USS George H.W. Bush, aircraft carrier, joining NATO command as tangible demonstration of the power and capability of the NATO Alliance, September 29, 2022. Photo: US Navy
Editors' note: The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage. This week—even as intense ground fighting continued, and a drone and missile bombardment rained death on Ukrainian cities—NATO forces began “nuclear war exercises” in northern Europe. Russia is expected to begin its own nuclear exercises before the end of the month. These “exercises” are yet another escalation in a volatile and dangerous conflict that has already taken the lives of tens of thousands, and displaced millions.
While Russia did invade Ukraine in an unconscionable and criminal act, this war actually grew out of U.S.-Russia conflict over Europe going back decades, and it is now a proxy war with massive and escalating top-of-the-line U.S. armaments, U.S. real-time intelligence, and an increasingly major U.S. role in reviewing not only strategy but real-time tactical plans.
And yet, there is very, very little dissent toward this and virtually no real opposition in the streets here in the U.S. This is unacceptable! If you or people you know are turning away from this situation because it is “too complicated,” “too messy,” “too scary” or because—worse yet—you or people around you have swallowed the line that this is some kind of fight “for democracy against autocracy”—then you need to wake up, very quickly. First step, go here to see the video of Bob Avakian laying bare the real dynamics and stakes of this very deadly and extremely dangerous conflict. The fate of humanity is potentially at stake—are you really going to turn away??
What follows lays out what has happened in just this past week.
Mock Aerial “Dogfights” Over the Black Sea
On September 29, a British military reconnaissance plane reported that a Russian fighter jet released a missile “close to it” as it patrolled over the Black Sea. The Black Sea borders Russia, Ukraine, and four other nations. It is over 1,600 miles from London. So, the first question to ask yourself is, what the hell is a war plane from a NATO country (NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization) doing patrolling a body of water far from the North Atlantic, and adjacent to a war zone in which NATO massively supports one side?
Map of the Black Sea Credit: Nations Online Project
Almost a month went by before news of this incident was aired publicly. On October 20, the British defense minister, Ben Wallace, told the English Parliament (a legislative body similar to the U.S. Congress) that the British plane “interacted with” two Russian fighter jets, and that the incident was “potentially dangerous.” Wallace said he was told by the Russian defense minister that the missile fired because of a “technical malfunction.”
Neither side seemed to press this issue any further. But news reports indicated that Wallace had traveled to Washington shortly before he made his announcement to Parliament. He said the British government had decided to restart “routine patrols (over the Black Sea), but this time escorted by fighter aircraft.”
Whether or not the information released by Wallace and his Russian counterpart about this one incident is the truth, and whether or not there have been similar incidents in the Black Sea area, are unknown. But the Black Sea is infested with NATO and U.S. warships and planes. All of Europe bristles with nukes, from England in the west, across central Europe, to Russia in the east. An incident in the hair-trigger environment that has prevailed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine could escalate quickly into a catastrophic nuclear exchange. “Malfunctions,” misunderstandings, or mistakes could set off sparks that could spiral out of control. Both sides are armed with thousands of nuclear weapons, and leaders of both sides—Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president—have openly talked about the possibility of using those nukes.
Stunning Hypocrisy
Preplanned war exercises (sometimes called “war games”) always heighten tension between the powers conducting them. The most infamous example of this came during “Operation Able Archer” in 1983, at the height of the Cold War.1
As the web site Live Science wrote, “The goal of the exercise was to simulate an escalation in a conflict between NATO countries and the USSR, culminating in a coordinated nuclear attack. [It] almost triggered the outbreak of war between NATO and the Soviet Union, when miscommunication led the Soviet government to believe the West was in fact mounting an invasion.”
About the same time Wallace informed Parliament of the Black Sea incident, NATO began “nuclear exercises” in northern Europe. The exercises, called “Steadfast Noon,” will run through the end of October. They include advanced fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear warheads (although NATO officials say there will be no live weapons aboard), surveillance planes, and tanker aircraft. The U.S. will provide long-range B-52 bombers flying in from Minot Air Base in North Dakota. A NATO official said a goal of the exercise is to insure what NATO calls its “nuclear deterrent” remains “credible, effective, safe and secure,” the defense official said.
The U.S. will provide long-range B-52 bombers flying in from Minot Air Base in North Dakota. Photo: USAF
The Federation of American Scientists reports that “Steadfast Noon” will also practice “a controversial arrangement known as nuclear sharing, under which the United States installs nuclear equipment on fighter jets of select non-nuclear NATO countries and trains their pilots to carry out nuclear strikes with U.S. nuclear bombs … As a party to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [the U.S.] has promised not to hand over nuclear weapons to other countries, and the non-nuclear countries in the sharing arrangement have promised not to receive nuclear weapons from the nuclear weapon states.” But the U.S. claims that since it entered these “nuclear sharing” arrangements before it signed the non-proliferation treaty, it doesn’t have to abide by its restrictions!
Notice how these imperialists are trying to get you to think in all this: that nuclear weapons—which in the hands of their opponents are called “weapons of mass destruction”—in their hands are “deterrents” that are kept “safe” and “secure,” as if they’re treasured family heirlooms. They can “share” nuclear equipment and training with their friends, even if it’s in violation of an agreement they signed, because they’re sharing it with their friends.
Meanwhile, several hundred miles east of “Steadfast Noon,” an annual Russian nuclear exercise called “Grom” is set to begin this month. According to the Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the U.S.’s National Security Council, Grom will include “…live missile launches and a deployment of strategic assets.” An unidentified U.S. intelligence official told CNN that U.S. military and intelligence officers are “watching for any unexpected or unusual movements during Moscow’s nuclear “exercise.” That official snarled, “We believe that Russian nuclear rhetoric and its decision to proceed with this exercise while at war with Ukraine is irresponsible. Brandishing nuclear weapons to coerce the United States and its allies is irresponsible.”
The hypocrisy in this statement is stunning, even by the standards of U.S. imperialist hypocrisy. If you wonder what we’re talking about when we say “imperialist hypocrisy, watch this short video from Bob Avakian: “Free Yourself from the GTF! The Great Tautological Fallacy.”
Bob Avakian: Free Yourself from the GTF! The Great Tautological Fallacy
Nuclear War Games, and the Real Thing
This year, both the U.S./NATO side and the Russian side are proceeding with nuclear “games” as they are locked in a conflict in central Europe. The potential for disaster is incalculable—yet leaders on both sides made cold-blooded decisions to go ahead with their “games,” and put tens if not hundreds of millions of lives directly at risk along with the real danger of human extinction posed by any nuclear exchange once it gets going.
As we wrote last week, “This war is creating a living hell in Ukraine, and is endangering the entire world. It is gaining momentum toward a possible all-out nuclear conflict. No one can or should want to stand aside from this. Everyone should do everything they can to build opposition to it.”
Certainly, a crucial lesson that people should learn from the war in Ukraine is that humanity cannot afford any longer to allow these imperialists, on any side, to continue to rule the world, and battle over who will dominate in this situation, with the very real and dire threat this poses to the future, and the very existence, of humanity.
—Bob Avakian, “Ukraine: World War 3 Is the Real Danger, Not a Repeat of World War 2”