Tyler Durden – Zero Hedge.com Oct 28, 2022
Well, we’re finally there: stocks are officially trading off nuclear war headlines.
Moments ago, as part of his closely-watched speech, Vladimir Putin appeared to talk down the likelihood of a nuclear attack in Ukraine:
- *PUTIN: NO POLITICAL, MILITARY REASON IN NUKE STRIKE IN UKRAINE
Which, however, is more than can be said about the US.
As Bloomberg just reported, the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy rejects limits on using nuclear weapons long championed by arms control advocates (and, in the not too distant past, by Joe Bide) citing burgeoning threats from Russia and China.
“By the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries,” the Defense Department said in the long-awaited document issued Thursday. In response, the US will “maintain a very high bar for nuclear employment” without ruling out using the weapons in retaliation to a non-nuclear strategic threat to the homeland, US forces abroad or allies.
In yet another stark reversal for the senile occupant of the White House basement, in his 2020 presidential campaign Biden had pledged to declare that the US nuclear arsenal should be used only to deter or retaliate against a nuclear attack, a position blessed by progressive Democrats and reviled by defense hawks. But, like with every other position held by the pathological liar who even trumps Trump in the untruth department, this one has just been reversed as well as “the threat environment has changed dramatically since then” and the Pentagon strategy was forged in cooperation with the flip-flopping White House.
In a stunning move that should – or rather “should” – spark outrage among the so-called progressives but will at best prompt some very sternly retracted letters, the nuclear report that’s part of the broader strategy said the Biden administration reviewed its nuclear policy and concluded that “No First Use” and “Sole Purpose” policies “would result in an unacceptable level of risk in light of the range of non-nuclear capabilities being developed and fielded by competitors that could inflict strategic-level damage” to the US and allies.
meanwhile…
Putin: The only country in the world that has used nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state is the United States of America
— Paul Sonne (@PaulSonne) October 27, 2022
The nuclear strategy document doesn’t spell out what non-nuclear threats could produce a US nuclear response, but current threats include hypersonic weapons possessed by Russia and China for which the US doesn’t yet have a proven defense.
It does spell out, however, in the strongest terms, what would happen to another nuclear power, North Korea, if it launched a nuclear attack on the US, South Korea or Japan. That action “will result in the end of that regime,” it says. US nuclear weapons continue to play a role in deterring North Korean attacks.
So, the brilliant neocon minds behind the report concluded, it is better to instill the fear of a disproportionate nuclear retaliation, thus making an outright nuclear attack far more likely (if the US will nuke you anyway, may as well go all out).
In the document, which was framed well before the invasion, the Pentagon says Russia continues to “brandish its nuclear weapons in support of its revisionist security policy” while its modern arsenal is expected to grow further. In other words, the Pentagon knew what Putin would do even before he did it and that defined the dramatic revision in US nuclear posture. Almost as if the Pentagon directed the entire sequence of events…
Meanwhile, China remains the US’s “most consequential strategic competitor for coming decades,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a letter presenting the new defense strategy. He cited China’s “increasingly coercive actions to reshape the Indo-Pacific region and the international system to fit its authoritarian preferences,” even as it rapidly modernizes and expands its military. China wants to have at least 1,000 deliverable nuclear warheads by the end of the decade, the nuclear strategy document says, saying it could use them for “coercive purposes, including military provocations against US allies and partners in the region.”
The nuclear strategy affirmed modernization programs including the ongoing replacement of the aging US air-sea-land nuclear triad. Among them are the Navy’s Columbia-class nuclear ICBM submarine, the ground-based Minuteman III ICBM replacement, the new air-launched Long-Range Standoff Weapon and F-35 fighter jets for Europe carrying nuclear weapons.
The review confirmed previous reports that the Pentagon will retire the B83-1 gravity bomb and cancel the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile program. But the review endorses a controversial Trump-era naval weapon, the low-yield W76-2 submarine-launched nuclear warhead, which is described as providing “an important means to deter limited nuclear use.”
The broader strategy report also offered gently worded criticism of major US weapons programs, which often runs years behind plans and billions of dollars over initial budgets.
“Our current system is too slow and too focused on acquiring systems not designed to address the most critical challenges we now face,” the Pentagon said. It called for more “open systems that can rapidly incorporate cutting-edge technology” while reducing problems of “obsolescence” and high costs.
The Pentagon strategy documents were sent to Congress in classified form in March so they were considered during congressional approval of the fiscal 2023 defense budget.
* * *
So how to trade all of this? Well, the initial instinct now that nuclear war headlines are being lobbed around is that it may be time to sell… but as Art Cashin so insightfully put it some time ago, “Never bet on the end of the world, because it only happens once.”
Now thanks to the Biden admin, that “once in a lifetime” event is that much closer to taking place.
The US used two nukes when nobody else had them. That’s how dangerous they are.
It gets complicated now that these bombs can be made very small, and destroy, for example, just one building, as if they are nothing special
I have a high regard for the Truthseeker. It is an oasis in a desert. I admire Rixon Stewart’s day in day out tenacity and championing of free speech. For a game of football, someone has to bring the ball; Rixon does that come rain or shine…I couldn’t, and very very few could.
The Truthseeker carries the headline:
“On Sunday there was a concerted campaign to hinder access to this website on major browsers. Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge all displayed a message that this “connection is not private”. We take this as confirmation that we are posting information and perspectives that the Powers That Be don’t want the public to see.”
