Retired generals in US and Canada calling for nuclear strikes

American disarmament expert Joe Cirincione is warning that some western experts are contemplating the use of nuclear weapons against Russia.

“Exploding a nuclear bomb would break a 77-year taboo against using these weapons. There hasn’t even been a mushroom cloud in tests since China exploded the last above-ground nuclear test in 1980 (the United States stopped atmospheric tests in 1962),” he writes in Responsible Statecraft.

“‘The nuclear taboo is the single most important accomplishment of the nuclear age,’ writes Brown University professor Nina Tannenwald, ‘It is the primary obligation of leaders today to make sure nuclear weapons are never used again.’

“Unfortunately, as evidenced in a New York Times article this week, many experts are engaging in cavalier armchair strategies that normalize, or could even encourage, a nuclear war should Putin break this taboo.

“Former Defense Department official Frank Miller casually suggests responding to Russian nuclear use by firing a ‘low-yield’ nuclear warhead from a submarine ‘into the wilds of Siberia or at a military base inside Russia.’ This would be a signal, he claims, that ‘this is serious.’”

This kind of risky speculation is not just happening in the United States – it’s going on in Canada, too.

Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese says, “Viewers watching CBC’s The National on Monday night could be forgiven if they thought they tuned into a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War film, Dr. Strangelove.

“The guests on that broadcast were advocating a no-fly zone over Ukraine and calling out Russian leader Vladimir Putin on his so-called “bluff” on his threat to use nuclear weapons.

“The message was clear – it’s time to have a game of nuclear chicken over Ukraine.

“The advice came from two retired Canadian generals; former chief of the defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier and Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie.”

Jo Cirinione says people must speak out against this risky conjecture from armchair generals. “We need a chorus of wiser voices to still the cries of the nuclear warriors and calm journalistic nuclear voyeurism. Former officials could have their statements join calls from anti-nuclear activists, advocates for restraint, and all those who understand that any nuclear use is unnecessary, immoral, and unacceptable. We must hold this line.”