OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #248, SEPTEMBER 24, 2025.

 

 

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #248, SEPTEMBER 24, 2025.   Compiled by Dick Bennett. 

 

ADG Report on Trump’s Reversal on Ukraine.
Ted Snider.  “So Much for the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Ted Carpenter.  “Who Is Trying To Start World War 3?”
Scott Ritter.  The Death of Ukraine.

“Trump backs victory for Ukraine” by  MATTHEW LEE, AAMER MADHANI AND ILLIA NOVIKOV.  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Sep 24, 2025).   Trump backs victory for Ukraine.  He shifts opinion, supports Kyiv retaking its territory.   Read more...

[I hope you have time to read these excellent essays in their entirety.  –D]

“So Much for the Nobel Peace Prize” by Ted Snider.  Antiwar.com (Sep 16, 2025).   ACURA (9-24-25).  19 Comments

The first seven months of Donald Trump’s second term as president has seen a remarkable transformation. In his inaugural address, Trump said that “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.” He promised to “measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end – and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.” “That’s what I want to be,” Trump said, “a peacemaker.”

Seven months later, Trump changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War. It is not just a change of name. It is a change of “attitude” . . . .

The rebrand reflects the ever bloating role of the military in the Trump administration to push out diplomacy and law enforcement. Trump pushed aside diplomacy that was working with Iran with an unprecedented bombing of Iran’s civilian nuclear facilities. And he has pushed aside law enforcement with military action against drug cartels in Latin America. . . .
Ted Snider is a regular columnist on U.S. foreign policy and history at Antiwar.com and  The Libertarian Institute. He is also a frequent contributor to Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative as well as other outlets. To support his work or for media or virtual presentation requests, contact him at tedsnider@bell.net.

 

“Shooting Down Russian Drones Over Poland: Who Is Trying To Start World War 3?” by Ted Galen Carpenter.  Antiwar.com (Sep 17, 2025).   21 Comments.   ACURA (9-24-25).  Read in browser »

The world is now closer to a full-scale war between NATO and Russia than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.  In the early morning hours of September 10, 2025, Western air defenses spotted a fleet of Russian drones that had entered Poland’s airspace.  Shortly thereafter, NATO fighter planes intercepted the intruders, shooting down 16 of them. NATO’s military forces also elevated their alert status.

Questions immediately arose about whether this episode was a deliberate provocation on Russia’s part, or simply a case in which Moscow’s contingent of unmanned drones heading for targets in Ukraine flew off course.  . . .MORE

[Carpenter makes the  case for peace against] playing directly into the hands of the most reckless, hawkish elements throughout NATO.  Much greater caution by the administration is imperative.  Trump and other U.S. officials should not automatically accept the hawkish propaganda that the air intrusion episode was a deliberate Russian provocation.  Even more important, they must not allow America to become trapped in a potentially catastrophic conflict against Moscow to satisfy the paranoid geopolitical perspectives of Russia’s longstanding enemies in Central and Eastern Europe.

America’s founders wisely admonished their fellow citizens to make certain that the republic avoided “entangling alliances” with foreign countries that have their own agendas. This latest situation shows why.

If you liked this article, please support Antiwar.com (click here).
We are 100% reader-supported.

Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter is a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute and the Libertarian Institute. He is also a contributing editor to National Security Journal and The American Conservative. He also served in various senior policy positions during a 37-year career at the Cato Institute. Dr. Carpenter is the author of 13 books and more than 1,600 articles on defense, foreign policy and civil liberties issues. His latest book is Unreliable Watchdog: The News Media and U.S. Foreign Policy (2022).

 

“The Death of a Nation” by Scott Ritter.  September 23, 2025.