Rixon has said that the articles are more important than the comments. What that amounts to is that Rixon’s judgement of “important information” is more significant than anyone else’s. From the point of view of posters here, that comment might have seemed insulting. Owning the football, however, doesn’t make you the best player on the pitch. Although many of think we are the smartest. This is probably natural among predominately male company.
In any case, someone suggested that the “nuke denial” issue may have been the reason for the cyber attack. Various posters have cited reference after reference, with joined up thinking on the subject of the non-existence of nukes. These posters are intelligent.
Let me point out what the weakness of current article selection is about: it is about the selection of superficial political pundits who have done little deep diving, are still attached to the umbilical cord of mainstream media, and are invariably targeted at promoting fear porn. They dwell in the same echo chamber of mutually nodding “Top table” smugness that relies on convoluted Byzantine thinking here there and everywhere on the politics of nuclear annihilation; they might as well extrapolate from Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
There are several challenges facing the Truthseeker over the next few years and they are similar to a musical group that starts off by being brave and original then loses its creative courage as time passes: is the Truthseeker committed to becoming an upmarket version of Daily Mail or remain committed to its roots?
Not read, because it is pure propaganda, even if they mean it.
For a start, the US has long held the policy of first strike, because they think they can win… This is a sect doctrine. It helps the sheeple in the sect, believe they are invincible. Lizz Truss actually said as much, and Putin had a good chuckle at the thick bitches expense.
Putin’s recent major speech just ended the NWO, saying there is an new multipolar world. The entire world has taken notice, and this is why NWO leaders are saying stupid things. They seek to be relevant.
This doesn’t mean the US, UK, and NATO will just go away, they won’t, but they will become much poorer.
The sanctions have not worked, but they serve the NWO a useful purpose, because they can blame their collapse on Russia.
The US and UK were bankrupt long before Russia launched their SMO in UKraine.
If the UK sheeple understood just 10% of the elite crimes against them, and the coming public spending cuts and tax rises, if they understood just 10%, there would be a revolution, but they know nothing!
You know the basics of rugby? The players attempt to move the ball forward, but they must pass the ball before they get tackled. This is what the one party state would do, pass the ball between the two big party’s, but now that things are so desperate, they need to keep changing leaders.
Lizz Truss was a feint, for Sunak. Once Sunak has done the dirty work, he will be replaced, probably in a years time. This mess does have Boris’s prints on it, but he’s left the stage, and could return for a future act.
Statements like this nuclear weapons policy, is there to make Biden look tough before the mid-terms.
Once again, deep state shill Tyler Durden spins the crap from Langley’s basement.
It’s not like the Saruman admin is directly threatening the world with nuclear destruction, or that the pentagon is set up (what good are all those nukes if ya can’t threaten everbody?) to set insane policy, it’s that why no one is raising almighty stink.
What neocon came up with this strategery, and were they going for laughs with: “brandish its nuclear weapons in support of its revisionist security policy”???
What’s next, cut the defense budget?
So, never bet on any precedent simply because it never happened before?
You’d be second only to God if you had bet on Big Bang.
That’s worth the risk…
YES who does the first nuklear strike ?
USA ? RUSSIA ? GB ? CHINA ?
ISRAEL (master of false flags) ?
There were never atomic bombs, see on youtube: La bombe atomique n’existe pas, l’arme nucléaire n’existe pas
Simon Smith–do not forget the value of disinformation in helping to keep a web-site alive, as it makes it less dangerous to the self-appointed bosses
@Lewis Jones
Yes, maybe…
I always carry the hope that Rixon posts mediocre articles in order to illicit superior critique despite the ostensible position of ourselves as comments section peasants. I think that’s why I regard myself as a site loyalist…
The demonic criminal cartel in the shithole sewer of DC is absolutely out-of-control and is a deadly threat to all of humanity. Organized Jewry has a stranglehold of the government, judicial system, media, and educational systems due to their exclusive control of the systems of credit and currency, which has bankrupted the country fiscally and morally. The Jewnited States is a lurching monster. DC needs to be nuked into a smoldering crater and practically every one of its inhabitants vaporized, same with The City, Wall Street, Basel, Tel Aviv, Jewrusalem, the WEF headquarters, and every Rothschild estate.
Simon Smith–I have a similar attitude, and am happy to be heard anywhere
Stupidity epidemic stretches ones imagination.
NUKES as advertised do NOT exist.
I’ll post some good links later given this Nuke BS crap has grown legs globally and continues ad nauseum.
FFS….
Why didn’t USA invade CUBA in 1960’s ???….its less than 100 miles from Florida…Catro could have been taken out with a pellet gun or a sling shot…yet mighty USA shite their diapers over some alleged missles in Cuba.
Sure…go over to Europe 1000’s of miles away in 2 World Wars because of (((those evil Nazi’s))) , but an alleged threat in your own back yard aka Cuba you don’t remove asap???
Wheres USA’s GitMo?
In Cuba FFS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp
Obviously US and USSR/Russia (((leaders))) loved playing us all for suckers.
Cue the Godzilla movies.
It ‘s well known that the CIA and KGB went for drinks together after working the daily BS shift.
USA is a disaster…waayy past its due date…it was designed by Freemasons and Jews in its founding ….is now being chewed up and spit out,,,,,and now a wounded animal that needs to be isolated and removed.