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Nuclear Weapons

Australia, UK, And US Nuclear Submarine Announcement

September 20, 2021 Sébastien Philippe, The Bulletin. , , ,
On September 15, US President Joe Biden, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison launched a new major strategic partnership to meet the “imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term.” Named AUKUS, the partnership was announced together with a bombshell decision: The United States and UK will transfer naval nuclear-propulsion technology to Australia. Such a decision is a fundamental policy reversal for the United States, which has in the past spared no effort to thwart the transfer of naval reactor technology by other countries, except for its World War II partner, the United Kingdom. Even France—whose “contract of the century” to sell 12 conventional submarines to Australia was shot down by PM Morrison during the AUKUS announcement—had been repeatedly refused US naval reactor technology during the Cold War.

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson: What Are The Prospects For Peace?

September 5, 2021 John Rachel, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Events are unfolding at a quickening pace. Facing an alarming escalation in tensions around the world, we are looking to our most respected and renowned thought leaders for an honest assessment of both U.S. foreign and military policy to offer their most current thoughts and insights. We know they have some ideas for improving the prospects for peace. Larry Wilkerson is a renowned defense analyst and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government & Public policy at the College of William and Mary. He is a retired United States Army colonel and was the former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. We are extremely honored that he took the time to talk to us and share his views. His responses below are exactly as he provided.

Why Is America Getting A New $100 Billion Nuclear Weapon?

August 15, 2021 Elisabeth Eaves, The Bulletin. , ,
America is building a new weapon of mass destruction, a nuclear missile the length of a bowling lane. It will be able to travel some 6,000 miles, carrying a warhead more than 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It will be able to kill hundreds of thousands of people in a single shot. The US Air Force plans to order more than 600 of them. On September 8, the Air Force gave the defense company Northrop Grumman an initial contract of $13.3 billion to begin engineering and manufacturing the missile, but that will be just a fraction of the total bill. Based on a Pentagon report cited by the Arms Control Association Association and Bloomberg News, the government will spend roughly $100 billion to build the weapon, which will be ready to use around 2029.

Righting The Ship

August 13, 2021 Chrissy Kirchhoefer, NWTRCC.org. , , ,
Long time war tax resister Robert Randall  introduced me to his hometown of Brunswick, Georgia by saying it was mostly known as a port town for automobile transportation; quickly followed by saying “not much happens there.”  On April 4, 2018, 7 people entered the King’s Bay naval submarine base, home to one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons in the U.S., as part of a Plowshares nuclear disarmament action down the shore from Robert’s home. In September 2019, the Golden Ray cargo ship full of 4,200 cars keeled over outside of Brunswick after it was loaded improperly and was lacking in water in the ballast to balance the ship. It would have been difficult to appreciate the tragedy of the capsized ship without seeing the tar balls and oil come ashore while visiting the beach during the King’s Bay trial a month later; the warnings to not go in the water.

Advocates Urge NYC To Be Nuclear Weapons Free

August 7, 2021 Erik McGregor. , , ,
In commemoration of the August 6 and August 9, 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, New York City-based nuclear disarmament advocates assembled outside the Municipal Building on August 6, 2021 to deliver a letter to Council Speaker Corey Johnson urging him to bring NYC nuclear disarmament legislation, Resolution 976 & Introduction 1621, to the floor for a vote. The site of the gathering is rich with history, because the development of the atomic bombs began across the street from City Hall at the Manhattan Project headquarters, at 270 Broadway.

Hiroshima Day 2021

August 6, 2021 Canadian Peace Congress. , , ,
Seventy-six years ago, an act of international criminality and infamy took place, the consequences of which have posed an existential threat to humanity ever since. For the first time, a species had created the capacity to not only bring about its own extinction, but also to threaten virtually all life on our planet. On August 6 and 9, 1945, the U.S. military bombed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. Over 200,000 people, mostly civilians, died instantly or later succumbed from burns, malnutrition, and radiation-related illnesses, and their cities levelled to the ground. Many of their descendants carry the affected genes and pass them onto their children. Those notorious acts will forever be remembered as the first time the devastating impact of nuclear warfare was unleashed.

US Peace Activists In Germany Join Call For Withdrawal Of Nuclear Weapons

July 16, 2021 John LaForge, Popular Resistance. , , ,
A group of US peace activists has again joined protests at the Büchel Air Force Base in Germany, demanding the withdrawal of the remaining US hydrogen-bombs still deployed there. On July 12 the anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigners, together with colleagues from The Netherlands and Germany, began an “International Week” of protests focused on ousting the last approximately 20 US Air Force nuclear gravity bombs known as B61s kept at the base.* In the depths of the cold war, there were 7,000 US nuclear weapons in Germany, so this remnant seems like hardly more than radioactive waste. With the German group Gewaltfreie Aktion Atomwaffen Abschaffen (Nonviolent Action to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), the US activists will participate in vigils, blockades, and other demonstrations at the gates of the German air base.

