Nuclear War With China Or Russia 'A Very Real Possibility,' U.S. Strategic Command Chief warns

Veteran national security reporter Bill Gertz at the Washington Times offers a piece on a U.S. Navy admiral noting the possibility of nuclear war with China and Russia. 

The United States must be ready for a nuclear war with China or Russia and seek new ways to deter both countries’ use of newly acquired advanced strategic weapons, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command is warning in a major new review of the global balance of nuclear forces.

 

Adm. Charles Richard (seen in the below photo), writing in the current issue of the U.S. Naval Institute journal Proceedings, offered a blunt and detailed assessment that the luxury of living in a post-Cold War era when direct armed conflict with a rival nuclear power was not possible is over.

 “There is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons, if they perceived a conventional loss would threaten the regime or state,” the four-star admiral wrote.

 

The Pentagon must shift from a principal assumption that nuclear weapons’ use is nearly impossible to “nuclear employment is a very real possibility,” he urged in the new survey.

Government and military leaders need to better understand the new dangers of nuclear conflict and fashion new concepts of deterrence and — if needed — nuclear war-fighting strategies.

 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/1/charles-richard-us-strategic-command-chief-nuclear/ 

 You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with Bill Gertz via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: Communist China's Drive For Global Supremacy: My Q&A With National Security Reporter Bill Gertz