The Key Question that Wasn’t Asked at the U.S. Presidential Debate

Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)

“Might it be worth a preemptive blitz nuclear attack against Russia &/or China if that's what's needed in order for the U.S. to retain its position as the most powerful nation?”

I emailed that question at 1:36:33 PM EDT on September 10th, to David Muir personally, more than seven hours before the U.S. Presidential nominees’ debate, while the ABC News crew were finalizing their list of questions to be asked:

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Subject: "Might it be worth a preemptive blitz nuclear attack against Russia &/or China if that's what's needed in order for the U.S. to retain its position as the most powerful nation?"

Date: September 10, 2024 at 1:36:33 PM EDT

To: david.muir@abc.com

Dear Mr. Muir,

Will you please ask this question of both Trump and Harris tonight?

Sincerely,

Eric Zuesse

PS: Here is my evidence why it must be asked:

https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/how-the-deep-states-agents-hide-my

https://theduran.com/how-the-deep-states-agents-hide-my-articles-from-the-public

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It was not asked at the debate. Instead, two inferior questions that also (though less clearly) tap into the key issue in this political contest (which is whether or not each candidate is an extreme neoconservative, a supporter of America’s Military-Industrial Complex and of increasing ‘Defense’ spending and reducing all other spending), were asked. 

One of these related questions was:

DAVID MUIR: And I want to turn to the war in Ukraine. We're now 2 1/2 years into this conflict. [Even both NATO’s Stoltenberg and Ukraine’s Zelensky have said that the war started in 2014, not in 2022; so, Muir is either ignorant there, or else he is lying there.] Mr. President, it has been the position of the Biden administration that we must defend Ukraine from Russia, from Vladimir Putin, to defend their sovereignty, their democracy [Ukraine was actually a democracy until the U.S. coup there in February 2014 but is and has been a dictatorship ever since that time, and, so this is another false allegation from ABC News echoing the Biden Administration’s lie — and, yet again, neither of the two candidates pointed it out, so that this is a lie that Trump likewise will not be challenging], that it's in America's best interest to do so, arguing that if Putin wins he may be emboldened to move even further into other countries. [How reminiscent is this of the “domino theory” lie that for over a decade ‘justified’ America’s evil invasion of Vietnam — and boosted the U.S. Military-Industrial-Complex enormously?] You have said you would solve this war in 24 hours. You said so just before the break tonight. How exactly would you do that? And I want to ask you a very simple question tonight. Do you want Ukraine to win this war?

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I want the war to stop. I want to save lives that are being uselessly -- people being killed by the millions. It's the millions. It's so much worse than the numbers that you're getting, which are fake numbers. Look, we're in for 250 billion or more because they don't ask Europe, which is a much bigger beneficiary to getting this thing done than we are. They're in for $150 billion less because Biden and you don't have the courage to ask Europe like I did with NATO. They paid billions and billions, hundreds of billions of dollars when I said either you pay up or we're not going to protect you anymore. So that may be one of the reasons they don't like me as much as they like weak people. But you take a look at what's happening. We're in for 250 to 275 billion. They're into 100 to 150. They should be forced to equalize. With that being said, I want to get the war settled. I know Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. And they respect your president. Okay? They respect me. They don't respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn't spoken to anybody. They don't even try and get it. That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. If I win, when I'm President-Elect, and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other, I'll get them together. That war would have never happened. And in fact when I saw Putin after I left, unfortunately left because our country has gone to hell, but after I left when I saw him building up soldiers, he did it after I left, I said oh, he must be negotiating. It must be a good strong point of negotiation. Well, it wasn't because Biden had no idea how to talk to him. He had no idea how to stop it. And now you have millions of people dead and it's only getting worse and it could lead to World War 3. Don't kid yourself, David. We're playing with World War 3. And we have a president that we don't even know if he's -- where is our president? We don't even know if he's a president.

DAVID MUIR: And just to clarify here.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They threw him out of a campaign like a dog. We don't even know, is he our president? But we have a president...

DAVID MUIR: Mr. President,

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: ...that doesn't know he's alive.

DAVID MUIR: Your time is up. Just to clarify the question, do you believe it's in the U.S. best interests for Ukraine to win this war? Yes or no?

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think it's in the U.S. best interest to get this war finished and just get it done. All right. Negotiate a deal. Because we have to stop all of these human lives from being destroyed.

