From: intraphase@gmail.com   
      
   America’s Democratic elites have intentionally left us vulnerable to nuclear   
   attack in the belief that nuclear war was not possible.   
   Author Brian T. Kennedy profile   
   Brian T. Kennedy   
   Visit on Twitter   
   @BrianTKennedy   
   More Articles   
   Share   
      
       Share Article on Facebook   
       Share Article on Twitter   
      
       Share Article via Email   
      
   At the heart of a free society is the ability to engage in civil discourse   
   about, among other things, the defense of one’s civilization. This is not,   
   unfortunately, possible in America at present. Today we are living in the age   
   of political narratives    
   that are nothing more than lies told to serve some political end.   
      
   The current narrative is that the national security of the United States   
   requires the defense of Ukraine against Russian aggression. Much as we abhor   
   the suffering of Ukrainians, most especially children, however, a free Ukraine   
   is not necessary for the    
   defense of the United States.   
      
   The goal of American foreign policy is the peace and tranquility of the   
   American people. It is, after all, the purpose for which our government is   
   constituted. Our social compact is with each other as Americans. We do what is   
   good for us and for our    
   children.   
      
   We do this not out of selfishness, but out of the common sense that it is in   
   man’s nature to defend one’s own, beginning with himself, his family, his   
   community, and his country. Americans have demonstrated an admirable quality   
   of fighting elsewhere    
   on this planet for other people at other times. But even then, we were   
   demonstrating a principle of American grand strategy that has served this   
   country throughout its history: we want to fight wars somewhere else than in   
   America.   
   Americans Fight Elsewhere So We Don’t Fight Here   
      
   The idea of fighting wars in other countries—France, Germany, Belgium, the   
   island chain that led to the conquest of Imperial Japan, Korea, Vietnam, even   
   Iraq and Afghanistan—meant we were not waiting until war came to the cities   
   of the United States.    
   We would rather fight on someone else’s territory in the simple belief that   
   our homes would, at least for the time being, be safe from the ravages of war.   
      
   Also, fighting on or near the enemy’s territory meant we would have to be   
   defeated and displaced from that position before war could be made on the   
   United States directly. This is the kind of strategy that puts the well-being   
   of the American people    
   first. It has also, in the process, defended the West and liberated millions   
   of human beings. But that was not our purpose. Our purpose was our own defense.   
      
   To be clear, Russia today does not have armed forces that are sufficient to   
   invade and wage a successful war in the United States. Witness their current   
   progress in Ukraine.   
      
   What Russia does possess is a nuclear arsenal that is capable of destroying   
   the land-based nuclear forces of the United States, American cities and their   
   populations, and American military bases abroad that do play a strategic role   
   in the defense of the    
   United States. They also possess advanced ballistic missile defense systems to   
   protect Moscow and strategic positions throughout Russia.   
      
   The Russian S-400 and S-500 air and missile defense systems can deploy   
   nuclear-tipped interceptors to ensure that the Russian homeland is defended   
   from American ballistic missiles. What about America?   
   The U.S. Is Unprotected Against Russia and China   
      
   For all of our tough talk about America’s military might, the United States   
   does not possess a missile defense capable of stopping Russian or Chinese   
   ballistic missiles. We are also not able to stop a ship-launched ballistic   
   missile should the Iranians    
   or any other nation choose to serve as a surrogate for such an attack.   
      
   Although President Reagan proposed a missile defense 40 years ago, a   
   comprehensive, multilayered missile defense system from land, sea, air, and   
   space has never been completed. Not coincidentally, the Democratic Party has   
   opposed building such a defense    
   throughout this period, never more so than by Joe Biden as senator, vice   
   president, and now as president.   
      
   Biden’s predecessor, Barack Obama, famously told Russian President Medvedev   
   in 2012 to tell Putin not to worry about American missile defense, because   
   Obama would have more “flexibility” after the election. This was Obama’s   
   way of saying that he    
   could not publicly come out against missile defense during a campaign year,   
   but not to worry since he was not going to build one against the Russian   
   arsenal anyway.   
   Russia Knows We Can’t Protect Ourselves   
      
   America’s Democratic elites, especially those in the White House today, have   
   intentionally left us vulnerable to nuclear attack in the belief that war,   
   especially nuclear war, was not possible. This was underscored by White House   
   Press Secretary Jen    
   Psaki announcing to the world that “a nuclear war cannot be won and must   
   never be fought.”   
      
   But the Russians believe quite the opposite. They believe that war is man’s   
   permanent condition and that nuclear weapons are merely one more aspect of war   
   that must be mastered. The mere fact that they possess the largest nuclear   
   arsenal in the world,    
   are modernizing it with hypersonic reentry vehicles, and have built a missile   
   defense to protect the Russian people, is evidence of this.   
      
   It is therefore not surprising that Russia does not take threats from the   
   United States seriously. They know both that we do not possess a national   
   missile defense and therefore won’t escalate hostilities beyond a certain   
   point, and even if we did—   
   out of a gross strategic miscalculation—we are ill-prepared to fight and win   
   such an exchange. However sound Theodore Roosevelt’s admonition to “speak   
   softly and carry a big stick” may have been through most of our history,   
   speaking softly and    
   carrying a big shield—as in ballistic missile defense—is a sounder   
   corollary in the nuclear age.   
   Using Russia to Avoid Talking about China   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)