A Need for National Soul-Searching

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Jacob G. Hornberger
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Suppose that John, in an act of pure political gamesmanship, threatens to corner Peter. In response, Peter says to John, “If you corner me as part of your political game, I will shoot and kill Mary. So don’t corner me.” John has no doubt whatsoever that Peter is telling him the truth and that he’s not bluffing. John knows as an absolute certainty that if he corners Peter as part of his political game, Peter will shoot and kill Mary.

Nonetheless, knowing full well what is going to happen to Mary, John continues his political game and proceeds to corner Peter, who then proceeds to shoot and kill Mary.

Everyone would agree that Peter deserves to be condemned and punished for murdering Mary. But what about John? Shouldn’t John at least be condemned for what he has done? If he had refrained from engaging in political gamesmanship, Mary would still be alive. In his political gamesmanship, John proceeded to corner Peter knowing full well that Peter would end up snuffing out Mary’s life.

American statists would say no. They would say that all moral and legal condemnation should be heaped onto Peter for murdering Mary. They would actually rally behind John’s efforts to condemn Peter for what he has done and to bring him to justice.

How do we know this? Because this is what American statists have done with respect to Ukraine. They have heaped condemnation on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine while, at the same time, standing squarely and steadfastly in support of the U.S. national-security establishment, notwithstanding the fact that it was its political gamesmanship that it knew, as an absolute certainty, would bring about a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

At the ostensible end of the Cold War, U.S. officials assured Russia that their Cold War dinosaur NATO would not move eastward to Russia by absorbing former Eastern European countries, such as Poland. Yet that is precisely what the U.S. national-security establishment proceeded to do, knowing full well what the reaction within Russia would be to its political gamesmanship.

For the past 25 years, Russia has made it clear that its “red line” was Ukraine, which is situated on Russia’s border. Throughout that time, Russia made it perfectly clear that if NATO threatened to absorb Ukraine, Russia would invade Ukraine to prevent that from happening. U.S. officials knew as an absolute certainty that Russia was telling the truth and that it was not bluffing. That’s how President Biden, as part of this political game, was able to “predict” that Russia would, in fact, invade Ukraine once NATO continued threatening to absorb Ukraine.

Did Russia have the legal right to invade Ukraine? Of course not, no more so than Peter has the legal right to murder Mary even if John corners him in his act of political gamesmanship. It’s simply a fact of life though: Given the history of foreign invasions of Russia, Russia will never permit an enemy nation to establish military bases, missiles, tanks, and weaponry on its border, any more than the United States would permit Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran to to do the same in, say, Cuba, or in Mexico along the U.S. border. 

Thus, the U.S. national-security establishment, just like John in our hypothetical, continued engaging in political gamesman knowing full well what the consequences would be for the people of Ukraine. Yet, American statists obviously cannot bring themselves to heap any condemnation or even just mild criticism onto the U.S. national-security establishment for its role in bringing this calamity onto the people of Ukraine. 

That’s because, as I have written so many times in the past, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA are considered a god by American statists, one that can do no wrong and that deserves nothing but praise, glory, and worship.

There is another factor to now consider. Poland, which was absorbed into NATO as part of the political gamesmanship, is located on Ukraine’s border. Following orders from the U.S. national-security establishment, Poland is now furnishing massive amounts of weaponry to the Ukrainian regime to help kill Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Needless to say, that’s not sitting well with the Russian regime. It would not be unreasonable for Russian officials to conclude that Poland has allied itself with Ukraine and is now waging war against Russia. 

Everyone needs to be aware of an important fact: If Russia decides that “enough is enough” and attacks some weapons depot in Poland where weapons are being gathered for shipment into Ukraine, that means that the United States is automatically at war with Russia. That’s what NATO rules and regulations require. 

In other words, in the event of a Russian attack on a weapons depot in Poland, there will be no deliberation in Congress over whether the United States should go to war against Russia. Thanks to the Pentagon’s and the CIA’s decision to absorb Poland into their old Cold War dinosaur NATO as part of their political gamesmanship against Russia, the decision to be at war with Russia will be automatic. Upon Russia’s bombing of that weapons depot, the United States and Russia will automatically be at war with each other. 

We can only hope that matters don’t get to that point because it then becomes in the interests of both warring nations — the United States and Russia — to be the first to initiate an all-out nuclear attack in order to knock out the other nation’s nuclear capability. 

Russia has now openly and publicly declared its intent to target foreign weaponry that is being shipped into Ukraine to kill Russian soldiers. A couple of days ago, Russia bombed a military installation in Ukraine just 12 miles away from the Polish border. The Pentagon and Ukraine have used the installation for joint military exercises in the past.

All of this is to say that the national-security establishment’s political gamesmanship is not only as evil as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but also that it is highly reckless and dangerous. 

Assuming the Ukraine crisis is resolved without nuclear war between Russia and the United States, Americans would be well-served to engage in some serious national soul-searching. Questions that need to be asked, discussed, and reflected upon include: 

Should the United States withdraw from the old Cold War dinosaur NATO? 

Should the old Cold War dinosaur NATO be made extinct?

Should the U.S. national-security establishment be engaging in political gamesmanship that endangers foreigners and magnifies the risk of nuclear war for the American people?

Should the U.S. national-security establishment be engaging in coups, state-sponsored assassinations, torture, indefinite detention, kidnapping, mass secret surveillance, and other dark-side activities that characterize communist and totalitarian regimes?

Should Americans dismantle their national-security state form of governmental structure and replace it with their founding governmental system of a limited-government republic?

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