{"id":28777,"date":"2017-04-10T12:02:09","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T20:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=28777"},"modified":"2017-04-10T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T20:02:09","slug":"russia-baiting-pushed-trump-to-attack-syria-and-increases-the-risks-of-nuclear-annihilation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/10\/russia-baiting-pushed-trump-to-attack-syria-and-increases-the-risks-of-nuclear-annihilation\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Baiting Pushed Trump To Attack Syria \u2013 and Increases the Risks of Nuclear Annihilation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vast efforts to portray Donald Trump as Vladimir Putin\u2019s flunky have given Trump huge incentives to prove otherwise. Last Thursday, he began the process in a big way by ordering a missile attack on Russia\u2019s close ally Syria. In the aftermath of the attack, the cheerleading<\/a> from U.S. mass media was close to unanimous<\/a>, and the assault won lots of praise on Capitol Hill. Finally, the protracted and fervent depictions of Trump as a Kremlin tool were getting some tangible results.<\/p>\n

At this point, the anti-Russia bandwagon has gained so much momentum that a national frenzy is boosting the odds of unfathomable catastrophe. The world\u2019s two nuclear superpowers are in confrontation mode. It\u2019s urgent to tell ourselves and each other: Wake up!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The dangers of a direct U.S.-Russian military conflict are spiking upward. After the missile attack, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was suspending a memorandum of understanding with the United States to prevent mid-air collisions over Syria. And Russia\u2019s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, issued a statement<\/a> referring to \u201cour now completely ruined relations\u201d and declaring that the United States was \u201con the verge of a military clash with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

These ominous developments are a longtime dream come true for ultra-hawks like Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, who\u2019ve gained leverage in an alliance with numerous congressional Democrats. The neocons and the \u201cliberal interventionists\u201d really have something going now, after propagating the meme that Trump is a Putin puppet.<\/p>\n

At this perilous moment in human history, the quality of the Democratic Party leadership was embodied in a tweet<\/a> last month from the Democratic National Committee\u2019s new chair, Tom Perez, who sent out this message about a weekly address by President Trump: \u201cTranslated from the original Russian and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such tactics aren\u2019t just McCarthyite. They are baiting, goading and pressurizing Trump to prove that he\u2019s willing to clash with Russia after all. Those tactics are a far cry from what\u2019s actually needed \u2013 truly independent investigations \u2013 in order to address the charges that Russia interfered with the US election last year. We most definitely do not need the kind of baiting and goading that creates enormous pressure on Trump to show he\u2019s willing and able to go to the brink of war with Russia.<\/p>\n

Risking Thermonuclear War<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make no mistake. With 90 percent of the world\u2019s nuclear weapons at the ready in the United States and Russia, pushing to heighten tensions between the two countries is playing with thermonuclear fire.<\/p>\n

Early this year, citing the escalation of those tensions, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists<\/em> moved its \u201cDoomsday Clock\u201d even closer to midnight. \u201cIn 2017, we find the danger to be even greater, the need for action more urgent,\u201d the Bulletin<\/em>declared<\/a>. \u201cIt is two and a half minutes to midnight, the Clock is ticking, global danger looms. Wise public officials should act immediately, guiding humanity away from the brink. If they do not, wise citizens must step forward and lead the way. \u201c<\/p>\n

People at the grassroots must lead, pushing and pulling the official leaders to follow. To stop the current war train \u2013 and to quite possibly rescue the fate of the earth \u2013 we must get a grip. If we depend on the \u201cleadership\u201d in Congress, all that we hold dear will drift into still-greater jeopardy. With Congress now in recess, most legislators are back home \u2013 and they should hear from us. Pick up the phone, make an appointment to visit their district offices, or show up without an appointment.<\/p>\n

Right now, in one minute, you can send an email to your senators and representative<\/a>. \u2026<\/p>\n

Detente between the United States and Russia will be necessary for bringing peace to Syria. The same goes for reducing \u2013 instead of increasing \u2013 the chances that nuclear weapons will destroy us all. What passes for leadership on these matters in Congress will not save us. On the contrary, right now the congressional leaders are serving as enablers for what Martin Luther King Jr. called \u201cthe madness of militarism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even the better statements from Capitol Hill about the April 6 missile attack have been grimly inadequate. So, Senator Chris Murphy warned of \u201cthe potential quagmire of Syria,\u201d while Senator Bernie Sanders said: \u201cI\u2019m deeply concerned that these strikes could lead to the United States once again being dragged back into the quagmire of long-term military engagement in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expressing concern about a \u201cquagmire\u201d is all well and good, but falls far short of acknowledging what\u2019s at stake.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Washington Post<\/em> published a sobering \u2013 and frightening \u2013 article<\/a> by the person who was the national security adviser for Joe Biden during his last two years as vice president. \u201cIf the Trump administration and the Kremlin are not able to come to a meeting of the minds on Syria,\u201d wrote Colin Kahl, \u201cit could set the two nuclear powers on a dangerous collision course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahl, now an associate professor in security studies at Georgetown University, sketched out a plausible scenario: \u201cThe Syrian dictator (perhaps prodded by Russia or Iran) may attempt to test Trump again, hoping to prove the president is a \u2018paper tiger.\u2019 And Trump, having invested his personal credibility in standing firm, may find himself psychologically or politically compelled to respond, despite the very real risks that it could result in a direct military clash with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, Kahl added, \u201cGiven Russia\u2019s vital interests in Syria, Moscow is not likely to respond positively to US ultimatums and maximalist positions. If the administration does not find a way to give the Kremlin a face-saving way out, conflict is much more likely than accommodation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahl\u2019s article concluded: \u201cSinking into a Syrian quagmire would be bad enough. World War III would be far worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norman Solomon is co-founder of RootsAction.org and founding director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His books include<\/i>War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vast efforts to portray Donald Trump as Vladimir Putin\u2019s flunky have given Trump huge incentives to prove otherwise. Last Thursday, he began the process in a big way by ordering a missile attack on Russia\u2019s close ally Syria. In the aftermath of the attack, the cheerleading from U.S. mass media was close to unanimous, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-28777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28780,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28777\/revisions\/28780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28777"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=28777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}