Russia, China won’t be intimidated by US nuclear weaponry: Writer

Russia and China will not be intimidated by America’s policy of building up nuclear weaponry as a principle instrument of power, because United States is no longer the unique power that can dictate policies, an American writer and retired professor says.

James Petras, who has written dozens of books on international issues, made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on a report which says the Donald Trump administration has signaled that it could expand the use of nuclear weapons as part of a new security strategy.

The White House released the National Security Strategy (NSS) on Monday, calling nuclear weapons “the foundation of our strategy to preserve peace and stability by deterring aggression against the United States.”

The policy document criticizes previous US administrations for minimizing the role of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War as a key to American defense.

The new strategy suggests downgrading nuclear weapons had not prevented nuclear-armed adversaries expanding their arsenals and delivery systems.

The wider role for nuclear weapons is one of several ways in which Trump’s approach has differed from his predecessor, Barack Obama.

PressTV-Trump signals US may expand use of nuclear weapons

The Trump administration signaled that it could broaden the use of nuclear weapons as part of a new security strategy, unveiled by the president on Monday.

Professor Petras said President Trump is attempting “to bully the world into submitting to continuous US domination. This is totally unacceptable to China, to Russia, to Iran and other countries of the world.”

“The United States is no longer the unique power that can dictate policies and the attempt to intimidate particularly China and Russia as well as Iran by building up nuclear weaponry as a principle instrument of power,  I think this is very dangerous because no country will be intimidated least of all nuclear powers like Russia and China,” he said.

“The idea that the US will use its nuclear weapons is very frightening to the 90 percent of the population in the world. Moreover from this vantage point in the United States the overwhelming population is hostile to the new tax bill which will reward the rich and punish the majority of the working people,” the analyst said.

“I think in some ways this nuclear policy of Trump is a distraction from the overwhelming opposition to his domestic policy,” he added.  

“The use of international warfare as a way of justifying and distracting the population from the deeply hostile attitude towards his domestic tax policies is one unsavory approach to dealing with the dual policy of looking for peace and solving domestic problems,” he noted.

“I think we all agree in the United States that the tax policy is very reactionary and the nuclear policy which they dub the security plan is really an insecurity plan,” the academic concluded. 

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