Nuclear Weapons

UN Nuclear Review: A Prime Time To Stop The New Arms Race

July 31, 2022 Marcy Winograd and Medea Benjamin, LA Progressive. Educate! Nuclear Ban Treaty, Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, Wars and Militarism

In the run-up to August’s United Nation’s 10th Annual Review of the landmark Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a review undertaken every five years, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s State Department issued a surprising reaffirmation of the U.S. commitment to this treaty and the “ultimate goal of a world without nuclear weapons.” The NPT, designed to “further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament,” entered into force in 1970 and was extended indefinitely in 1995. It has now been signed by 191 nations, including the U.S. and Russia. If only Blinken’s verbal support for the NPT was U.S. policy, as opposed to wishful thinking or trickery. As treaty signatories and civil society representatives from around the world gather for a month in New York to evaluate the treaty’s implementation, the White House, Congress and military contractors will move ahead on a near $2 trillion nuclear rearmament program euphemistically termed “nuclear modernization.”

Why Is Biden Joining The Warpath Against Iran?

July 20, 2022 Ted Snider, Responsible Statecraft. Educate! Iran, Joe Biden, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism

On March 24, President Biden drew a red line: if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, it “would trigger a response” from NATO. Asked to elaborate on the nature of the response, Biden had no script to guide him. “The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use.” Then, he elaborated: “It would trigger a response in kind,” seemingly announcing that the US would respond to a Russian chemical weapons attack with a chemical weapons attack of their own. Two days later, at the end of his speech, Biden seemed to call for a coup in Russia, adding the line, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” The White House fixers had to walk back Biden’s threats. Biden has the dangerous habit for a president of going off script and saying things that don’t seem to reflect the U.S. policy he is supposed to be articulating.

War Scars The Earth. To Heal, We Must Cultivate Hope, Not Harm

July 10, 2022 Kathy Kelly and Matt Gannon, World Beyond War. Create! Environmental Destruction, Gardening, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism

“No War 2022, July 8 – 10,” hosted by World BEYOND War, will consider major and growing threats faced in today’s world. Emphasizing “Resistance and Regeneration,” the conference will feature practitioners of permaculture who work to heal scarred lands as well as abolish all war. Listening to various friends speak of the environmental impact of war, we recalled testimony from survivors of a Nazi concentration camp on the outskirts of Berlin, Sachsenhausen, where over 200,000 prisoners were interned from 1936 – 1945.

Let’s Eliminate Nuclear Weapons, Before They Eliminate Us

July 7, 2022 Thalif Deen, In Depth News. Educate! Nuclear Ban Treaty, Nuclear Weapons, United Nations, Wars and Militarism

United Nations - When UN Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on the successful conclusion of their first meeting in Vienna, his warning was dead on target. “Let’s eliminate these weapons before they eliminate us,” he said pointing out that nuclear weapons are a deadly reminder of countries’ inability to solve problems through dialogue and collaboration. “These weapons offer false promises of security and deterrence—while guaranteeing only destruction, death, and endless brinksmanship,” he declared, in a video message to the conference, which concluded on June 23 in the Austrian capital.

The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Follows 1982’s Million-Person March

June 19, 2022 John Laforge, Counter Punch. Resist! Mass Action, Nuclear Ban Treaty, Nuclear Weapons, Peace Movement

Hamburg, Germany - Last Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the June 12, 1982 million-person march in New York City for a “freeze” on nuclear weapons building, followed two days later by a mass nonviolent action at the consular offices of nuclear weapons states. Some 1,700 people, myself included, were arrested as we sat in the street blockading the nuclear-armed consulates, confronted by horse-mounted cops literally chomping at the bit while we nervously stared up at the menacing police singing We Shall Not be Moved. We were moved out of the street that day in 1982, but the movement wasn’t deterred. We’ve pushed on for decades in spite of ridicule, harassment, and imprisonment, seeing to the slashing of the U.S. nuclear arsenal from over 60,000 in those days, to today’s approximately 5,000 — an amount still grotesque enough to incinerate and contaminate most of the living beings on Earth.

