Putin And Nukes

By Donald A. Collins | 3 October 2022
Church and State

(Credit: YouTube / screengrab)

As Putin’s declaring parts of Ukraine as Russian provinces is failing, chances increase for his use of tactical nuclear weapons.

To even consider such use on our small vulnerable planet speaks of a human madness that brings a universal message to us all.

Here is the US history with a tactical nuke known as the Davy Crockett which was never used in combat and retired from our military arsenal in 1971.

The psychological threat of using nuclear weapons is enormous and we know for certain exactly what impact their us could have!

Why? Because we developed such as weapon known as the Davy Crockett and made over a thousand such missiles but decided in 1971 to put them safely away.

You can read about that program here.

Now that Putin’s main remaining weapon is keeping the world’s universal concern about his possible use of such weapons reminded me of that 1954 movie Dr Strangelove.

Here are a few paragraphs from the movie’s story to remind us oldsters and those younger the film’s basic message.

PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES: just war theory, genocide

CHARACTERS: President (Peter Sellers), General ‘Buck’ Turgidson (George C. Scott), Brigadier General Jack Ripper

OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR STANLEY KUBRICK: Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987)

SYNOPSIS: “Arguably the greatest black comedy ever made, Stanley Kubrick’s cold-war classic is the ultimate satire of the nuclear age. Dr. Strangelove is a perfect spoof of political and military insanity, beginning when General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), a maniacal warrior obsessed with “the purity of precious bodily fluids,” mounts his singular campaign against Communism by ordering a squadron of B-52 bombers to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviets counter the threat with a so- called “Doomsday Device,” and the world hangs in the balance while the U.S. president (Peter Sellers) engages in hilarious hot-line negotiations with his Soviet counterpart. Sellers also plays a British military attaché and the mad bomb-maker Dr. Strangelove; George C. Scott is outrageously frantic as General Buck Turgidson, whose presidential advice consists mainly of panic and statistics about “acceptable losses.” With dialogue (“You can’t fight here! This is the war room!”) and images (Slim Pickens’s character riding the bomb to oblivion) that have become a part of our cultural vocabulary, Kubrick’s film regularly appears on critics’ lists of the all-time best.” — Jeff Shannon

Read more here.

Putin has become General Jack D. Ripper and the world’s leaders now see him as perhaps not insane, but monumentally beyond the pale of acceptable behavior.

The world’s next move should be an international conference (at the UN??) at which almost every nation speaks up for planetary survival. Agreement will likely be total except for North Korea and Russia on continuing nonproliferation

Putin’s days in total power are already now likely numbered, but his final act could be the actual use of tactical nuclear weapons. Could it be that there will be a total unwillingness by his underlings to pull any tactical nuclear trigger??

As for Kim, China has doubtless already made clear that North Korea’s nuclear threats if implemented would have economic and other consequences that would bring Kim down.

Having been to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, my visit left me and I presume anyone who visits a lifelong fear of proliferation which all the world’s most powerful leaders surely share.

Whatever your vision of human governance, it eschews nuclear proliferation.

International action must be powerful to make this reincarnation of General Jack Ripper impotent by forcing Putin by gaining near universal opinion to eschew his almost complete present role of an international pariah!

Former US Navy officer, banker and venture capitalist, Donald A. Collins, a free lance writer living in Washington, DC, has spent over 50 years working for women’s reproductive health as a board member and/or officer of numerous family planning organizations including Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Guttmacher Institute, Family Health International and Ipas. Yale under graduate, NYU MBA. He is the author of “From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013”, “Trump Becoming Macbeth: Will our democracy survive?”, “We Humans Overwhelm Our Earth: 11 or 2 Billion by 2100?”, “What Can Be Done Now to Save Habitable Life on Planet Earth?”, “Vote”, “Can Homo Sapiens Survive?” and “Will Choice and Democracy Win?”.

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