
US is actively preparing nuclear war against Russia.
Robert
Scher, one of Carter’s nuclear policy aides, told Congress in April
that the deployment of “counterforce” measures would mean “we
could go about and actually attack that missile where it is in
Russia.”
According
to other Pentagon officials, this option would entail the deployment
of ground-launched cruise missiles throughout Europe.
Pentagon
spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Skewers told AP, “All the options under
consideration are designed to ensure that Russia gains no significant
military advantage from their violation.”
The
criminality and recklessness of the foreign policy of Washington and
its NATO allies is staggering. A pre-emptive nuclear strike against
Russian forces, many of them near populated areas, could claim
millions of lives in seconds and lead to a nuclear war that would
obliterate humanity. Even assuming that the US officials threatening
Russia do not actually want such an outcome, however, and that they
are only trying to intimidate Moscow, there is a sinister objective
logic to such threats.
Nuclear
warmongering by US officials immensely heightens the danger of
all-out war erupting accidentally, amid escalating military tensions
and strategic uncertainty. NATO forces are deploying for military
exercises all around Russia, from the Arctic and Baltic Seas to
Eastern Europe and the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Regional
militaries are all on hair-trigger alerts.
US
officials threatening Russia cannot know how the Kremlin will react
to such threats. With Moscow concerned about the danger of a sudden
NATO strike, Russia is ever more likely to respond to perceived signs
of NATO military action by launching its missiles, fearing that
otherwise the missiles will be destroyed on the ground. The danger of
miscalculations and miscommunications leading to all-out war is
immensely heightened.
The
statements of Scher and Carter confirm warnings made last year by the
WSWS, that NATO’s decision to back a fascist-led putsch in Kiev in
February, and to blame Russia without any evidence for shooting down
flight MH17, posed the risk of war. “Are you ready for
war—including possibly nuclear war—between the United States,
Europe, and Russia? That is the question that everyone should be
asking him- or herself in light of the developments since the
destruction of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17,” the WSWS wrote
.
In
March, Putin stated
that he had placed Russian forces, including its nuclear forces, on
alert in the aftermath of the Kiev putsch, fearing a NATO attack on
Russia. Now the threat of war arising from US policy has been
confirmed directly by statements of the US military.
These
threats have developed largely behind the backs of the world working
class. Workers in the United States, Europe and worldwide have time
and again shown their hostility to US wars in Iraq or in Afghanistan.
Yet nearly 15 years after these wars began, the world stands on the
brink of an even bloodier and more devastating conflict, and the
media and ruling elites the world over are hiding the risk of nuclear
war.
US
President Barack Obama is expected to escalate pressure on Russia at
the G7 summit this weekend, pressing European leaders to maintain
economic sanctions put in place in response to Russia’s annexation
of Crimea last year. The latest outbreak in violence in Ukraine this
week, which the US blames on Russia, is to serve as a pretext for
continuing the sanctions.
Speaking
to Parliament on Thursday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
warned of a “colossal threat of the resumption of large-scale
hostilities by Russian and terrorist forces.” He claimed without
proof that 9,000 Russian soldiers are deployed in rebel-held areas of
Donetsk and Luhansk, in eastern Ukraine.
“Ukraine’s
military should be ready for a new offensive by the enemy, as well as
a full-scale invasion along the entire border with the Russian
Federation,” Poroshenko said. “We must be really prepared for
this.” He said the Ukrainian army had at least 50,000 soldiers
stationed in the east, prepared to defend the country.
Poroshenko’s
remarks came a day after renewed fighting in eastern Ukraine between
Kiev forces and Russian-backed separatists resulted in dozens of
casualties. This week’s fighting marked the largest breach to date
of the cease-fire signed in February.
Kremlin
spokesman Dimitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russia
believed the previous day’s hostilities had been provoked by Kiev
to influence upcoming discussions at the G7 summit this weekend and
the EU summit in Brussels at the end of the month. “These
provocative actions are organized by Ukraine’s military forces, and
we are concerned with that,” he stated.
Each
side blamed the other for initiating fighting in Marinka,
approximately nine miles west of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
Yuriy Biryukov, an adviser to Poroshenko, reported on Thursday that
five Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the fighting, and another
39 wounded. Eduard Basurin, deputy defense minister and spokesman for
the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), told Interfax that 16 rebel
fighters and five civilians had been killed.
Ukrainian
forces also fired artillery at the rebel-held city of Donetsk on
Wednesday. Shells landed in the southwest districts of Kirovsky and
Petrovsky, killing 6 people and wounding at least 90 others. The
city’s Sokol market was severely damaged, with several rows of
shops burned to the ground.
Responding
to Wednesday’s developments, members of the fascistic Right Sector
militia have been called to mobilize for battle. Andrey Stempitsky,
commander of the militia’s paramilitary battalion, posted a message
on Facebook calling on those who went home during the cease-fire to
“return to their combat units.” He warned that the Right Sector
would “wage war, ignoring the truce devotees.”
This
article first appeared on World
Socialist Web Site (WSWS)
on
5
June
2015,
and was republished with permission.
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