{"id":319778,"date":"2022-10-06T19:40:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T23:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/?p=319778"},"modified":"2022-10-06T00:49:58","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T04:49:58","slug":"we-survived-the-last-nuclear-standoff-through-compromise-and-de-escalation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/2022\/10\/we-survived-the-last-nuclear-standoff-through-compromise-and-de-escalation\/","title":{"rendered":"We Survived The Last Nuclear Standoff Through Compromise And De-Escalation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Caitlin Johnstone, <a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2022\/10\/05\/we-survived-the-last-nuclear-standoff-through-compromise-and-de-escalation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Caitlin Johnstone<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"width: 35%;\" src=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/medium-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Vladimir Putin\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-putin-international-law-donetsk-9fcd11c11936dd700db94ab725f2b7d6\">has signed documents<\/a>\u00a0finalizing the Russian annexation of four regions in eastern Ukraine, meaning there\u2019s now a western-backed Ukrainian\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.moonofalabama.org\/2022\/10\/ukraine-what-explains-the-recent-russian-retreats.html#more\">counteroffensive underway<\/a>\u00a0to recapture what Russia officially considers parts of its homeland.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/bc-russia-ukraine-war-nuclear-risks_n_633c8018e4b02816452e9220\">has made it clear<\/a>\u00a0that it will use all weapons systems at its disposal to defend against attacks on territories it claims as its own, which could include nuclear weapons. Depending on if and how that happens and what kind of day all the relevant decision makers are having when it does, there is a distinct possibility that a chain of events could follow which leads to the end of the world.<\/p>\n<p><!--more Read More--> TRUTH LIVES on at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/sgtreport.tv\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\">https:\/\/sgtreport.tv\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This happens as Ukraine\u2019s President Zelensky\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.antiwar.com\/2022\/10\/04\/zelensky-signs-decree-ruling-out-peace-talks-with-putin-as-impossible\/\">signs a decree<\/a>\u00a0officially ruling out the possibility of any peace talks with Putin, who\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tass.com\/politics\/1516127\">recently publicly requested<\/a>\u00a0such talks. The US empire, which has been\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.substack.com\/p\/this-proxy-war-has-no-exit-strategy\">driving this proxy war<\/a>\u00a0from the beginning, is also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/2022\/10\/03\/talking-is-not-appeasement-its-avoiding-a-nuclear-armageddon\/\">not currently engaged in peace talks<\/a>\u00a0with Moscow. Things are accelerating faster and faster toward the absolute worst thing that could possibly happen, and as far as we know nobody\u2019s got a foot anywhere near the brake pedal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">I grew up during the Cold War.<br \/>\nI studied the Cold War.<br \/>\nWhen the russians\/Soviets say: &#8220;We will use nuclear weapons!&#8221;, the only answer must be: &#8220;Try and die.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All else is seen as weakness by the kremlin and will lead to the russians using nukes.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Thomas C. Theiner (@noclador) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/noclador\/status\/1577378061112197124?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, everyone has gone insane. The propaganda blanket\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.substack.com\/p\/three-illuminating-quotes-about-the\">has been laid on so thick<\/a>\u00a0since this war started that it has become the mainstream position that only continual escalation is acceptable. Public calls for de-escalation and detente are met with accusations of Kremlin loyalty, as we just\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/responsiblestatecraft.org\/2022\/10\/04\/why-elon-musk-is-right\/\">saw with the vitriolic responses<\/a>\u00a0to Elon Musk\u2019s online proposal of possible terms to end the war.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a popular post going around Twitter right now by a pro-Kyiv pundit named Thomas Theiner which sums up the delusional sentiments we\u2019ve been seeing on this front.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI grew up during the Cold War. I studied the Cold War,\u201d Theiner\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/noclador\/status\/1577378061112197124\">writes<\/a>. \u201cWhen the russians\/Soviets say: \u2018We will use nuclear weapons!\u2019, the only answer must be: \u2018Try and die.\u2019 All else is seen as weakness by the kremlin and will lead to the russians using nukes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Theiner is wrong, and has made no serious study of the cold war (or to be more precise the last cold war, since we\u2019re in another one now). The only reason we survived the most dangerous part of that era was because of compromise and a sincere commitment to de-escalation, not because anyone was yelling \u201cTry and die\u201d at Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 2013 The Atlantic published a solid article titled \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2013\/01\/the-real-cuban-missile-crisis\/309190\/\">The Real Cuban Missile Crisis<\/a>,\u201d subtitled \u201cEverything you think you know about those 13 days is wrong.\u201d Its author Benjamin Schwartz details how the crisis was peacefully resolved not because JFK was on the phone yelling \u201cTry and die\u201d at Nikita Khrushchev, but because he secretly cut a deal to remove the Jupiter missiles the US had stationed in Italy and Turkey which provoked the 1962 incident in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>Moscow perceived that the only reason why that type of midrange weapon would be placed in such a way would be if the US was planning a nuclear first strike to disarm Russia, and Schwartz writes that that suspicion was entirely well-founded: the Kennedy administration had indeed strongly contemplated such a strike during\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Berlin_Crisis_of_1961\">the Berlin crisis of 1961<\/a>. In response to this threat, as well as the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, Khrushchev moved ballistic missiles to Cuba, whose discovery led to the tense standoff which brought us\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/NwnPo_A9LJA\">far closer to nuclear annihilation<\/a>\u00a0than most of us care to contemplate. A secret deal was struck whose nature wouldn\u2019t become public knowledge until decades later, resulting in both sides removing their offending missile placements.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/2022\/10\/05\/we-survived-the-last-nuclear-standoff-through-compromise-and-de-escalation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Read More @ CaitlinJohnstone.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Caitlin Johnstone, Caitlin Johnstone: Vladimir Putin\u00a0has signed documents\u00a0finalizing the Russian annexation of four regions in eastern Ukraine, meaning there\u2019s now a western-backed Ukrainian\u00a0counteroffensive underway\u00a0to recapture what Russia officially considers parts of its homeland. Moscow\u00a0has made it clear\u00a0that it will use all weapons systems at its disposal to defend against attacks on territories it claims [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[139459],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sgtreport.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}