Posted on 08/05/2025 8:12:41 AM PDT by RandFan
Last week the nuclear rhetoric between the US and Russia made some of us feel like we were transported back to 1962. Back then, Soviet moves to place nuclear-capable missiles 90 miles off our coast in Cuba led to the greatest crisis of the Cold War. The United States and its president, John F. Kennedy, could not tolerate such weapons placed by a hostile power on its doorstep and the world only knew years later how close we were to nuclear war.
Thankfully both Khrushchev and Kennedy backed down – with the Soviet leader removing the missiles from Cuba and the US president agreeing to remove some missiles from Turkey. Both men realized the folly of playing with “mutually assured destruction,” and this compromise likely paved the way to further US/Soviet dialogue from Nixon to President Reagan and finally to the end of the Cold War.
Fast forward more than 60 years later and we have a US president, Donald Trump, who last week stated that he had “ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions,” meaning nearer to Russia.
Had Russia attacked the US or an ally? Threatened to do so? No. The supposed re-positioning of US strategic military assets was in response to a sharp series of posts made by former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on social media that irritated President Trump.
The war of words started earlier, when neocon US Senator Lindsey Graham’s endless threats against Russia received a response – and a warning – from Medvedev. Graham, who seems to love war more than anything else, posted “To those in Russia who believe that President Trump is not serious about ending the bloodbath between Russia and Ukraine… You will also soon see that Joe Biden is no longer president. Get to the peace table.”
Medvedev responded, “It’s not for you or Trump to dictate when to ‘get at the peace table’. Negotiations will end when all the objectives of our military operation have been achieved. Work on America first, gramps!”
That was enough for Trump to join in to defend his ill-chosen ally Graham and ended with Medvedev alluding to Soviet nuclear doctrine which provided for an automatic nuclear response to any first strike on the USSR by US or NATO weapons.
The message from the Russian politician was clear: back off. It was hardly Khruschev banging his shoe at the UN screaming “we will bury you,” but it was enough for Trump to make a rare public pronouncement about the movement of US nuclear submarines.
Trump is understandably frustrated that his promise to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours has not been fulfilled after six months in office. President Trump doesn’t seem to understand that you cannot arm one side in a war and then demand that the other side – the side that’s winning – stop fighting. That has never happened in history.
What is most tragic is that the war in Ukraine could have likely been ended if not in 24 hours, then surely in six months if Trump simply ended Joe Biden’s policy on Ukraine. It is continued US support for the war that keeps the war going. Even the US mainstream media admits that Ukraine will lose. But Trump seems under the spell of the neocons who can never reverse a failed policy.
Hopefully the return of nuclear rhetoric will awaken some in DC to the danger that the neocons pose to our country. We are no longer in 1962.
"Trump and his ill-chosen ally Lindsey Graham ... "
Amazing line...
“Hopefully the return of nuclear rhetoric will awaken some in DC to the danger that the neocons pose to our country.”
Where has Ron Paul been the past 4 years?
Another good line. Ron is brilliant ...
Everything Trump has shown is that he is not a neocon.
What he has also shown is that he doesn’t get wobbly kneed when we are threatened.
Trump is not Biden. When Russia brustles their threats, it’s our duty to signal to them that we are not a door matt. That is our responsibility because showing moving subs is not an act of aggression. Showing weakness is an invitation to aggression.
For all the talk of being “American First” - Trump is really promoting the rump-UK-empire’s foreign policy aims for the USA as much as they could have ever hoped.
To Vladimir Putin and Ron Paul, placing nuclear missiles in Cuba is the same as not placing nuclear missiles in eastern Europe.
Ditto the American empire. Being allied with and having free trade with other sovereign nations is the same thing as invading other countries and subjugating them.
Ditto slavery. To southerners, the north was engaged in “wage slavery,” which didn’t treat workers as well as they did.
