“He said war was too important to be left to the generals. When he said that, 50 years ago, he might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought.” – General Jack D. Ripper, from Dr. Strangelove
By Glen Reaux
Part I: Repost from January 24, 2019
WWIII Part II: Russia China Iran and North Korea Can America Survive (New Post March 2022)
“Humanity now faces two simultaneous existential threats, either of which would be cause for extreme concern and immediate attention. These major threats—nuclear weapons and climate change—were exacerbated this past year by the increased use of information warfare to undermine democracy around the world, amplifying risk from these and other threats and putting the future of civilization in extraordinary danger.”
“In the nuclear realm, the United States abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and announced it would withdraw from the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), grave steps towards a complete dismantlement of the global arms control process. Although the United States and North Korea moved away from the bellicose rhetoric of 2017, the urgent North Korean nuclear dilemma remains unresolved. Meanwhile, the world’s nuclear nations proceeded with programs of “nuclear modernization” that are all but indistinguishable from a worldwide arms race, and the military doctrines of Russia and the United States have increasingly eroded the long-held taboo against the use of nuclear weapons.” – Bulletin of Atomic Scientist, 2019 Doomsday Clock Statement {1}
Despite the current domestic and legal problems of President Donald J. Trump and the turmoil created in the nation by his domestic and immigration policies, there are larger and more ominous problems that threaten the national security of the country. These problems stem from what many foreign policy experts on both sides of the aisle consider to be Trump’s disastrous foreign policy. Conservative and liberal think tanks are also in agreement with what appears to be an overwhelming consensus that Trump’s foreign policy is not only a danger to the national security of this nation but is a threat to the entire world.
Right now, the media is overwhelmed with the daily news of the Mueller investigation and by the intentional distractions generated by Trump’s tweets. It has neglected to inform the nation of a greater impending danger from outside the borders of this country. While it is a foregone conclusion of common-sense people that there are no winners in a nuclear war, you must understand that in the current geopolitical climate, there are 3 people with their fingers on the nuclear button that don’t have any common sense. These people are Kim Jong-Un, Vladimir Putin, and Donald J. Trump. Dictators and want-to-be dictators are not common sense people. It is this fact that could be the impetus that will lead to the use of nuclear weapons in World War (WWIII). WWIII has already started but has gone unnoticed in the eyes of the world primarily due to its covertness and lack of a nuclear exchange. In fact, Putin began laying the groundwork for this war more than a decade ago with his cyberattacks and interference in the election affairs of several other countries along with the United States. Putin in his chess game of global domination often employs classical tactics and strategies of warfare: “The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy so that he cannot fathom our real intent.” – “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu
The current global landscape is rife with confusion and destabilization. Like Putin, Trump has played a major role in this mess. The norm in American foreign policy for the past two hundred years has been that an effective State Department is the most important safeguard against war. And, since World War II, America has believed that strong alliances with foreign governments that hold similar interests are the best way to protect the nation from outside threats. Enter Donald Trump, Putin’s Queen, and his destruction of all established norms of foreign policy and national security. According to a November 28, 2018, article in the Atlantic entitled “Almost half of the top jobs in Trump’s State Department Are Still Empty”{2}, the Trump State Department has left dozens of U.S. embassies unstaffed.
Trump hasn’t nominated ambassadors to Australia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Mexico, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, South Africa or Singapore. In 18 countries inclusive of those, Trump hasn’t designated anyone for the job. This has resulted in almost half of the top-level jobs in the State Department being unfilled two years into Trump’s presidency. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), to Congress entitled, Integrated Action Plan Could Enhance Efforts to Reduce Persistent Overseas Foreign Service Vacancies{3} concluded that chronic vacancies overstretch U.S. diplomats and hamper morale while hamstringing U.S. foreign-policy initiatives on issues from nuclear nonproliferation to anti-fraud efforts. In stark contrast to the GAO report, Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson implemented mass layoffs of career department employees and executives, instituted a hiring freeze and cut the State Department budget. President Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget proposal calls for a 23% cut for the international affairs budget. The budget proposal would hit international organizations hardest, imposing up to $1 billion in cuts for United Nations activities. Also, it dramatically cuts more than 30 percent for humanitarian assistance. It also dismantles the State Department’s chief refugee protection bureau.
The lack of an ambassador to Australia is extremely dangerous to our national security. Since1941, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom along with the United States have been members of the “five eyes”{4} the most exclusive intelligence community in the world. Also known as “FVEY”, the organization through the use of its Echelon surveillance system literally monitors all communications on the entire planet. This includes email, cell phones, radio, landlines, fax, microwave, television, cable television, text messaging, and all other forms of electronic communications.
Australian soldiers have fought alongside American troops in WWI, WWII, Korean War, Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the government is being heavily courted by China. Former Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd recently stated: “Australia, from President Trump’s perspective, is a second-class ally.” The Australian government is currently debating whether it should maintain its traditional role as an American military ally or change to one of economic partnership with China which is now dominating the global economy in manufacturing.
