I am an independent who has leaned left of center recently because I believe the middle class is being hollowed out by the ultra-rich and their Republican and corporate Democratic allies.
My problem is that some left-of-center Democrats seem to believe that unilateral disarmament is a good idea to prevent nuclear war or war in general.
Let’s say that Russia invades Poland, a NATO ally. Vladimir Putin calls President Bernie Sanders on the hotline and says that he’ll use battlefield (“small”) nuclear weapons if NATO or the United States oppose him. Bernie doesn’t have any, so he has a choice between letting him swallow up whatever European country he wants or launching nuclear Armageddon. This is not so far-fetched because Russia has announced it would use “small” nukes if it was losing a conventional war.
Unilateral weakness invites war. We learned that in World War II and Korea. Let’s negotiate reductions, but let’s do it from a position of strength.
BRIAN MILLER
Bow