All of us at one time or another, has had to face a bully. Whether in a school yard, at work or just some loud-mouthed jerk at a Little League ballgame. Can you remember if he ever backed down by the utterance of a kind word? Did he stop pushing you around after you gave him you’re your lunch money. I doubt it. More than likely that bully just came back, time-after-time, his bullying only escalating. How did you stop it? Or did you?
President Obama, in his quest for peace and capitulation, has proposed eliminating all nuclear weapons. Laudable; maybe; foolish; absolutely. What kind of message is this going to send to the world’s bullies?
I know the peaceniks, “Kumbaya” singers and Kool-Aid drinkers all want the United States to get rid of its nuclear weapons. And what could be a better cover than to ask everyone to get rid of their stockpiles too. China and Russia were very quick to lend their support to this idea. I can only speculate as to their reasons, but I find it hard to believe it’s because of altruism.
For those of you too young to remember (or are victims of a sub-standard public education), after World War II, the Soviet Union swallowed up all of Eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, all sovereign nations before the war, were invaded and enslaved by their peace-loving socialist masters in Russia. Even half of Germany fell under the Soviet sphere of influence, symbolized by the infamous Berlin wall; whose intention was not to keep invaders out, but to keep East Germans from escaping.
At the time, the Soviet military and those of their satellite states (The Warsaw Pact) dwarfed the number of American military personnel and NATO troops defending Western Europe. The Soviet army could have invaded anytime they wanted. Why didn’t they? They had us outnumbered and outflanked. They probably could have been in Paris in less than a month. So, again, why didn’t they? Do you think their appetite for conquest had been sated? I highly doubt it. Especially since Stalin and his successors made it a point to say their goal was communist domination of the world.
There is only one reason why the Soviet Union was held at bay for more than a half-century: Nuclear weapons. We had them; we had more of them; we had bigger ones and better ones. We had more accurate ones and better delivery systems. And we had already shown that we were willing to use them. The bully knew we could bloody his nose and backed down.
As horrendous as these weapons are, they, and they alone, are the reason why there hasn’t been a World War III.
China has more than 2.3 million men in uniform (compared to the U.S. 1.4 million) and, in a country of over a billion people, (that’s more than 3 times the population of the United States) would not have a problem of increasing that tenfold. Do you really think we can win a conventional land war against an enemy with an army that large? And just because they sell us stuffed animals and cheap t-shirts, don’t think they are our friends.
In Iran, the mad mullahs are on the verge of getting nuclear weapons while the world buries its head in the sand thinking that the loonies in Teheran can be reasoned with. The tiny state of Israel, surrounded by enemies praying for its destruction, has been able to keep the wolves at bay because they have a nuclear arsenal. Those peace-loving Muslims in Iran have been threatening to “wipe Israel off the map” for several years now and will soon have the capability to do so. But as long as Israel can retaliate with 10 megaton bombs, Iran will only continue to bluster and threaten. The mullahs don’t want to be vaporized any more than the Israelis.
If we really want peace, we can’t destroy the only true peacekeepers we have. We can’t put our faith in good will to protect us. Bullies don’t live by The Golden Rule.
I, for one, will put my faith in God, Trident missiles, and the B-2.
Like Sun Tzu says; “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting…The skillful leader subdues the enemy’s troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. With his forces intact he disputes the mastery of the empire, and thus, without losing a man, his triumph is complete. This is the method of attacking by stratagem of using the sheathed sword.”
The the context of Sun Tzu, Ronald Regan’s defeat of the former Soviet Union quite remarkable! But, make no mistake, without the deterrence of complete evisceration from our arsenal – nuclear and other wise – the Communists would not have been held at bay for half a century.