The “Rules-Based Order” Plays with Nuclear Fire on Two Fronts

The world is sitting on powder keg, as there are now two major conflicts which could erupt at any moment into a global war. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is scheduled to visit Washington this week to discuss a potential response to Iran’s missile attack of last week, itself in retaliation for previous attacks by Israel, and to attempt at the same time to bring the U.S. fully into the war against the Islamic Republic (cf. below). Unfortunately, there is no opposition to the Israeli position in the Democratic or Republican parties, and apparently no awareness of the dangers involved.

However, after one full year of unimaginable barbarity in Gaza, followed by indiscriminate targeting of civilians in Lebanon as well, the international community is no longer what it was. Gaza has become not only the graveyard of innocent children, it is also the graveyard of the “rules-based order”.

At the same time, the capture by the Russian forces of the town of Wuhledar (Ugledar) in Donbas has unleashed something of a panic in the West, exposing a far more stark reality than is allowed to be shown by the mainstream media. A conflict which could have been avoided had the neocon Russophobes in NATO agreed to negotiations and to respect Russia’s national interests has de facto been lost by NATO –at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and perhaps Ukraine’s nationhood itself.

But that will certainly not be admitted by the NATO allies attending the meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group on Oct. 12 in Ramstein, Germany — without the participation of Joe Biden, who abruptly canceled his visit to Germany just two days (!) before his scheduled arrival on Oct. 10.Whether Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine, which specifically targets nuclear states that assist aggression against Russian territory (cf. SAS 40/24), has been understood by the west’s “war party”, is doubtful, although various proposals for a ceasefire have been raised for the first time.

In any case, in the less than four weeks to the presidential elections in the United States, tensions can be expected to continue rising on both fronts –and they may just explode after that. The Schiller Institute and the International Peace Coalition have increased their organizing to try and prevent that from happening.