Alert: Americans Just Put in Grave Danger, War Racketeers to Blame

A danger worse than the missiles themselves is the possible Russian retaliation against the United States. It could be catastrophic.

Earlier, Russia threatened action against the United States if Ukraine were given permission for this kind of escalation:

“Putin sent a clear warning to the West: don’t allow Ukraine to use your long-range missiles to strike Russian territory,” reported BBC on September 13, 2023. CBS News added, “Putin says Nato will be ‘in the war’ if U.S. or allies let Ukraine fire long-range missiles at Russia.”

There isn’t much ambiguity about that. The bigger issue is “why this, why now?”

Biden made the announcement in the waning days of his administration and at a time when he had already been dismissed by his own party from seeking an additional term in office.

Was this just an impulsive act of a retiring president? Or was it a political act of throwing a hot potato to his adversary, the incoming president Donald Trump? Or did someone else make the decision for Biden?

Handing Trump with an open state of war with Russia would be some big hot potato. It certainly would spoil Trump’s plans for a quick and peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine.

What reasonable rationale could there be for perpetuation of the unabated killing and destruction in Ukraine that have followed Russia’s brutal invasion in 2022? Who could favor such a diabolical course in world affairs?

Who could possibly benefit?

Following Trump’s tasking of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to help clean up government waste, Reuters seems to have answered part of that question; “US defense shares, government contractors fall after Trump efficiency picks.”

That creates a double whammy for the defense business: a sharper pencil on defense spending, and giving it one less war to fight. That could make a lot of people very unhappy.

But averting their grief would come at the expense of the American people. If Putin were to carry out his threat to hold us responsible for long-range missile attacks on his homeland, what happens next?

It’s one giant step toward a catastrophic nuclear attack on us. Maybe even the start of an out-of-control nuclear war.

The defense industry is not a solitary player in this game of escalation.

As I see it, there is now a vicious cycle between our defense industry, the government officials who appropriate funds for it, and the diplomatic initiatives that create the market opportunities for the foregoing, i.e. wars to fight. Each party benefits in its own way. They all work together as veritable “war racketeers.” They are to blame for the risk we now face.

President Eisenhower warned us of this developing in his farewell address to the nation.

“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

A wise analyst once told me that trying to act on that would mean stepping on some very big feet. That’s a risk.

Taking that risk, it seems to me, is now clearly outweighed by the possibly existential risk Biden’s long-range missile announcement has handed us.

As citizens we have little direct control over the defense industry, or over the maneuvering of U.S. diplomatic initiatives. But we do have direct access to our elected representatives who serve as an essential link in the vicious cycle at the heart of the threat.

Is your Senator or Representative a war racketeer? If you don’t already know, ask him or her. If they are gung ho advocates of fighting the Ukraine War to a military victory despite all the death and destruction that goes with it, chances are that they are.

But if you are interested in getting out from under the nuclear threat Biden’s subjected us to, let your elected representatives know it. Demand that they revise their policies. Be forewarned, they may be enjoying perks and political contributions brought to them as war racketeers. But they also need the votes of you and your neighbors to remain in office. Don’t let them overlook that.