Throughout the Cold War, fears of a nuclear holocaust were always at the forefront of many people’s minds. That was especially the case with policymakers, who feared that any potential conflict between the US and the Soviet Union could risk spiraling out of control into an all-out nuclear war.
While the fall of the Iron Curtain was thought to put that to rest, the fact remained that the US, Russia, China, and other nations continue to hold thousands of nuclear warheads among them. And with the recent Russian incursion into Ukraine, the risks of nuclear war continue to grow.
Western countries haven’t sent soldiers to Ukraine to fight against the Russians, but they have sent significant amounts of weaponry, including anti-tank missiles and man-portable surface-to-air missiles that have taken their toll on Russian forces. Proxy wars were always a thing during the Cold War, even if not known to the general public, as when Soviet soldiers manned air defenses in North Vietnam that shot down US planes, but the current proxy war is starting to get a little hot.
Russia has started to threaten to attack the supply lines that are moving weaponry into Ukraine, and Putin has warned outsiders from interfering with Russia’s operations in the country lest they be met with overwhelming force. The implied threat is that if foreign nations send soldiers to fight against Russia in Ukraine, he might unleash his nuclear arsenal.
Even the Pope has publicly warned about the possibility of nuclear war, and for the first time in over 30 years, more and more people are starting to take the possibility seriously. Unfortunately, far too many Americans are willing to risk nuclear war, with a full 35% of Americans polled supporting US military action in Ukraine even if it risks nuclear war.
That’s a scary and sobering thought, but not entirely surprising given how many Democrats have been on the anti-Russia bandwagon since 2016. We just have to hope that Sleepy Joe continues to keep US forces out of the fray, otherwise we may end up getting the war we’ve feared since Stalin set off his first nuclear weapon.
Image: Wikipedia