Vladimir Putin’s recent nuclear saber rattling is profoundly reckless. At the start of his aggressive war against Ukraine, he already made a huge miscalculation that Ukraine would be quickly conquered. Now there is a real and growing danger of an even worse miscalculation.
Russia has had a bizarre, high-risk nuclear policy for some time. They believe that if they were in danger of losing a war and used a so-called tactical nuclear weapon (as powerful as the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki) on the battlefield, that any opponents would retreat in fear of triggering a larger nuclear war that could threaten global annihilation.
Recently, the leaders of Turkey and France offered themselves as mediators; and China and India distanced themselves from Putin’s war. Just as a global coalition was assembled to support Ukraine in defending itself from Russian aggression, these along with the U.S. and Europe should urgently press for a diplomatic solution.
This would not only save many thousands of lives, but it would also de-escalate the nuclear saber rattling and move the world back from the very real danger of nuclear war. Readers wanting to learn more, and/or to support such a diplomatic surge, are invited to visit peacecoalition.org.
Rev. Robert Moore
Executive Director of the Princeton-based Coalition for Peace Action