President Trump announced that he supports Ukraine’s goals of returning to their 1991 borders with Russia. He believes he is helping Ukraine. All he has done is ensure the destruction of a nation.    Scott Ritter

 

 

 

With one stunning social media post, President Donald Trump ended all pretense at being a broker of peace between Russia and Ukraine. During his campaign in the 2024 Presidential election, Trump repeatedly emphasized that his goal was to bring the conflict to an end “within 24 hours” of being sworn in. While this timeframe proved elusive, Trump remained committed to achieving a lasting peace, even if he was unable to articulate a strategy on how exactly this would be accomplished.
Trump has, from the very onset of his presidency, been ill advised by a coterie of foreign and national security officials who, with very few exceptions, are dyed in the wool Russophobes.  . . . [most of the article traces the vacillations of DT -D]

Donald Trump, by lifting the hopes of Ukraine while simultaneously dashing them, has exposed himself as being intellectually limited and morally diminished. Only too late will Ukraine and its European allies realize they have been duped. By then, the duplicity of Donald Trump will be evident to all—except of course the millions of Ukrainians who will perish as a result.     Donate

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #249, September 22, 2025.

 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #249,  September 22, 2025.    Compiled by Dick Bennett.

 

THE ONGOING, VARIEGATED RESISTANCE TO OVERSHOOT, WARS, HEAT, TYRANNY.

VFP: Wake up to Climate Crisis (and No MAS)Tour Sept. 26-
Earth Overshoot Day.

[See #248:SEPTEMBER 21:  SUN DAY AND INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE . 

Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun.]
NCTE’S George Orwell Award For Truth Against Doublethink, Doublespeak, Doubletalk.
ACLU’S Legal Actions.
(All of them depend upon our support.)

 

The Wake Up to Climate Crisis and NO MAS (NO Military Air Shows) Tour begins Sept. 26 in San Diego, CA. After actions and events around the “Top Gun” air show at the Miramar USMC airbase, the group of veterans and allies will engage citizens in 9 cities, 2 more air shows, and 11 college campuses to urge them to respond to climate crisis (e.g., don’t vote for climate deniers).    Tour 1 includes showings in local theaters of Abby Martin’s latest film Earth’s Greatest Enemy.  Check our webpage for the route and list of event times and locations. . . .  This Tour is endorsed by VFP, 350.org, CodePink, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom US, National Priorities Project, World Beyond War, 1000 Grandmothers for Future Generations, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community (https://uujec.org/), and others.    Jim Rine, CCMP Steering Committee

“Earth Overshoot Day Reaches Record for Earliest Date” By Paige Bennett.   Edited by Chris McDermott.    EcoWatch.   July 28, 2025. Earth Overshoot Day is the point in the year when human demand for materials obtained from nature exceeds what the Earth can naturally regenerate in one year. For 2025, Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 24, the earliest it has been since the event was first calculated in 2006.  Since 2006, the date has come earlier and earlier, signaling just how rapidly human population growth and consumption habits in the global north are growing and stripping the planet of its resources.

 

 

Bill McKibben.  Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.    Bill McKibben.   Norton, 2025.   224 pages.  

Publisher’s description:  From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.   Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind—and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay.

 Announcing the Winner of NCTE’s George Orwell Award

The NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language celebrates outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse.   2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the award, and today NCTE is announcing this year’s winner: Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens by Sarah Stitzlein.    

 

ACLU JULY 2025.  Resistance at a Glance Since January 20th: Total legal actions filed: 146    Total lawsuits filed: 68
Number of federal agencies with whom we have filed FOIA requests: 45

[The struggle for liberty against tyranny is as old as Jamestown, until today our hopes for a democracy are severely threatened and we must depend upon last stand legal resistance by our best organizations like the ACLU and Public Citizen.    But, as in the Weimar Republic when Hitler was taking over institution after institution to gain total Nazi control legally, the USSC court and many lower courts are already in right-wing Republican hands.  But as the ACLU observes, citizens can still resist individually and through established organizations by organizing, advocacy, and education.    –Dick 8-3]

Dear James,This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for our nation.

The Trump administration's assaults on our rights and liberties are relentless. But even in the face of these headwinds, resistance is growing. And the ACLU is pressing forward in the courts, as well as through organizing, advocacy, and public education. Litigation is just one of the many tools we're using to push back, hold the line, and create a future grounded in equality, due process, and freedom. And thanks to your ongoing support, that vision remains within reach. . . .

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #247, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025.

