President Biden, do not allow NATO long range missiles provided to Ukraine to strike targets deep into Russia. The only viable alternative is to work out a truce followed by a peace agreement. This horrid war must stop. Yeah, I know, good luck on that, but the alternative could lead to the end of the world as we know it.

Of course, I am talking about the nuclear option that I wrote about in my previous blog post. The Jacobsen book, Nuclear War, still haunts me. If you read that post you know that I believe that we are dangerously close to a miscalculation that could lead to Nuclear Armageddon. Putin has said two things, first that he is prepared to use “tactical” nuclear weapons in the Ukraine War if he believes Russian security is threatened and, second, that if long range weapons provided by a NATO country strike deep into Russia, he will consider this an act of war between Russia and NATO. This puts us one step closer to World War III.

There was an article today (September 14) buried on page 6 of the New York Times with the headline, “Putin Warns Ukraine’s Use of Western Weapons Means War With NATO.” Advisors and others shrug this off as just another empty threat. Same old, same old. At the same time the article and other reporting by CNN and NBC point out that Putin’s tone and demeanor were noticeably different in this announcement than in past times when he was ranting about one thing or another.

And this article did not even make it to the front page!

Is Biden or anyone in the White House asking the question what if Putin is actually serious this time? That he will use nuclear weapons to “protect the security of Russia” if long range missiles provided by a NATO country are used against Russia.

Friends, this madness must stop. This war–and the war in Palestine–must come to an end before they spiral into a conflict which is out of control. I understand that the natural reaction will be to conclude that I am naïve and unrealistic, that there is nothing ordinary people can do about it, and that nuclear war will not happen because of the MAD theory: No country would initiate a nuclear war because ultimately it would result in the destruction of that country. So why worry if there is nothing we can do about it? Valid comments, but still….

Here is the latest from Wikipedia on the Ukraine nuclear threat:

“During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there has been constant speculation about whether Russia‘s president Vladimir Putin will use a tactical nuclear weapon either against Ukraine or in a demonstration strike over unpopulated areas, given that the course of the war does not seem favorable to what the Kremlin anticipated, and several members of the Russian government have threatened the use of nuclear weapons.^{[28][29][30][31]}

On 25 March 2023, President Putin announced the stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Russia would maintain control of the weapons. As of May 2023 the weapons are a small number of Iskander missile warheads. Russia plans to finish a “storage facility” for tactical nuclear weapons by July 1. President Putin told Russian state television: “There is nothing unusual here either. Firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries.”^[32] In December 2023, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko announced that the nuclear weapons deliveries were completed that October.^[33][34]

In May 2024, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be holding drills with tactical nuclear weapons, days after responding to comments from senior Western officials.^[35]”

Type into Google the following: “What are the chances of nuclear war happening in the future?” and see what you get from AI. The estimates range from around 50% to 80% in the time frame from now to 2100. Good heavens! These odds are high!

Also check out the Wikipedia article about the chances of nuclear war where you will find that we are closer to nuclear war now than we have been in decades.

Biden must resist this escalation and use this as a wakeup call to work harder toward negotiations resulting in a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia. Naïve? Perhaps, but think about the alternative. The pathway to our survival as a species and as a planet requires eliminating these weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, not producing more lethal weapons as now is the case.

If we Homo sapiens on the planet Earth can’t figure out how to resolve conflicts without using the  deadliest weapons we have, eventually it will be the end of us.

Don’t do it, Joe. Not on your watch. You have only got a few more months to go. Do not give Putin the opportunity to unleash nuclear weapons!