These actions taken by the Trump State Department, while seriously damaging the nation’s security have only been surpassed by Trump’s personal antics which have done even more damage. His personal attacks on The Canadian Prime Minister, Angela Merkel, and his assertions that NATO is obsolete and should be dissolved have caused our allies to realize that America is no longer the world leader that it once was. In an unprecedented speech by an American President at the 2018 NATO Summit in Germany, Trump scolded the leaders of the NATO alliance. The speech left the leaders of the NATO countries in attendance dumbfounded and wondering if they were listening to a fellow leader of a NATO member nation.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear treaty which was negotiated with and entered into alongside American allies has placed the world at serious nuclear risk. His nearly two-year fiasco with Kin Jong-un has emboldened the dictator and given him a new feeling of prominence on the world stage while motivating him to escalate his missile and nuclear programs. These actions are only topped by his disgraceful display in Helsinki on July 16, 2018. Trump, Putin’s Manchurian Candidate, appearing to be Putin’s queen, cowered before Putin and did everything but kiss his butt before a global audience. Our allies have been left with no alternative but to see America as a former ally. Even more disturbing, under Putin’s Queen Donald, they now view America as Putin’s puppet willing to do anything that the hand commands.
Trump’s foreign policy, State Department failures and personal idiotic ravings have changed the geopolitical landscape of the world. In doing so, he at the very least opened the door to the possibility of nuclear war resulting in a very uncertain and possibly disastrous future for America.
Most importantly Trump’s refusal to speak out against Putin’s aggression against Russia’s neighbors, his refusal to accept the assessment of the U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and his wanton attempts to remove sanctions against Russia and Russian oligarchs are viewed as a weakness in the eyes of the world. Many of America’s allies believe that Putin has compromising information on Trump and or his family members. To Putin, based upon his KGB track record, he views America under the leadership of Donald Trump, his Manchurian Candidate as an opportunity to implement his plan to reclaim Russia’s glory days of the cold-war.
A gambit is an action or opening remark, typically one entailing a degree of risk, that is calculated to gain an advantage. “Putin’s Gambit” is really a series of aggressive military actions executed since the turn of the century designed to attack western countries on multiple fronts and weaken the image of his perceived western enemies in the eyes of third-world, emerging countries and former Soviet States seeking membership in NATO. At the height of the Soviet Union, Russia had political, economic and military control over 14 member countries making it the largest country in the world from 1922 to 1991. Its land mass encompassed much of Europe and Asia and totaled 8.6 million square miles in size. Putin has blamed the demise of the Soviet Union on economic pressures and marketplace exclusions brought by the United States and the European Union. He also sees the growth of NATO as a threat to the future existence of Russia. Since the turn of the 21st-century, Putin’s two main goals have been to make Russia an economic and military power equal to the United States and the end of NATO.
Putin’s opening gambit took place in 2008 with his invasion of Russia’s southern neighbor Georgia. Georgia had declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 with the fall of communism and the beginning of the fall of the USSR. The crisis was linked to Georgia’s push to receive a NATO Membership Action Plan. The Russo- Georgian War lasted 7 days and ended when French President Nicolas Sarkozy negotiated a cease-fire. The war was the first in Europe in the 21st-century and the first war to involve the use of cyber warfare. Since the war, Russia has occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia in violation of the ceasefire agreement of August 2008. These two provinces were a part of Georgia until the war. As a result, 20,272 ethnic Georgians are still displaced because of the war. While the war literally did not present Russia with any military or geographical gain, it did, however, make an announcement to the world that Russia had a new mission. That mission was to regain all former Soviet States which had declared independence following the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union and regain its prominence as a Super Power.
In February of 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from the former Soviet nation of Ukraine. On February 23rd, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in Sevastopol a city in Crimea, which at that time was a peninsula province in Ukraine. On February 27th, masked Russian troops dressed in uniforms without identifying insignia took over the parliament of Crimea. They captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the installation of the Aksyonov government which was pro-Russian. The Aksyonov government implemented the Crimean status referendum and declared Crimea’s independence on March 16, 2014. Russia immediately incorporated Crimea as two federal subjects of the Russian Federation and neither global diplomatic condemnation nor economic sanctions would curtail its actions.
Again Putin saw this action as a means to limit the influence of NATO and a way of denying Ukraine membership into the western alliance. Subsequently, led by President Barack Obama on March 24, 2014, the economic alliance of G8 countries expelled Russia from the organization and implemented harsh economic sanctions against Russia which crippled its economy. Contrary to the harsh economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the now G7 and other European countries, Russia has persisted with its aggressive actions against NATO members via its FSB formerly the Russian intelligence service, the KGB.
