By Daniel Davis
On August 6 and 9, 1945, the world crossed the nuclear threshold when the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The blasts wiped out over 100,000 people nearly instantly, and thousands more over time. With some of today’s nuclear bombs carrying scores or hundreds of times more destructive power than the 1945 versions, it should be alarming to every American how casually both the Russian and Western leaders are talking about deploying nuclear weapons today.
Last February Russian forces invaded Ukraine and began a “special military operation” that has already claimed tens of thousands of lives. Ukrainians naturally despise the Russians and aggressively seek help from any and all Western sources to help drive the invaders out. Understanding Ukrainian anger, however, justified we may feel it is, does not mean the United States should give Kyiv everything it requests, especially if providing such support results in an elevated risk to U.S. national security. We are getting dangerously close to that point now.
In response to meaningful battlefield losses by Russia earlier this month in the Kharkiv region, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this week a partial mobilization of 300,000 reservists. The reaction from Kyiv and the West was understandable and immediate: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky defiantly declared that his forces would continue to fight, no matter how many Russian forces Putin threw into the battle, and that Russia should be punished.
This piece was originally published in 1945 on September 28, 2022. Read more HERE.