Press TV: The US war games involving nuclear weaponry — amid rising tensions with North Korea — are absolutely insane, says Scott Rickard, a former American intelligence linguist and political analyst from Orlando.
American forces are conducting a nuclear war drill called “Global Thunder” involving nuclear-capable missiles and bombers amid rising tensions with North Korea.
United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) has described the secretive worldwide annual drill, which began on Tuesday, as preparing their forces for “wherever they are needed,” Daily Star Online reported.
The Pentagon has not released many details about the exercise, but its mission statement is to prepare the American nuclear command center for war.
In an interview with Press TV on Tuesday, Rickard said the US nuclear exercises are “really antagonizing the North Korean government and people. This is really unprecedented in the history of the world.”
“These direct war drills involving nuclear weaponry are absolutely just insane. This is not the way to conduct the global policy. This is certainly an act of a bully. This is bullying unfortunately North Korea,” he stated.
“I’m glad to see that Russia and China are conducting diplomatic communications with North Korea attempting to diffuse the situation. But unfortunately the United States is acting extremely irresponsibly here, and flying incredibly dangerous weaponry up to the North Korean border,” he noted.
“This is an intense provocation, of that obviously North Korea being brutally attacked in the late 1800 by the Americans and also in the mid-1950s by the Americans. They have every right to be cautious and aware of potential damage that can come to their country,” the analyst noted.
Tensions between the US and North Korea have dramatically increased following a series of weapons tests by Pyongyang and an ugly war of words between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Trump has called on China, North Korea’s main ally, to help contain North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
But relations between the United States and Russia have hit their lowest ebb since the end of the Cold War in 1991, largely due to the crises in Ukraine and Syria and over allegations Moscow meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.
The North Korean leader has ordered the production of more rocket warheads and engines, shortly after the United States suggested that its threats of military action and sanctions were having an impact on Pyongyang’s behavior.
Pyongyang says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward the country and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. Thousands of US soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan.
