In March, US President Joe Biden approved a highly classified nuclear strategic plan for the US that will refocus its “deterrent strategy to focus on China”, a report from a US-based newspaper claimed. The US believes China is expanding its nuclear arsenal “rapidly”, and that their stockpiles will rival the size and diversity of the US and China over the next decade.
The White House did not announce that Biden had revised the “Nuclear Employment Guidance”, which will prepare the US for possible nuclear warfare with China, Russia and North Korea. On Wednesday, KJ Noh, a journalist, political analyst and educator, sat down with Sputnik’s The Backstory and addressed the US government’s recent signal of global provocation.
“...It's hard to know what the actual strategy is because everything is classified. And so, very, very few people know what's actually in these documents or what's really being said or prepared or being done,” Noh began to explain. “But I think part of this [news] is to prepare [...] the public for eventual nuclear war with China. I believe that this is a kind of a deliberate propaganda effect, a propaganda rollout.”
“And I think it's just to kind of normalize the idea that we are moving towards nuclear war,” he continued. “And this comes out of several different pieces. The US went from the doctrine of mad neutral assured destruction to what is called NUTS. It's nuclear utilization, target selection.”
“Essentially, the idea is that [the US] does a nuclear first strike. It's the nuclear sucker punch and the first person who launches wins. That's US doctrine at the current moment. It's also called a counter-force strike doctrine. But, because of this, we can understand this in the larger context as the US is escalating to war with China, as well as waging proxy war against Russia,” the analyst added.
Vipin Narang, an MIT nuclear strategist who served in the Pentagon reportedly said earlier this month that Biden has “recently issued updated nuclear-weapons employment guidance to account for multiple nuclear-armed adversaries.” A separate insider told the news outlet that the US is prepared to respond to nuclear crises that “break out simultaneously or sequentially” with a combination of nuclear and nonnuclear weapons.
“[This report] strikes me as an act of madness. I mean, just think about this language. Simultaneous nuclear war with North Korea, Russia and China at the same time. I mean, just to put those, to type those words into a sentence and to think that that is a rational thing to publish is mind boggling,” said Noh.
“But, of course, we can look at the Chinese response,” the analyst explained. “The Chinese say - this is from their foreign ministry - they say that the US is hyping the China threat and this is a pretext for the US to shirk its obligations of nuclear disarmament, and to expand its own nuclear arsenal and to seek absolute strategic dominance.”
“I think that's very clear what it's doing,” he added. “It's using China as the pretext, North Korea as the pretext, Russia as the pretext to seek absolute strategic dominance…”
The recent report explained that the US has changed its thoughts regarding nuclear weapons because of the partnerships made between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
“The US relies on China for so much trade, so much of its industrial production. The US would not be a functioning society without Chinese industry, and that includes its military and its military industrial complex,” Noh explained. “It's the core contradiction.”
“...Thousands and thousands of suppliers supply components for US military weapons that they …could very easily use against China. So this is the interconnected nature of the modern supply chain. And, at the same time, I think there is an ideological core,” he added. “These are the neocon crazies who think that they can have their cake and eat it, too. That they can destroy China and somehow still come out the other end and have a functioning society.”
Sputnik’s Rachel Blevins asked the show’s guest if there is a possible US presidential candidate who may be able to de-escalate tensions with China. US Republicans have criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for having “connections to China” because he has “gone to China” and “taught in China”.
“It's a political consensus that has been built over at least the last decade, at least since 2012. And nobody will get anywhere unless they fall in line. The official position is escalation to war with China,” answered Noh. “...I don't think there's any viable political candidate who could come out in favor of China, or even in de-escalation with China.”
“And they're talking about going after [US general election VP candidate] Tim Walz for not being anti-China enough, as if he didn't pass significant legislation attacking and trying to undermine China. So, I think it is a complete and total groupthink, it's a deadly groupthink.”
“It's the kind of groupthink that got [the US] into the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the Iraq, the wars in the Middle East. And, it is so deadly,” he added. “We see how extreme this group thinks in their groupthink around Palestine. A livestreamed genocide is nothing [to them]. They ignore it as if it were not happening because we have a woman of color who is going to represent us. Ignore the genocide.”
This month, Nagasaki marked the 79th anniversary of the devastating atomic bomb attack in World War II by the US on its city. Hiroshima marked the anniversary as well, with Mayor Kazumi Matsui encouraging the world to not be resigned to pessimism as continued global conflicts have given rise to fears of nuclear war.
Within the first four days of the blast, roughly 120,000 people died as a result of American bombing. While some were vaporized in an instant, others suffered from their wounds or radiation. Just three days later, a second atomic bomb was used to devastate the city of Nagasaki where an estimated 73,000 people were killed by an American bomb.