World War III has been started by Putin. Although there has not been an open declaration of war by Russia, its open aggression against NATO and Russia’s former Soviet allies is nothing less. There hasn’t been any notable use of traditional military force by Russia since 2014. But, its cyber attacks cannot be categorized as anything other than warfare. Since there hasn’t been any bloodshed, the war has not garnered the amount of media attention normally given to traditional war. But, there is no doubt about it, Russia is at war with the west and right now we are suffering from severe cyber radiation burns.
Common tactics used in modern warfare include propaganda, disinformation, social media campaigns, cyber-attacks on power plants, infrastructures such as transportation, communications, water supplies, election tampering, and information warfare in such a way as to change public opinion about the attacker. Winning the hearts and minds of enemy populations for the purpose of confusing them to their enemy’s intentions is one of the tactics employed by the FSB during the 2016 election. It was so successful that many Republican voters claimed that they would rather be Russian than Democrat.
Over the past 20 years, Putin has employed many of these tactics in Europe. In January of 2016, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a 206-page report. The report detailed Putin’s use of what it called his “asymmetric arsenal” to thwart fragile democratic processes in neighboring Ukraine and Georgia as well as efforts to undermine elections in long-established democracies in Britain, Germany, and France. Like in America with Donald Trump, Putin also provided financial support to right-wing extremist candidates and white-nationalist. Putin’s biggest European success to date is the 2016 British vote to leave the European Union, Brexit. European and American intelligence agencies have determined that the result of the Brexit election was heavily tainted by Russian interference without which, the vote would have turned out differently resulting in Great Britain voting to stay in the European Union. Two years after the vote, there is still chaos and unrest in Britain over Brexit which is still unsettled. Now with Britain leaving the European Union, the resulting economic turmoil throughout Europe could lead to Putin’s main goal, the military destabilization of NATO.
Russias Aproach to Cyber Warfare{5} is a September 2016 report by CNA Analysis Solutions, a U.S. Navy contractor. It was sponsored by The Office of The Chief of Naval Operations. The report details how the Russian military views cyber use as a force multiplier and also how it was used in Georgia and Ukraine. While the military was been speculative about the use of cyber new Kremlin directives have changed perception and established initiatives for the use of cyber in the foreseeable future. Pentagon officials are now worried that these cyberattacks on the part of Russia may one day elevate into an actual shooting war. Due to the growing nuclear arsenals around the world, the lack of nuclear treaties, and a new arms race, without any warning, the doomsday clock might just reach midnight with the first nuclear strike.
Any great chess master perceives himself as the King on the chessboard. His most powerful weapon is the Queen. Without his intellect and direction, the queen is worthless. On the geopolitical global chessboard, Trump is Putin’s queen in his game of world domination. In reality, while Trump feigns ignorance and hides behind a ridiculous banner of bravado before the world, his actions suggest that he may actually have formed a secret alliance with the Russian dictator. He has refused to turn over any documentation to government officials, his administration, or the media advising of his conversations and negotiations with Putin. Any news that has been reported about their meeting has always come from Russian government-controlled news outlets. He has defied Congress’ demands for disclosure and instructed his interpreter not to reveal the transcripts to anyone.
http://www.xplicitnews.org/2019/01/27/the-dangers-of-donald-trump-putins-queen/
Trump has bragged about his ability to negotiate deals. Much like a medieval dictator, he has lauded himself as a genius with “a Big Brain” who believes his right to rule is God-given. However, Trump’s diplomacy and actions are more indicative of the fictional character Little Finger from the HBO hit series “Game of Thrones.” His scheming, lies, backstabbing, misdirection, grandstanding, and ability to manipulate people are not the skill set of a World Leader. Moreover, they are identical to the tools used by Little Finger. Although Trump’s behavior is indicative of Little Finger, he is no Little Finger and Putin is not a fool or Cersei Lannister. Trump’s demise is imminent and he will take us down with him.
These circumstances accompanied by the fact that he has alienated all of America’s allies including our military treaty with NATO, this country is in a perilous situation. Due to Trump’s self-proclaimed “BIG BRAIN”, he can’t understand that we are in WWIII which was started by Putin as a means to establish his newer-world-order. The question that America should be asking is not whether America will survive World War III but how do we get rid of Trump so that we can survive it.
https://www.gofundme.com/xplicit-news
New Post March 2022
WW III Part II: Russia China Iran and North Korea Can America Survive
Linked Sources and Documentation
- Doomsday Clock Press Release, pdf 2019-Clock-Statement-Press-Print-Version – link: https://thebulletin.org/2019/01/press-release-welcome-to-the-new-abnormal/
- The Atlantic State Department Article – https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/state-department-empty-ambassador-to-australi/574831/
- Integrated Action Plan Could Enhance Efforts to Reduce Persistent Overseas Foreign Service Vacancies pdf : link – https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-220
- Five Eyes : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes
- Russia’s Approach to Cyber Warfare, pdf – Russias Aproach to Cyber Warfare
Copyright © 2019, Glen Reaux, all rights reserved
