Nuclear Nicola goes the full Dr Strangelove
NICOLA Sturgeon went nuclear this week. No Fly Zone now! Come on Boris, get intae the bam. Remember Smeato. Only wimps fear nuclear war. Slavi Scotaini!
Princess Cautious has turned into Dr Strangelove. Why this abrupt personality change?
Denied her daily Covid press conferences, the First Minister has been seriously deprived of the oxygen of publicity. She’s left playing second fiddle to the UK government, which is in charge of Ukraine. Nicola Sturgeon plays second fiddle to no-one – especially Boris Johnson.
So she has deployed her tried and tested tactic of adopting a position just north of the Prime Minister’s. She has urged Nato to reconsider its opposition to using its planes to destroy Russia’s air superiority over Ukraine – safe in the knowledge this it’s not a decision she would have to take.
Establishing a No Fly Zone means going to war with Russia, a military superpower. It is not like controlling the skies over some poorly-armed desert state in the Middle East. It would involve, at minimum, the biggest air war since the Battle of Britain.
As Nato mobilised, Putin would intensify the war on the ground, blasting cities and civilians with rockets, closing humanitarian corridors. He would target Nato air bases in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, and toss a few cruise missiles at the Nato command centre at Ramstein airbase in Germany.
Eventually, Nato would prevail by sheer numbers. At this point Putin has a choice: does he give in,
A No Fly Zone means war with Russia. It is not like controlling the skies over a poorlyarmed desert state
face a coup and trial as a war criminal? Or does he go nuclear? No contest.
The Russian army is equipped with battlefield nuclear shells which he would use as the ultimate terror weapons. He calculates rightly that America would not risk all out intercontinental nuclear war in order to save President Zelenskyy.
The First Minister’s publicityseeking jingoism is as much a propaganda gift to Putin as Alex Salmond’s presence on Russia Today. It sows confusion and could undermine morale in Ukraine. Ms Sturgeon has also drawn attention to glaring contradictions in her own party’s policy on nuclear defence.
Ms Sturgeon is supposedly a unilateralist, a lifelong supporter of CND. But she also wants to remain in Nato, which is a nuclear alliance. She is a militant pacifist steeped in double-think and denial. The FM poses as an opponent of weapons of mass destruction, while being wholly signed up to their use under Nato command.
Yet she told Borders TV that “the only thing nuclear weapons are deterring is proper help for Ukraine”. Does she seriously think that if only we got rid of nuclear weapons, Nato would impose a No Fly Zone and go to war with Russia? Of course not. Putin also has nuclear weapons and is prepared to use them. Or does she think he’d just dump his weapons of mass destruction on her command?
In reality, by her sabre-rattling over Ukraine, the First Minister is effectively hastening their use. Nicola Nuke’em has never sounded more bizarrely out of touch.