 

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #247, SEPTEMBER 17, 2025.   Compiled by Dick Bennett. 

 

Scott Ritter.  “Putin’s Gambit” for Arms Control.
Bill McKibben.  Here Comes the Sun and Renewed Hope.

Trump Truthteller?  The DOD Is What It Always Was—the DOW.

Putin's Gambit by Scott Ritter.  Sept. 22, 2025. There has never been a more important time for arms control. And the US government has never been so ill-prepared to meet this challenge. Enter Project 38.   Scott Ritter                                                                                                                     Project 38 is a campaign that seeks to promote effective arms control and disarmament policy and, in doing so, avoid the dangers of a new nuclear arms race by promoting an alternative policy approach toward arms control and disarmament between the United States and Russia focused on the absolute need to keep the limitation on the sizes of the US and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals imposed under the New START treaty intact. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently opened the door to such a possibility. It is Project 38’s mission to help US President Donald Trump pass through this door. . . .MORE click on title [Nuclear arms abolition should be our ultimate goal, and the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has made that goal more reachable.  But the subsidiary goal of controlling the number and kinds of nuclear weapons produced by the nuclear nations is essential to maintain the control that has so far prevented nuclear holocaust. That is the goal of Ritter’s Project 38 and the Poughkeepsie Peace Initiative.   Ritter concludes his essay:  “Failure is not an option, because the security and safety of the US, Russia and the world depend on keeping the last vestiges of arms control intact while US and Russian leaders struggle with how to sustain decades of nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament polices that have prevented nuclear war between our two nations.”   --Dick]

 

From Sun Energy to Peace, Justice, and Ecology.
BILL MCKIBBEN.  HERE COMES THE SUN: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.  W. W. Norton, 2025.
Publisher:   . . .how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. 

Trump Returns the War Department
President Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to resume its original name, Department of War.   Department of “Defense “ has always been absurd since we have never fought an entirely defensive war.  Our wars have been the reverse: wars of US on the offense, or at least with provocation, though always falsely justified as defensive.   So let’s give Trump our thanks for at last ending that deceptive doublespeak.   Trump can tell the truth!   Though not because he wishes to avoid doublethink’s doubletalk.  --Dick

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #248, September 15, 2025.

 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #248,  September 15, 2025.    Compiled by Dick Bennett.

 

THE ONGOING, VARIEGATED RESISTANCE TO OVERSHOOT, WARS, HEAT, TYRANNY.

SEPTEMBER 21:  SUN DAY AND INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE . 

Bill McKibben, Here Comes the Sun.
NCTE’S George Orwell Award Against Doublethink, Doublespeak, Doubletalk.
ACLU’S Legal Actions.
(All of them depend upon us.)

 

“Earth Overshoot Day Reaches Record for Earliest Date” By Paige Bennett.   Edited by Chris McDermott.    EcoWatch.   July 28, 2025.

Earth Overshoot Day is the point in the year when human demand for materials obtained from nature exceeds what the Earth can naturally regenerate in one year. For 2025, Earth Overshoot Day fell on July 24, the earliest it has been since the event was first calculated in 2006.

The Earth Overshoot Day was first launched in 2006 by Andrew Simms, an author, political economist and campaigner, in collaboration with Global Footprint Network, as reported by Sustainability Magazine. Since then, Earth Overshoot Day is calculated and announced annually. Since 2006, the date has come earlier and earlier, signaling just how rapidly human consumption habits are growing and stripping the planet of its resources.

 

 

Bill McKibben.  Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.    Bill McKibben.   WW Norton, 2025.   224 pages.  

From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.   Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history—if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a chance.   Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind—and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year to the world’s sixth-largest economy—California—nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. And he shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. You can’t hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves—it’s available to all.

There’s no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is a hope—in McKibben’s eyes, our best hope for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world.

 Announcing the Winner of NCTE’s George Orwell Award

The NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language celebrates outstanding contributions to the critical analysis of public discourse.   2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the award, and today NCTE is announcing this year’s winner: Teaching Honesty in a Populist Era: Emphasizing Truth in the Education of Citizens by Sarah Stitzlein.    

