Posted on 04/08/2022 9:23:32 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
When seeing America’s we’ll-fight-to-the-last-Ukrainian approach to Russian aggression, many Arabs conclude that the U.S. can’t be counted as a security guarantor, and that nuclear weapons—which Russia has, Iraq didn’t and Ukraine gave up—make all the difference.
To be sure, many of my Arab interlocutors have perfected the art of expressing grievance through historical cherry-picking: highlighting America’s inadequacies while sidestepping their own governments’ follies and self-inflicted wounds. The reality is more complicated, and no critique of American policy can justify indulgence of Russia’s criminal behavior or reluctance to lend assistance to the Ukrainian people.
These Arabs have a point, however. If a U.S. president is unwilling to say in 2022 what his predecessor said in 1990, “this will not stand,” it is not unreasonable to doubt American resolve and seek deterrence elsewhere.
The serious ones know they won’t find it in Moscow or Beijing. Some may turn to Israel, which can certainly help, but that country of under 10 million people isn’t a superpower. The answer, if one exists, comes back to Washington.
The U.S. needs to find a way to bolster these Arabs’ confidence in the strength of American resolve. In part, this means a willingness to operate in the Middle East the way Iran does, with force and intimidation as tools of diplomacy. And in our bilateral relations, this doesn’t mean allowing our friends to buy anything they want in the Pentagon catalogue, but it does mean letting them purchase more than defensive weaponry that does nothing to dissuade Iran.
If we can’t do this, we should not be surprised to wake up one morning to find that some of these states have drawn the not-irrational conclusion that security can only be found in the pursuit of their own nuclear weapons. That’s a sobering lesson to take from Ukraine.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Ukraine ping
Arab countries aligned with the US are starting to think about standing up their own nuclear weapons programs, as a result of GOP indifference to their security and active Democratic collusion with Iran towards obtaining nuclear weaponry.
That’s the deal. You get nukes. Everyone leaves you alone. Just look at North Korea.
Arms race way to go Brandon
many Arabs conclude that the U.S. can’t be counted as a security guarantor, and that nuclear weapons...make all the difference.....
The US was only a “security guarantor” as part of the equation. Since WWII and the UN, there has been something of an understanding in the world, that one country doesn’t conquer another. Yes, there have been border skirmishes, (and exceptions like Tibet, Kuwait), etc, but even tin horn dictators didn’t have to worry about being conquered by a more powerful neighbor.
putler threw that understanding in the trash with his illegal invasion of a sovereign UN member.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Japan go nuclear soon. Other countries with the wealth and technology who fear a powerful neighbor will follow.
Is that true? I don't see it. Isn't the leader of Ukraine bashing the U.S., because we aren't helping them?
We need to correct one fallacy. Ukraine did not have nukes. Yes, there were Soviet nukes on their territory but they never had the launch codes - the Russians did. Without those, the nukes are inert.
A total 180 from the Trump years.
No surprise there.
The US is not interested in the security of the Arabs.
The US is interested in the security of Israel.
They can do a better deal with China, which needs Arab hydrocarbons and is willing to trade on a businesslike basis without a lot of political conditions.
Democrats - making the world a more dangerous place through weakness.
America under Biden is not trustworthy
Arabs are not dumb
de Gaulle understood that no American president would cross the nuclear threshold in a vain attempt to stop the Soviets on the outskirts of Paris. Japan and South Korea had best develop their own Force de Frappe starting TODAY. Nothing but a South Korean finger on the button of a South Korean nuclear retaliatory capability will save them in the not so distant future.
Thanks Zhang Fei.
Not trusting the Biden government?
Sounds like a good idea. No matter who had the idea.
Those nukes were readily dismantle-able and they could saw their way through to the weapons grade fissionable material. In half an hour, they have powerful suitcase nukes. So they DID have nukes.
This article is explicit in saying that nukes are sovereignty. If we don’t get nuke proliferation right, we will enable half the Arab shiitebird world to build nukes, like Pakistan did.
Democrats - making the world a more dangerous place through weakness.
***That’s pretty good, tagline worthy. I’ll update the tagline page.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3992415/posts?q=1&;page=398#398
This is contrary to what I’ve heard....which is that Soviet military personnel - most of them Russian - had physical possession of those nukes and not Ukrainians. I think its clear that all sides broke a lot of promises made at the end of the Cold War.
Then again, the borders were often a mess. There were large ethnic Russian minorities in a lot of the former Soviet republics. Nobody ever asked them if they wanted to be an oppressed minority in a newly created country. The best, fairest and most reasonable thing to do would have been to hold local plebiscites to draw the new national borders but this was not done and thus there has been conflict.
Deport ethnic Russians and have them return to Russia. So Putin (or a future Russian successor) won't try to reassemble the USSR.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.