By such thinking, we forced Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. Not responding to Germany’s invasion (and defeat) of Poland and its invasion and defeat of France wasn’t enough. Not responding to Japan’s invasion of China wasn’t enough either. According to Ron Paul, we had to continue to sell oil and steel to Japan so Japan wouldn’t be compelled to attack Malaysia and Indonesia and, in turn, to attack the Philippines and Hawaii.
Who started WWII? FDR did, by embargoing oil and steel sales to Japan.
Who started the war in Ukraine? We, the west, did, by encouraging Ukrainians to think they, like the Polish, could have a vibrant economy and flourishing society, instead of eking by as a vassal state to Russia.
There is an alternative foreign policy to appeasing the aggressor of the moment, and it’s peace through strength. Through the Cold War, Russia kept telling us through their useful idiots “better red than dead.” That is, if we resisted, they would kill us. Not many of us fell for their propaganda, and - in the end - we won the Cold War. As Ronald Reagan put it, they lost and we won.
Now Russia is back at their old game. And, they’re again fooling the utopian pacifists on the left and the isolationists on the right. It’s a replay not only of the Cold War, but also of the 1920’s and ‘30s.
The term “continued support for the war” is just a euphemism for what Paul really means - which is continued support for Ukraine, Paul is no different than the Kremlin - demanding kraine should surrender. In such thinking the war exists because Ukraine won’t surrender.
That is not an American Conservative position.
The Libertarian purists live in a mental fantasy world. They want a Libertarian purist ideology throughout American
policy, ignoring that doing so provides adversaries aadvantages in our space that will never exist in their’s; advantages they will use to diminish our influence, which China is succeeding at in many places.
Trump’s recent actions vis a vis Russia is not a “neocon” move, it comes from a Trump realization that he has to act as strongly towards our adversaries on security issues as he has towards everyone on tariffs, (tariffs which Paul also does not support).
Communist Russia had been in the process of taking over the world, and succeeding, they had much of the world under their control and occupation and China had just fallen to communism as had North Korea, North Vietnam etc. during this period.
Russia was trying to take over this hemisphere, they were spreading death and violence and Communism, it has nothing to do with a country in Europe joining a passive and defensive alliance to protect themselves from that devouring monster nation.
This trying to compare the Border Patrol to MS13 as mirror images of each other “what is good for the goose=good for the gander” is absurd
RandFan wrote: “Ron is 90 in a few weeks and sharp as ever!”
Ron Paul has never been ‘sharp’. He’s a nut case.
Ron is 90 in a few weeks and sharp as ever!
No, Ron is either lying or senile at 90. Easy to check, search for Medved issuing nuclear threats.
Oh look, Medved has been issuing nuclear threats to the west since May 2022:
May 12, 2022: Medvedev warned that NATO military aid to Ukraine could risk a conflict with Russia and potentially lead to "fully fledged nuclear war".
September 27, 2022: Medvedev released a statement on Telegram, using language reminiscent of Russia's nuclear doctrine, indicating that Russia had the right to use nuclear weapons if pushed beyond its limits. He further suggested that the US-led NATO alliance would be too apprehensive of a "nuclear apocalypse" to directly interfere in the conflict.
September 22, 2022: Medvedev stated that Russia could use any weapons in its arsenal, including strategic nuclear weapons, to defend territories incorporated into Russia from Ukraine. This statement coincided with the approaching "sham" referendums in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, suggesting these territories, once incorporated, would be protected by Moscow.
“Going Wobbly” is what a woman PM told our weak President GHW Bush about not attacking Saddam for a little power move that was none of our business. It was Britains business, as they rely on us to protect BP petroleum.
That line got us involved in the Middle East wars then, and we are still involved. For no reasonable benefit to US citizens. Great for the City of London and the Zionists though.
There is an enormous difference between projecting diplomatic vigilance (instead of begin squeamish when threatened) and with making the decision to invade a country. It’s not even in the same ballpark.
Ron Paul is a panican
Go, away panican
.
Philly Cowboy on the scene!
You are a backseat driver. The Maga train rolls on without you.
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