WSJ:ssä hyvä artikkeli Euroopan ydinasekortista, mikäli Yhdysvallat ei ole valmis käyttämään omaa arsenaaliaan vastapelotteena Venäjälle.
Ydinaseet on tunnetusti tärkeä pelotevoima ja jarru vastapuolelle. Mutta jos USA ei halua “treidata” Varsovaa New Yorkiin, mitä Euroopalle jää?
Winston Churchill tokaisi usein, “thank God for the French army”. Ehkäpä tänä päivänä voisi todeta, että “thank God for the French nukes”, vaikkakin toivottavasti niitä ei joudu koskaan testaamaan tositoimissa.
Takana jännittää tietysti mahdollinen Trumpin voitto, vaikka ydinsateenvarjon vetäminen Euroopasta olisikin epätodennäköistä… Mutta voiko todennäköisyyksiä laskea Trumpin kanssa?
Whatever Trump may say on the campaign trail about refusing to protect NATO allies, actually withdrawing America’s extended nuclear deterrent from Europe would be an unlikely course of action, many strategists believe, because it would undermine America’s power worldwide. “The nuclear dimension is the last, not the first, to suffer in a potentially deteriorating relationship,” said Liviu Horovitz, a nuclear expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “It’s possible, but it’s very improbable.”
Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who served in the Trump administration as the special envoy for Ukraine, agreed. “I don’t think it’s realistic to talk about the U.S. withdrawing its forces, pulling out of NATO, not extending the nuclear umbrella,” he said. “Not even Trump would do it.”
Still, the mood among European leaders has clearly changed as the election nears. Some politicians in Germany have even raised the prospect of becoming a nuclear-weapons state, something that’s extremely complicated for political and technological reasons alike—and would mean the collapse of the existing nonproliferation system.
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/can-europe-still-count-on-americas-nuclear-umbrella-511c8ba0?mod=hp_lead_pos8
] info on Engels airbase (Tu-95MS):