 

ACLU JULY 2025.  Resistance at a Glance Since January 20th:

Total legal actions filed: 146    Total lawsuits filed: 68
Number of federal agencies with whom we have filed FOIA requests: 45

[The struggle for liberty against tyranny is as old as Jamestown, if you remember the European conquest of N. America, and it has waxed and waned, until today our hopes for a democracy are severely threatened and we must depend upon last stand legal resistance by our best organizations like the ACLU and Public Citizen.    But, as in the Weimar Republic when Hitler was taking over institution after institution to gain total Nazi control of the courts legally, the USSC court and many lower courts are already in right-wing Republican hands.  But as the ACLU observes, citizens can still resist individually and through established organizations by organizing, advocacy, and education.    –Dick 8-3]

Dear James,  This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for our nation.

The Trump administration's assaults on our rights and liberties are relentless. But even in the face of these headwinds, resistance is growing. And the ACLU is pressing forward in the courts, as well as through organizing, advocacy, and public education. Litigation is just one of the many tools we're using to push back, hold the line, and create a future grounded in equality, due process, and freedom. And thanks to your ongoing support, that vision remains within reach. . . .

 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #248, September 15, 2025.

 

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #248,  September 15,  2025.  Compiled by Dick Bennett.

 David Orr, Climate and Democracy Under Attack
Sun Day September 21.  (And International Day of Peace.)
Bill McKibben.  Here Comes the Sun.
EcoWatch.

“Recording of David Orr on the Interrelated Threats of Climate & Democracy” From  Move to Amend.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?    (Illuminations without which we’ll be blindsided by the enemies of C&D.  –D)

                                                                                                      

 

	SUN DAY September 21 With one month to go, there are now over 150 Sun Day events planned where we can come together to celebrate the power of clean energy.  (Btw, 9-21 is also the International Day of Peace.  A doubly auspicious day!) Events are planned in in 32 states and Washington DC.    In Fayetteville, AR Still on the Hill will host a Porch Concert at the Ozark Ball Museum, 885 N. Fritz, SunDay Porch Concert, 4:00-5:30 pm,. Call Donna for reservations and info – 479-582-2291   BILL MCKIBBEN.  HERE COMES THE SUN: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.  W. W. Norton, 2025. Publisher’s description: From the acclaimed environmentalist, a call to harness the power of the sun and rewrite our scientific, economic, and political future.    Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in history—if we can keep accelerating the pace, we have a chance.    Here Comes the Sun tells the story of the sudden spike in power from the sun and wind—and the desperate fight of the fossil fuel industry and their politicians to hold this new power at bay. From the everyday citizens who installed solar panels equal to a third of Pakistan’s electric grid in a year to the world’s sixth-largest economy—California—nearly halving its use of natural gas in the last two years, Bill McKibben traces the arrival of plentiful, inexpensive solar energy. And he shows how solar power is more than just a path out of the climate crisis: it is a chance to reorder the world on saner and more humane grounds. You can’t hoard solar energy or hold it in reserves—it’s available to all. There’s no guarantee we can make this change in time, but there is a hope—in McKibben’s eyes, our best hope for a new civilization: one that looks up to the sun, every day, as the star that fuels our world.  [I ordered my copy at Pearl’s Books.  –D] [
	EcoWatch is a long-time leader in environmental news. Founded in 2005 as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, today we are a digital platform still dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content on environmental issues, causes, and solutions. While we’ve grown from a grassroots newspaper of 80,000 print copies to a site with a digital audience of more than two million monthly readers, we are still committed to our founding principle: creating a sustainable future. Our Mission Our goal is to empower readers to make informed, environmentally-conscious decisions that support a sustainable future for everyone. Through trustworthy environmental news, solution-based guides, and responsible product reviews, we want to help both the newly concerned citizen and the veteran environmental activist be part of the solution every single day. Our hope is that we can help everyone become engaged, adopt sustainable practices, and support. environmental policies. https://www.ecowatch.com/about-ecowatch     END OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS #248,  September 15,  2025.  Compiled by Dick Bennett.