East Asia Nuclear Roulette

The UN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) warned about possible nuclear war, by design or accident, calling the risk highest since the end of the Cold War.

Nine nations have nukes: America, Russia, China, Britain, France, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.

Given heightened world tensions, especially in East Asia, the Middle East, and US hostility toward multiple countries, possible nuclear war may be inevitable, perhaps just a matter of time.

In 1982 testimony before Congress, founder of America’s nuclear navy Admiral Hyman Rickover said “(t)he lesson of history is when a war starts, every nation will ultimately use whatever weapon(s) it has available.”

“I think the human race is going to wreck itself, and it is important that we get control of this horrible (nuclear) force and try to eliminate it.” His warning went unheeded.

Einstein and Bertrand Russell warned about the same thing, Russell saying “(s)hall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war.” The risk is eventual annihilation.

Historian Arnold Toynbee and HG Wells warned about either ending wars or they’ll end us.

America intends spending over a trillion dollars upgrading its nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years – instead of responsibly eliminating it along with other nations to end the threat of mass annihilation.

A new Pentagon Nuclear Posture Review being prepared is expected to stress adversarial relations with Russia, North Korea, Iran and other nations, heightening the threat of nuclear confrontation.

On Sunday, joint US/Japanese naval exercises began, a Pentagon statement saying they’re “starting on April 23. The exercises are held in the western part of the Pacific Ocean.”

“The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and other” US warships are involved, along with two Japanese destroyers.

On April 14, Trump warned about possible military confrontation with North Korea if it conducted more nuclear weapons and ballistic missile tests.

On Saturday, China’s Xinhua news agency said Pyongyang rejects dialogue with Washington as long as it’s hostile to its government.

It quoted a DPRK Korean Workers’ Party commentary, saying Washington “openly reveal(ed) its intention not to rule out the use of military force including unilateral preemptive attack, to say nothing of multilateral military and diplomatic pressure and high-intensity economic sanctions and redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons in South Korea.”

US policymakers ruled out “dialogue with the DPRK. Meanwhile, the US is pressurizing countries around the DPRK to join it in putting diplomatic pressure and high-intensity economic sanctions on the DPRK.”

“It even threatens that it would seek out an independent way of preventing the DPRK from bolstering nuclear deterrence.”

War on the Korean peninsula would be disastrous. Anything is possible with neocon generals in charge of US geopolitical policies.