No To US Nukes In Britain: Peace Activists Rally At Lakenheath

May 22, 2022 Steve Sweeney, Morning Star. Resist! Britain, NATO, Nuclear Weapons, US Imperialism

Hundreds gathered at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk yesterday to reject the presence of US nuclear weapons in Britain after a report detailed Washington’s plans to deploy warheads across Europe. Protesters arrived from Bradford, Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester and Merseyside with banners opposing Nato, raising them at the airbase’s perimeter fences. Veterans from previous struggles including Greenham Common stood alongside those attending an anti-nuclear demonstration for the first time. Malcolm Wallace of transport union TSSA made the journey from his Essex home to stress the importance of stopping the US from placing nuclear weapons on British soil.

Mother’s Day Demonstration At Trident Nuclear Submarine Base

May 10, 2022 Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Popular Resistance. Resist! Mothers Day, Nuclear Weapons, Wars and Militarism, Washington State

Washington State - Over 50 people were present on May 7, at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. Nine demonstrators blocked the main highway entrance into the base for about 10 minutes and were cited by the Washington State Patrol. At around 2:15 pm on Saturday, the nine demonstrators entered the highway carrying a large banner stating, “THE EARTH IS OUR MOTHER—TREAT HER WITH RESPECT” and blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. They were removed from the highway by the Washington State Patrol. All nine demonstrators were cited for violating RCW 46.61.250, Pedestrians on roadways, and released at the scene.

Joint Health Statement For First Meeting Of States Parties

May 5, 2022 ICAN Australia. Resist! Health Care, Healthcare workers, Nuclear Weapons

Representing physicians, nurses, public health professionals, and medical students worldwide, we speak with a united voice on the urgent need to eliminate nuclear weapons as a matter of global health and survival. Updated evidence on the catastrophic consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, the acute and growing danger of their use, and the impossibility of any effective humanitarian and health response following nuclear explosions on populations, should underpin the work of the upcoming 1st Meeting of States Parties (1MSP) of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The TPNW is based upon a body of indisputable evidence, documented by scientists, health professionals, and experts in crisis management and response, that the consequences of nuclear weapons use are catastrophic, global, and without remedy.

US Spent 7.5 Times More On Nuclear Weapons Than Vaccine Donations

April 23, 2022 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Educate! Health Care, Nuclear Weapons, Vaccines, Wars and Militarism

Since the pandemic began, the United States has spent 7.5 times more money on nuclear weapons than on global vaccine donations. Stated another way, the money put towards global vaccine donations has amounted to just 13% of the money put toward nuclear weapons. The comparison shows that, even during a shared international crisis, in which an outbreak anywhere threatens people everywhere, the U.S. political apparatus is far more willing to fund instruments of death than vaccines that protect life. Zain Rizvi, research director for the corporate watchdog organization Public Citizen, helped In These Times calculate the total number of dollars that went toward the purchase of global vaccine donations: roughly $7 billion. This number can be found by adding up contracts from the Department of Defense

Nuclear Weapons: The Case For Creating A Citizen’s Commission

April 13, 2022 Massachusetts Peace Action and NuclearBan.US. Create! Just transition, Massachusetts, Nuclear War, Nuclear Weapons

There is currently heightened concern about nuclear threats being made in relation to the war in Ukraine, although the danger of nuclear war or accidental detonation is ever present. Massachusetts is a potential target, because it is home to important nuclear weapons facilities and corporations as well as culturally significant landmarks. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons entered into force as international law in January 2021. This “Nuclear Ban Treaty” is intended to reduce the nuclear danger to zero, but enforcing it may also affect jobs with Raytheon, General Dynamics, Draper Labs and ten other nuclear weapon-producing companies that have facilities in Massachusetts. The Commission would explore how those jobs might be converted to green technologies or other important industries.

