Escalation in Ukraine: The Nuclear War Danger is Real
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2022
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the United States escalates the war in Ukraine by sending another $33 billion, the possibility of nuclear war is coming into focus. Brian and Greg Mello discuss how the U.S. policy of waging proxy war on Russia via Ukraine raises the threat of a direct confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers. What is the United States’ strategy in this nuclear game of chicken and what are the dangers of nuclear war?
Greg Mello is co-founder and Executive Director of the Los Alamos Study Group.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As the United States escalates the war in Ukraine by sending another $33 billion to Ukraine, |
| 0:11.0 | today we talk about how and why the Ukraine war could become a nuclear confrontation. |
| 0:18.0 | We need a new system. We need a new system. |
| 0:22.2 | We need a new society. |
| 0:27.1 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to this week's episode of the Real Story on the Socialist Program. |
| 0:58.0 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:00.0 | Today we'll be talking to Greg Mello. |
| 1:03.0 | Greg is the co-founder and executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group. |
| 1:09.0 | Greg Mello, welcome to the Socialist Program. Nice to be here. Thank you, |
| 1:12.8 | Brian. Greg, we wanted to talk with you because you are an expert on nuclear arms, the nuclear |
| 1:19.5 | arms race. The Los Alamos Study Group has been in the forefront for so long warning about the dangers |
| 1:27.3 | of nuclear war. We believe here on this |
| 1:30.3 | show that the logic of the war in Ukraine, whereby the United States and NATO have said, |
| 1:35.3 | we must win the war, not negotiate an end of the war, we must win the war. And Russia is |
| 1:41.2 | determined not to lose the war. And both the United States and Russia being nuclear |
| 1:47.0 | powers, the largest nuclear powers in the world. |
| 1:50.0 | The logic is escalation, and when escalation takes place between nuclear powers, it puts the issue |
| 1:56.0 | of nuclear confrontation on the agenda. |
| 1:59.0 | We know this has already happened right after the war began, |
| 2:02.5 | right after February 24th, the Russian government put its nuclear forces on the highest alert. |
| 2:09.3 | So, Greg, as we get started in this discussion, and I want to break it down for people because |
| 2:14.2 | I think especially younger folks who didn't grow up during the Cold War |
... |
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