World’s Nuclear Arms On High Operational Alert And Ready To Strike

June 20, 2021 Thalif Deen, Inter Press Service News Agency. , ,
United Nations - The world’s nine nuclear armed states have downsized their military arsenals, but made up for their loss by increasing the number of weapons on high operational alert, according to a new report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). As a result, the world is increasingly within striking distance of nuclear weapons—either by accident or by design. The most vulnerable region is Asia, which is home to four of the world’s nine nuclear powers, namely, India, Pakistan, China and North Korea, the rest being the US, UK, France, Russia and Israel. The study says the nine countries collectively possessed an estimated 13,080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021. This was a decrease from the 13, 400 that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2020, since some of these weapons have gone into “retirement”.

Putin-Biden Summit ‘Seems Thin’

June 17, 2021 Moon of Alabama. , , ,
The results of the Putin-Biden summit today in Geneva seem to be thin. The meetings were expected to last for 4 to 5 hours but ended after little more than 2 hours. During his press conference President Vladimir Putin said that the talks were constructive. He lauded Biden as very experienced politician and said that they had two hours of face time. There were a few results: The ambassadors of both sides, who had been recalled from Washington and Moscow, will return to their posts. There will be new expert rounds about cybersecurity. There may be talks about an exchange of prisoners. There will be new rounds about security, which means strategic nuclear weapons.

Mother’s Day Demonstration At Trident Nuclear Submarine Base

May 10, 2021 Leonard Eiger, Popular Resistance. , , ,
Bangor, Washington -  people were present on May 8th (the day before Mother's Day), at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base.  Five demonstrators blocked the main highway entrance into the base for over 20 minutes and were cited by the Washington State Patrol. At around 2 pm on Saturday, the five demonstrators entered the highway carrying two large banners stating,“CONGRESS WANTS $1 TRILLION FOR NUKES--What will be left for our children” and “TRIDENT THREATENS ALL LIFE ON EARTH” 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.

‘Golden Rule’ Peace Boat Sets Sail From Hawaii

May 2, 2021 Golden Rule, Popular Resistance. , , ,
After 21 months in the Hawaiian Islands, the historic anti-nuclear sailboat Golden Rule will depart from Honolulu, Hawai’i for the West Coast of the U.S.   The Golden Rule first sailed from California to Hawai’i 63 years ago, in 1958, on her way to interfere with U.S. atmospheric nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, the site of 67 U.S. nuclear bomb blasts from 1952 to 1958.  Under orders from the Atomic Energy Commission, U.S. Coast Guard stopped the boat from leaving Honolulu. The arrest and jailing of the captain and 1958 crew garnered international media attention and increased opposition to nuclear testing and nuclear weapons.  Atmospheric nuclear testing was stopped by the U.S., the UK and the Soviet Union in 1963 with the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty. 

The Rising Threat Of Nuclear War

April 23, 2021 Caitlin Johnstone. , , ,
US Strategic Command, the branch of the US military responsible for America's nuclear arsenal, tweeted the following on Tuesday: "The spectrum of conflict today is neither linear nor predictable. We must account for the possibility of conflict leading to conditions which could very rapidly drive an adversary to consider nuclear use as their least bad option." The statement, which STRATCOM called a "preview" of the Posture Statement it submits to US Congress every year, was a bit intense for Twitter and sparked a lot of alarmed responses. This alarm was due not to any inaccuracy in STRATCOM's frank statement, but due to the bizarre fact that our world's increasing risk of nuclear war barely features in mainstream discourse.

Why Is The United Kingdom Raising Its Nuclear Stockpile Limits?

April 3, 2021 Matthew Harries, The Bulletin. , , ,
On March 16, the United Kingdom announced it was significantly raising a self-imposed cap on its overall nuclear stockpile, from a previous target of 180 warheads by the mid-2020s to a new cap of 260. The decision was outlined in the United Kingdom’s Integrated Review, a landmark strategic update, which also said the country will no longer declare the size of its operational warhead stockpile (previously 120), or the numbers of warheads and operational missiles deployed on submarines (previously 40 and no more than 8, respectively). A previous review in 2015 had left open the possibility of a future change in nuclear posture, although the vaguely phrased caveat was not much noticed at the time.

Why Biden’s Choice To Bomb Outer Space Is So Damn Exciting

March 30, 2021 Lee Camp, ScheerPost.com. , , ,
President Biden has announced he will be continuing to build Donald Trump’s Space Force — an idea Trump probably dreamed up while high on some bizarre pills his special “doctor” gave him and had left the rubber cement jar open on his desk. The Space Force is the new branch of our military designed to conquer and kill things in outer space. That might not be word-for-word from their mission statement, but I’d wager it’s close. Pretty sure their jackets say, “Let’s kill some shit in space.” And, let’s face it — we don’t know what’s in outer space. But whatever it is, we know it needs to be killed.  Before you ask — Yes, Space Force is exactly what humanity desperately needs right now.

End US-UK Nuclear Collusion

March 28, 2021 Leonard Eiger, Ground Zero Center. , , ,
On March 16, the United Kingdom announced (in its Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Foreign Policy and Development titled Global Britain in a Competitive Age) that it will increase the limit on its nuclear arsenal for the first time in decades. Instead of maintaining a cap of 180 warheads (as it had previously stated), the UK will increase its stockpile cap to 260 warheads – a 40% increase. The review also broadens the role of nuclear weapons to include the possible use of nuclear weapons to address emerging technologies (cyber attacks).
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