DAVID MUIR: I want to take this to Vice President Harris. I want to get your thoughts on support for Ukraine in this moment. But also as commander in chief if elected how would you deal with Vladimir Putin and would it be any different from what we're seeing from President Biden?

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, first of all, it's important to remind the former president you're not running against Joe Biden, you're running against me. I believe the reason that Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours is because he would just give it up. And that's not who we are as Americans. Let's understand what happened here. I actually met with Zelenskyy a few days before Russia invaded, tried through force to change territorial boundaries to defy one of the most important international rules and norms, which is the importance of sovereignty and territorial integrity. And I met with President Zelenskyy. I shared with him American intelligence about how he could defend himself. Days later I went to NATO's eastern flank, to Poland and Romania. And through the work that I and others did we brought 50 countries together to support Ukraine in its righteous defense. And because of our support, because of the air defense, the ammunition, the artillery, the javelins, the Abrams tanks that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country. If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now. And understand what that would mean. Because Putin's agenda is not just about Ukraine. Understand why the European allies and our NATO allies are so thankful that you are no longer president and that we understand the importance of the greatest military alliance the world has ever known, which is NATO. And what we have done to preserve the ability of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians to fight for their Independence. Otherwise, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe. Starting with Poland. [How reminiscent is this of the “domino theory” lie that for over a decade ‘justified America’s evil invasion of Vietnam?] And why don't you tell the 800,000 Polish Americans right here in Pennsylvania how quickly you would give up for the sake of favor and what you think is a friendship with what is known to be a dictator who would eat you for lunch.

Though both candidates ignore that Obama started in February 2014 the war in Ukraine by his coup there which installed a rabidly anti-Russia government so as to ultimately place a U.S. nuclear-tipped missile in Ukraine a mere 317 miles away from The Kremlin and so checkmate (win control over, or else blitz-decapitate) Russia’s Government, Harris’s answer was effectively yes to the key question, “Might it be worth a premptive blitz nuclear attack against Russia &/or China if that's what's needed in order for the U.S. to retain its position as the most powerful nation?” Trump’s was effectively no to this same key question. He even indicated that he cares about even the Ukrainian and Russian lives that are being unneccessarily lost in this war (that Obama and Biden started and that he, Trump, had spinelessly refused to stop), whereas Kamala Harris wants instead to continue them killing each other until America wins against Russia. So, even though the key question was not being asked in this debate (the question about WW3), it still is clear that Harris’s answer to it is “yes” — regardless of the deaths — whereas Trump’s answer amount to a gutless version of “probably not.”

The other question (which, however, was far less relevant) was:

DAVID MUIR: Thank you. I want to turn to Afghanistan. We witnessed a poignant moment today on Capitol Hill honoring the soldiers who died in the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. I do want to ask the vice president, do you believe you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?

VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Well, I will tell you, I agreed with President Biden's decision to pull out of Afghanistan. Four presidents said they would, and Joe Biden did. And as a result, America's taxpayers are not paying the $300 million a day we were paying for that endless war. And as of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone in any war zone around the world, the first time this century. But let's understand how we got to where we are. Donald Trump when he was president negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine. He calls himself a dealmaker. Even his national security adviser [John Bolton — who has endorsed Harris] said it was a weak, terrible deal. And here's how it went down. He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban. The negotiation involved the Taliban getting 5,000 terrorists, Taliban terrorists released.

And get this …  get this. And the president at the time invited the Taliban to Camp David. A place of storied significance for us as Americans, a place where we honor the importance of American diplomacy, where we invite and receive respected world leaders. And this former president as president invited them to Camp David because he does not again appreciate the role and responsibility of the President of the United States to be commander in chief with a level of respect. And this gets back to the point of how he has consistently disparaged and demeaned members of our military, fallen soldiers, and the work that we must do to uphold the strength and the respect of the United States of America around the world.

