Authored by Michael Snyder via The Economic Collapse blog,
When the nukes start falling, nobody will be able to say that they weren’t warned.
This week, we learned that the Biden administration has decided to give cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of a new $800 million military assistance package.
If you don’t know what cluster munitions are, here is a pretty good explanation from NBC News…
The dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, or DPICMs, are surface-to-surface warheads that explode and disperse multiple small munitions or bombs over wide areas — bringing more widespread destruction than single rounds. The rounds can be charges that penetrate armored vehicles, or they can shatter or fragment to be more dangerous for people.
Some human rights groups oppose their use because of concerns that unexploded bomblets, or duds, could explode after battle, potentially injuring or killing innocent civilians.
These weapons are considered to be extremely dangerous to civilians, because many of them fail to go off initially and end up getting detonated by civilian activity much later…
As the bomblets fall over a wide area, they can endanger non-combatants.
In addition, somewhere between 10% to 40% of the munitions fail, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. The unexploded munitions can then be detonated by civilian activity years or even decades later.
The Cluster Munition Coalition, an activist group trying to get the weapons banned everywhere, says potentially deadly cluster submunitions still lie dormant in Laos and Vietnam 50 years after their use.
As you can see, there is a reason why so many countries have banned the use of such weapons.
In fact, at this point more than 120 nations have agreed to ban them…
A convention banning the use of cluster bombs has been joined by more than 120 countries who agreed not to use, produce, transfer or stockpile the weapons and to clear them after they’ve been used.
The United States, Russia and Ukraine are among the countries that have not signed on.
But even though there is such an international consensus, the Biden administration is sending them to Ukraine anyway…
But White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the munitions were critical for Ukraine to sustain its military operations against the Russian invaders.
“We will not leave Ukraine defenseless at any point in this conflict, period,” he said.
Why aren’t more people talking about Jake Sullivan?
He is a warmongering nutjob, and Joe Biden does pretty much whatever Jake Sullivan tells him to do.
And so when Jake Sullivan suggests provoking China again, Joe Biden goes along with it.
Zero Hedge is reporting that the U.S. will now start providing Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine Systems to Taiwan…
Taiwan has finalized a new defense deal with the US worth $146 million to acquire Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine Systems, seen as crucial for defense of the self-ruled island in the event of a Chinese military invasion. This comes the same week the State Department announced approval for $440 million more in ammo and logistics deals for Taiwan.
The pending Volcano mine-laying systems deal had first been previewed by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in December 2022. It additionally included M977A4 trucks, M87A1 anti-tank mines, as well as M88 and M89 training munitions.
Needless to say, this is yet another move that has greatly angered the Chinese.
And our trade war with China just went to another level.
In response to new restrictions imposed by the U.S., China has just implemented export controls on two absolutely critical raw materials…
A trade war between China and the United States over the future of semiconductors is escalating.
Beijing hit back Monday by playing a trump card: It imposed export controls on two strategic raw materials, gallium and germanium, that are critical to the global chipmaking industry.
“We see this as China’s second, and much bigger, counter measure to the tech war, and likely a response to the potential US tightening of [its] AI chip ban,” said Jefferies analysts. Sanctioning one of America’s biggest memory chipmakers, Micron Technology (MU), in May was the first, they said.
Ever since Joe Biden entered the White House, our relations with China have gone into the dumpster.
And I think that there is a chance that the Chinese could actually choose to invade Taiwan before Joe Biden’s time in the White House is over.
If that happens, it would be a complete and utter catastrophe for the global economy…
A military conflict over Taiwan would set the global economy back decades because of the crippling disruption to the supply chain of crucial semiconductors, according to the head of one of the island’s leading makers of microchips.
Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy about 100 miles off China, makes the world’s most advanced microchips — the brains inside every piece of technology from smartphones and modern cars to artificial intelligence and fighter jets.
We simply cannot afford for such a war to happen, because we must have access to those chips.
Without the chips that Taiwan produces, we would be in a world of hurt…
The island is a microchip fabrication hotbed, producing 60% of the world’s semiconductors — and around 93% of the most advanced ones, according to a 2021 report from the Boston Consulting Group. The U.S., South Korea and China also produce semiconductors, but Taiwan dominates the market, which was worth almost $600 billion last year.
So why don’t we just start building more chips in the United States?
Well, a 40 billion dollar factory is going to be constructed in Arizona, but it is many years away from completion…
The U.S., which produces about 10% of the world’s semiconductor chips and none of the most advanced ones, is also trying to boost domestic manufacturing, offering tax incentives for projects like the $40 billion factory being built in Arizona by the Taiwanese chip giant TSMC.
But building such a complex industry will take time, Wu said. “I would say 10 years,” he added.
If our leaders were smart, they would be trying to find a way to maintain peace.
But instead they just keep antagonizing both Russia and China, and that is just pushing them closer to one another…
China said it wants closer ties with Russia’s military, a sign Moscow still has Beijing’s support after the aborted Wagner mutiny.
Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu said in a meeting Monday with Nikolai Yevmenov, commander-in-chief of Russia’s navy, that “with the joint efforts of both sides, the relations between the two militaries will continue to deepen and solidify, constantly make new progress and reach a new level.”
If we end up fighting Russia and China at the same time, it would be a nightmare.
And needless to say, such a conflict would inevitably go nuclear, and a full-blown nuclear war would have the potential to kill billions of people…
So let us pray for peace.
Unfortunately, our leaders don’t seem interested in peace at all.
Joe Biden and his warmongering minions are playing a very dangerous game, and the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.
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Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
