OPINION:
It was nice while it lasted. A generation of Americans who have suffered little more than an occasional shiver of apprehension over the prospect of nuclear war are now forced to contemplate the relentless peril that haunted their parents. The visitation of this Ghost of Christmas Past is every bit as unwelcome as the specter that animates Charles Dickens’ classic “A Christmas Carol.”
The main character in the current saga is Russia’s spymaster president, Vladimir Putin, whose old-guard inclinations have driven the Red Army’s unjust invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this month, nearly a year into his faltering campaign, Mr. Putin announced that Russia is considering the adoption of a preemptive strike military doctrine designed to quickly crush a defiant enemy. Left to the imagination is whether the weapons of choice would be nuclear or conventional, but The Associated Press reports that Biden administration officials took his words as a not-so-subtle reference to nukes.
Further developments suggest their presumption is on target: In recent days, Mr. Putin has ordered the online posting, for all the world to see, of a massive intercontinental ballistic missile’s installation in a Russian silo, where it could be rapidly readied for launch. The threat posed by a missile capable of reaching the U.S. — one touted as “12 times greater than the American bomb that destroyed Hiroshima” — is unmistakable. Merry Christmas to you, too, Vladimir.
Russia’s saber rattling is making the world safe once again for nuclear mischief, and a gallery of rogues are writing themselves into the story. Most conspicuous is the mullahcracy of Iran, which spent most of 2022 sabotaging efforts to reinstitute the canceled Iran nuclear deal. Inordinate demands for U.S. concessions gradually ground negotiations to a halt. All the while, the Iranians were buying time to build ever higher their enriched uranium stockpile.
Moreover, Iran is reported to be supplying Russia with its brand of aerial drones that are striking infrastructure targets in Ukraine. The arrangement is thought to be settling a debt owed to Russia for sending its nuclear experts to help maintain Iran’s nuclear power facilities. At the same time, the Russians may be sharing technical knowledge that is enabling Tehran to accelerate its uranium enrichment process and manufacturing of nuclear weapon components, according to the Robert Lansing Institute, a Delaware-based nonpartisan think tank.
Russia’s risky partnership with Iran can only serve as encouragement for other up-and-coming characters to sharpen their own nuclear narrative. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un test-fired more than five dozen ballistic missiles in 2022 alone. In November, he launched a monster, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a range exceeding 9,000 miles — powerful enough to hit Washington. Just as ominous, North Korea appears to be on the verge of conducting a tunnel-based nuclear test, Fox News reports, a jarring sign that the hermit kingdom’s pursuit of mass-destruction capability has not waned.
Unholy ambitions of nuclear annihilation that inspire the global rogues’ gallery mustn’t be allowed to darken thoughts during the holiday season when Christmas carols are sung to lighten the atmosphere. The heavenly peace that Americans dream about is foretold in a simple saying: Peace through strength.
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