DAVID MUIR: Vice President Harris, thank you. President Trump, your response to her saying that you began the negotiations with the Taliban.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, thank you. So if you take a look at that period of time, the Taliban was killing our soldiers, a lot of them, with snipers. And I got involved with the Taliban because the Taliban was doing the killing. That's the fighting force within Afghanistan. They don't bother doing that because you know, they deal with the wrong people all the time. But I got involved. And Abdul is the head of the Taliban. He is still the head of the Taliban. And I told Abdul don't do it anymore, you do it anymore you're going to have problems. And he said why do you send me a picture of my house? I said you're going to have to figure that out, Abdul. And for 18 months we had nobody killed. We did have an agreement negotiated by Mike Pompeo. It was a very good agreement. The reason it was good, it was -- we were getting out. We would have been out faster than them, but we wouldn't have lost the soldiers. We wouldn't have left many Americans behind. And we wouldn't have left -- we wouldn't have left $85 billion worth of brand new beautiful military equipment behind. And just to finish, they blew it. The agreement said you have to do this, this, this, this, this, and they didn't do it. They didn't do it. The agreement was, was terminated by us because they didn't do what they were supposed to do.

DAVID MUIR: I want to move on.

FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And these people did the worst withdrawal and in my opinion the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. And by the way, that's why Russia attacked Ukraine. Because they saw how incompetent she and her boss are.

DAVID MUIR: President Trump, thank you. I want to move on now to race and politics in this country. …

Here is Yahoo’s fact-check on this:

https://archive.is/Nzwfp#selection-5157.0-5211.1

Fact check: Harris attacks Trump on Afghanistan

ABC News asked Harris if she bore any responsibility for the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Harris responded by saying she agreed with the decision to withdraw, but she blamed Trump for handing the Biden administration a bad deal on the matter.

Harris: “Donald Trump, when he was president, negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine. He calls himself a dealmaker. Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal. And here’s how it went down. He bypassed the Afghan government. He negotiated directly with a terrorist organization called the Taliban.”

This claim needs context. As U.S. troops concluded their pullout of Afghanistan in August 2021, a suicide bomber launched an attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

While Trump and other Republicans have attacked Harris and Biden for how the administration handled the pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, some former Trump administration officials have said that Biden was simply following through with a deal Trump negotiated with the Taliban.

That links to John Bolton’s condemnation of Trump’s decision to end the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan. Bolton is passionately against Trump for not being sufficiently neoconservative. The reader-comments to that opinion by Bolton were generally favorable towards Bolton’s view. For example, the following exchange sums it up well:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/john-bolton-blames-trump-afghanistan-141305680.html

https://www.openweb.com/share/2lvOVSJODkZlbCPnvRkZeqwQzPm

Bob

4 August, 2023

Not a fan of Bolton, but he does tell it like it is.  Mr. Trump was never good with foreign policy and really never understood the complexities of being the leader of the free world.  For that reason alone he is not qualified to be President.  Thank God for the "deep state" and Joe Biden for restoring our central role in world politics.

reply:

Ken

5 August, 2023

Bob, we are not the world's police. We can't even establish our own borders. You need to drop the neocon 101 outlook.

Kamala Harris performed skillfully in this debate, and Trump gave the most atrocious debate-performance I’ve ever seen anywhere anytime, but if Harris will become the U.S. President (as I therefore now rate to be around a 95% likelihood), then it is now clear that we will have yet another 4 years of Joe Biden’s policies; and, therefore, given that under his Administration the U.S. Government does intend to win World War Three and is preparing to initiate it, I believe that President Harris will do it. For her not to do it would be for her to reverse the fundamental Clinton-Bush-Obama-Biden foreign policy, which is to expand yet further the U.S. empire until it encompasses all nations. Or, as G.W. Bush phrased this, “You’re either with us or against us.” In the neoconservative view, every contest is a purely win-lose game; win-win games are only for sissies; and, so, as Barack Obama phrased it “The United States is and remains the one indispensable nation. That has been true for the century passed and it will be true for the century to come.” In other words: all other nations are “dispensable.” That is the neoconservative view, and it has been the U.S. Deep State’s view ever since that Deep State took over the U.S. Government on 25 July 1945. This belief in especially the necessity to defeat and control Russia — to make it, too, a U.S. ‘ally’ or colony — will continue and perhaps culminate under a Harris (and maybe even under a Trump) presidency. If Mr. Muir had asked of both candidates “Might it be worth a preemptive blitz nuclear attack against Russia &/or China if that's what's needed in order for the U.S. to retain its position as the most powerful nation?” then the answers from one or both candidates might have terrified Americans; and, perhaps Mr. Muir wanted to avoid that possibility, at all costs.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.