Biden Using Ukraine Crisis To Justify Investments In Nuclear Weapons

March 29, 2022 Sarah Lazare, In These Times. Educate! Budget, Joe Biden, Nuclear Weapons, Ukraine

The Biden administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2023, released March 28, calls for massive investments in nuclear weapons, including the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) — an intercontinental ballistic missile system that is fiercely opposed by anti-nuclear activists. President Biden is using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to justify the investments, citing the alleged need for deterrence. The budget proposes $34.4 billion to “recapitalize all three legs of the nuclear triad,” according to a Department of Defense summary. The “triad” is a reference to submarines, bombers and land-based intercontinental missiles, which comprise the U.S. military’s nuclear weapons program.

Will Humans Be The Next ‘Freedom Fries’?

March 24, 2022 Ray McGovern, AntiWar.com. Educate! Nuclear War, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Wars and Militarism

U.S. pundits and strategic experts seem blissfully unaware of how close we all are to being fried in a nuclear strike by Russia. (Fair Labeling: if you are simply looking for yet another reason to demonize Putin, rather than to understand where he is coming from, save time and read no further.) Here’s the thing: the Russians have good reason to be on hair-trigger alert. Their early-warning radar system is so inadequate that there are situations (including those involving innocent rocket launches) under which Russian President Putin would have only a few minutes – if that – to decide whether or not to launch nuclear missiles to destroy the rest of the world – on the suspicion that Russia was under nuclear attack.

President Biden: De-Escalate In Ukraine Or Risk Nuclear War!

March 14, 2022 Gerry Condon, Popular Resistance. Educate! Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Ukraine, World War

“The first casualty of war is truth.” This simple yet profound statement is attributed to many, including Hiram Johnson in a speech in the U.S. Senate in 1918, during the “war to end all wars.” Hiram Johnson was a progressive Republican who had been elected to the Senate from California that very year. He remained in the Senate until he died of old age on August 6, 1945, the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the civilian population of Hiroshima, Japan. The Baltimore Sun quoted Senator Johnson more fully in 1929, during a Senate debate on an international agreement called the “General Treaty for the Renunciation of War as an Instrument of National Policy” (also known as the Kellogg-Briand Treaty): “The first casualty when war comes is truth, and whenever there is a war, and whenever an individual nation seeks to coerce by force of arms another, it always acts and always insists that it acts under self-defense.”

Ukraine And Nukes

March 4, 2022 Steven Starr, Consortium News. Educate! Media, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

The New York Times recently published an article by David Sanger entitled “Putin spins a conspiracy theory that Ukraine is on a path to produce nuclear weapons.” Unfortunately, it is Sanger who puts so much spin in his reporting that he leaves his readers with a grossly distorted version of the what the presidents of Russia and Ukraine have said and done. Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent statements at the Munich conference centered around the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which welcomed Ukraine’s accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in conjunction with Ukraine’s decision to return to Russia the nuclear weapons left on its territory by the Soviet Union.

Putin’s Nuclear Threat

February 28, 2022 Scott Ritter, Consortium News. Educate! NATO, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Ukraine, Wars and Militarism

Vladimir Putin is a madman. He’s lost it. At least that is what the leaders of the West would like you to believe. According to their narrative, Putin — isolated, alone, confused, and angry at the unfolding military disaster Russia was undergoing in Ukraine — lashed out, ostensibly threatening the entire world with nuclear annihilation. In a meeting with his top generals on Sunday, the beleaguered Russian president announced, “I order the defense minister and the chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces to put the deterrence forces of the Russian army into a special mode of combat service.” The reason for this action, Putin noted, centered on the fact that, “Western countries aren’t only taking unfriendly actions against our country in the economic sphere, but top officials from leading NATO members made aggressive statements regarding our country” in relation to the ongoing situation in Ukraine.

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