Is Russia a Direct Military Threat to America?

Ships from the George Washington and Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Groups and aircraft from the Air Force and Marine Corps operate in formation at the conclusion of Valiant Shield 2014. Valiant Shield is a U.S.-only exercise integrating Navy, Air Force, Army and Marine Corps assets, offering real-world joint operational experience. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Trevor Welsh/Released)

Writing on his blog, David Stockman examines the idea of Russia’s ability to threaten the American homeland, and what that should mean for America’s support for Ukraine. He writes on David Stockman’s Contra Corner:

In the first instance, Russia is not a direct military threat to America notwithstanding some of its fancy new weapons and ultra high speed missiles. America’s triad nuclear defense is still fully in tact and is as lethal as ever. That means as between Russia and the US on the nuclear front, mutual assured destruction (MAD) still prevails, meaning that Russia would never launch a nuclear attack against America because of all the things Putin is, suicidal is not one of them.

By the same token, the idea that Russia poses a credible conventional military threat to the American homeland was always ludicrous, but is now laughable. In ten weeks it has not been able to subdue a weak neighbor with which it shares a 1,900 Km open land border (no mountains, no waterways, no walls!). So where in the world comes the historically unprecedented armada of carrier battle groups, massive air fleets and endless divisions of tanks and mechanized infantry required to invade and occupy the US of A, located is it is 8,000 Km away on the far side of central Eurasia and beyond the great Atlantic and Pacific moats?

Besides, the GDP of Russia is $1.6 trillion versus $24 trillion for the US. And for better or worse a Russian attack on America would bring NATO’s article 5 into play, thereby mobilizing $43 trillion of total NATO GDP, which is 27X more economic girth than possessed by Russia; and also $1.2 trillion of combined NATO military budgets, which is 18X Russia’s $65 billion military budget.

So, no, there is no plausible Russian military threat to the American homeland, meaning that Washington’s scary story stuff arises entirely from the fictional realm of lurid Warfare State propaganda.

For instance, there is the baseless notion that Ukraine is just a stepping stone in Putin’s grand plan for recreating the former Soviet Union. And unimpeded in Ukraine, he would not hesitate to roll through Poland, the Baltics and the Balkans in the creation of an empire that would eventually dominate Western Europe, too, leaving the US all alone, cowering behind the Atlantic and Pacific shorelines.

Alas, anything remotely leaning in this direction amounts to the unalloyed humbug of retired military officers and deep staters who are paid by think tanks and the MSM to scare the living daylights out of the public and the politicians alike.

In turn, that’s so they will more readily acquiesce to the $813 billion of military budgets that are not only a colossal waste, but a fount of the schemes and threats which actually undermine national security.

Read more here.