So now we’re moving nuclear submarines around because of a social media post?
That’s what Donald Trump did this week. On August 1st, the man who claims he’ll “keep us out of war” ordered two U.S. nuclear submarines to new positions after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev criticized Trump’s Ukraine policy on Twitter.
This is what passes for foreign policy now.
One guy tweets.
Another guy with nuclear codes reacts.
The rest of us hold our breath.
Trump said the submarines are being moved “just in case” Medvedev’s comments were more than words. And with that, the slow, steady crawl toward a global military conflict sped up another step.
But let’s not pretend this is where it started.
Because this war isn’t new. And it’s not just Russia versus Ukraine anymore.
This war has sucked in dozens of countries — and hundreds of foreign fighters have already died. Soldiers, mercenaries, and “volunteers” from across the globe are buried in Ukrainian and Russian soil, and nobody talks about it because the truth is too horrifying for polite news coverage.
Here are just some of the countries whose citizens have died fighting on Ukrainian soil:
Afghanistan. Argentina. Australia. Austria. Albania. Armenia. Azerbaijan. Barbados. Belarus. Belgium. Brazil. Bulgaria. Canada. Chile. China. Colombia. Costa Rica. Croatia. Czech Republic. Denmark. Estonia. Finland. France. Georgia. Germany. Greece. Hungary. Ireland. Israel. Italy. Japan. Kazakhstan. Latvia. Lebanon. Lithuania. Mexico. Moldova. Netherlands. New Zealand. Norway. Peru. Philippines. Poland. Portugal. Romania. Russia (anti-Putin). Serbia. Slovakia. South Africa. South Korea. Spain. Sri Lanka. Sweden. Switzerland. Taiwan. Tajikistan. Turkey. United Kingdom. United States. Uzbekistan. Venezuela.
And if you think Russia’s side is smaller, think again. The list of fighters killed fighting for Russia includes:
Algeria. Armenia. Azerbaijan. Bangladesh. Belarus. Bosnia. China. Cuba. Egypt. Estonia. Ethiopia. Georgia. India. Iraq. Ivory Coast. Japan. Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan. Lithuania. Moldova. Nepal. Serbia. South Ossetia. Sri Lanka. Syria. Tajikistan. Tanzania. Central African Republic. Turkmenistan. Ukraine (pro-Russia). United States. Uzbekistan. Yemen. Zambia.
That’s well over 80 countries involved — either officially or through mercenaries, militias, and “volunteers.”
How is that not a world war?
The truth is, the Ukraine war stopped being just about Ukraine a long time ago. And the U.S. — under both Trump and Biden — has done everything possible to turn it into a slow-burn global confrontation with nuclear powers.
Trump used to say he’d avoid “forever wars.” But this week he moved us closer to one than ever before — not just by escalating tensions with Russia, but by normalizing nuclear threats over petty online drama.
And where are the liberals?
They’re cheering him on — or worse, staying silent. Because they’ve spent the last three years building their own war-hawk credibility. They backed every weapons shipment. They crushed dissent. They demonized even modest calls for diplomacy as “pro-Putin.” And now they can’t call out Trump’s nuclear saber-rattling without admitting that maybe this war machine has spun out of control.
Spoiler: It has.
So now we’re here.
With nuclear submarines lurking in unnamed waters.
With over 100,000 dead soldiers, countless civilians lost, and entire economies collapsed.
With fighters from Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America dying on foreign soil for a war that was never about them.
And we’re still being told this is “just about Ukraine.”
It’s not. It hasn’t been for a long time.
This is about global power. Imperial dominance. Arms deals. And a political class — both Republican and Democrat — too spineless to tell the truth:
This war has failed, it’s global, and it’s a ticking bomb.
And now Donald Trump, with a tweet and a trigger finger, is playing games with nuclear war.
The only sane position is a full-stop rejection of this madness.
We need a progressive, international anti-war movement — now more than ever.
Because if we wait until the submarines launch, it’s already too late.