Considering the ticking nuclear clock, which currently sits at 90 seconds to midnight, in light of all the recent rhetoric and recriminations, you can only think a Mad Professor who is dead set on a Nuclear Holocaust to speed up the ticking time clock to doomsday is alive and well. That is exactly what appears to be happening in Poland, Europe and the collective West. And to put it lightly, this is very troublesome news … and that is just for starters!
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who was re-elected in 2020 with the Law and Justice party’s backing, commented on such plans as a “German business project”. It is even worse than the rhetoric, Poland is ready to host nuclear weapons if NATO wants to reinforce its eastern borders against Russia. President Andrzej Duda said the Warsaw-Washington talks were about the idea of “nuclear sharing”.
So good for the collective thinking mindset of the European Business plan, i.e., that Poland has obligations to NATO as a member of the Alliance and must be ready to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory. It seems like they are really itching to get blown away, thus setting the very conditions that could provoke mushroom clouds, and all of humanity would be collateral damage. . Some much for clever Poles, some of the less than clever jokes are proving true.
Is this an offer for the sake of security in insecurity? Does it include delivery systems, and is this ratcheting up the threat on both sides? It is obvious that the Russian government has no choice but to react by deploying more of its own warheads and delivery systems to Belarus and more systems to its own border.
It turns out that the United States has been negotiating with Poland on the deployment of nuclear weapons for some time. Duda stressed that during the talks, he had expressed Poland’s readiness to take this step. The main reasons for such a decision, he said, were Russia’s increasing militarisation of the Koenigsberg (Kaliningrad) region and the transfer of its nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Duda said in an interview recently published by Polish outlet Fakt.
“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons on our territory as part of the joint use of nuclear weapons to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready. We are an ally of the North Atlantic Alliance and we have obligations in this area, so we are simply pursuing a common policy,” Duda said.
“Russia is increasingly militarizing the Königsberg oblast (Kaliningrad). Recently, it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” Duda said in an interview published Monday by Polish outlet Fakt.
“If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing on our territory as well, in order to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready for it,” he added.
It is as if the Polish president is painting a bullseye on the Polish air force with such statements, and especially at this time, with things falling apart in Ukraine, with the military advantage in favor of the Russian Federation.
On the NATO side, outfitting Poland’s combat aircraft to be able to carry nuclear bombs would supposedly bolster the alliance’s deterrence capabilities toward Russia and Belarus. Of course, nobody seems to be thinking of the Russian reaction, a common problem with western wishful thinking that passes for analysis these days.
German Business Project
It should come as no surprise that this announcement comes at the time when Poland seeks to join the European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI) scheme, which is described in the European Press as following a thaw with Berlin. Hence, it is Germany that appears to be controlling the situation, albeit from a slightly safer distance.
Duda commented on those plans the same day, calling ESSI a “German business project.” It is worth nothing that here we go again, another country, same scenario but many of the same weapons systems, as if Poland is the 2nd or 3rd line of Defense.
Poland’s air defense system is to rely on the Wisla mid-range air defense system, which features Patriot batteries, paired with two other layers of air defense. These include the Narew short-range air defense system, based on the Common Anti-air Modular Missiles, or CAMM, as well as iLaunchers from European consortium MBDA, and Pilica+ very-short-range air defense batteries developed by the Polish defense industry.
What does this all mean?
Quoting, The heart of ESSI lies in its core principle of collaborative procurement and joint operation. In particular, the perceived threat of Russian attacks on European airspace … which has led to an expansion of the combined ESSI (Höller, 2024). However, not being an expert, at least in layman’s terms, this system sounds more offensive than defensive, especially under the current circumstances, with Ukraine and its supporters on the back leg.
It is worth noting, as [it is claimed] “The ESSI is independent of NATO because it includes the neutral countries Austria and Switzerland.” Few things in Europe, real or otherwise, can be considered free from NATO and its major sponsor, the USA. Soon we may see how yet another well-intentioned alliance formed for strategic defensive purposes is being hijacked for offensive purposes, and this may speed up the renewed arms race all the more.
It reminds me of the terminator series, and Skynet, which is run by AI, paradigmatic disruptive technology
Skynet is a fictional artificial intelligence system that plays a central role in the “Terminator” movies, whereby Skynet is presented as an all-knowing “self-aware” supercomputer originally designed for defense purposes. However, Skynet has a mind of its own, and decides that mankind is the real threat, leading it to initiate a nuclear holocaust called “Judgment Day” to exterminate humanity and establish its dominance over the world.
Although Skynet and the European Sky Shield Initiative represent two very different concepts in terms of their origins, purposes, and implications, the ending may be the same, and there will be nobody left around to debate the difference.
At least in theory, and for the sake of discussion, Skynet and the European Sky Shield Initiative both involve concepts of defense and security, Skynet is a fictional AI with dystopian implications, whereas the European Sky Shield Initiative, if real, would represent the proverbial “good intentioned” efforts to enhance airspace defense in Europe.
However, the question remains as how will it be actually applied in “real terms”, and how it can be high jacked by short term oriented political forces, in the name of expediency, and for the sake of corporate profits in a period of US and European Elections.
The situation is made worse by US saber-rattling in the form of the test launches of two Minuteman III ICBMs, in a move intended to try and intimidate Moscow. In reality, the back to back tests follow and earlier failed launch in November 2023, where a missile had to be destroyed in flight due to anomalous flight characteristics, as the US struggles to develop a replacement for its out of date nuclear arsenal.
It seems to me, as a layman—that US knows it is falling behind in both conventional and nuclear weapons, and is willing to risk WW3 in an insane escalation cycle, rather than accept the fact it has to sit down with countries like Russia and China and begin to talk with them as equals.
Dr. Strangelove would be impressed with the comparison and potential for worldwide destruction in the shadow of pointless rhetoric and lame threats by the US and its minions. .
Henry Kamens, columnist, expert on Central Asia and Caucasus, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.