While the ongoing Ukraine war scare has brought Europe to the brink of crisis, at the same time, it has given rise to modest, but promising, hope that there could be a revival in diplomacy and negotiations between great powers.
For one, the presidents of both Russia and the US have held direct talks – a far too rare occurrence. Even if the progress has been less than spectacular, there is a renewed sense that saber-rattling has given way to actual high-level diplomacy.
Against this backdrop, however, an influential American senator has made himself stick out like a sore thumb. Sen. Roger Wicker (Republican-Mississippi) went public just days ago to advise President Joe Biden to keep his options open when it comes to Ukraine. He suggested not just considering using conventional military force but potentially deploying the country’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.
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<img src="https://cdni.rt.com/files/2021.12/thumbnail/61b1f8dd2030276ff87faacf.jpg" alt="Conscripts for the Russian Army wearing protective face masks stand at attention before being sent to the place of their military service, at the railway station in Novosibirsk, Russia. © Sputnik / Alexandr Kryazhev" />
<figcaption><a href="/russia/542674-scare-war-ukraine-conflict/">What would happen if Ukraine & Russia went to war?</a></figcaption>
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His intervention has provoked objections, including from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC. Wicker, however, has not withdrawn his words. He merely backpedaled a little, clearly trying to soften the impact of his statements while sticking to their meaning. We could dismiss his bizarre sally as just one more attempt by American liberals and conservatives to appeal to a domestic audience with a seemingly insatiable appetite for aggressive rhetoric toward Russia.
Yet, there are two reasons why this case should not be taken so lightly. For one thing, Wicker is not a minor player or outsider. He is the senior senator from Mississippi and serves as the second-most important member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee. Second, he has not confined himself to generalities but has been specific about two extremely disturbing suggestions. One is that the US should be ready to launch nuclear weapons against Russia, and the second is that it should be prepared to use them first.
However, to be ready for a first strike against Russia has clear implications. It’s possible Wicker does not care about what his words mean beyond their desired impact on certain voter demographics. But let’s give the senator the benefit of the doubt and assume he has some kind of idea beyond pure demagoguery when talking about nuclear war.
In that case, there are only two possibilities. Either Wicker believes that a full-scale, global nuclear war over eastern Ukraine should not be ruled out. Because that could easily follow from such an American assault. Or, if we give Wicker the benefit of the doubt again and assume that he is not ready to risk the whole planet, including the US, over what is – with all due respect to Ukraine – a comparatively limited conflict, there is only one possibility left. He must believe that Washington could start and wage and, presumably, win a limited nuclear war.
And that is, actually, the most frightening thing about the senator’s bluster. Because, unfortunately, this insanely dangerous idea has become popular among American politicians.
In early 2020, Washington not only conducted an exercise to simulate such a limited nuclear war with Russia but made a point of informing the global public in unusual detail. Following on the deployment of new nuclear weapons of a comparatively low yield, the message was clear: the Pentagon believes it is possible to wage (and, of course, win) a nuclear war that would stay small enough to make it an extreme but realistic option of policy.