OMNI
HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI ANTHOLOGY 2026
FROM HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI BOMBINGS to
NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION MOVEMENT, UNITED NATIONS ABOLITION TREATY
(TPNW), and CONTINUED STRUGGLE UNTIL THE WEAPONS ARE TOTALLY BANNED AND
DESTROYED:
CONNECTING 2019 TO 2026.
MARCH 13, 2026
Compiled by Dick Bennett
for a Culture of Peace, Justice, Ecology, and Democracy
What’s at Stake: END NUCLEAR
TESTING. PREVENT NUCLEAR WAR.
A House of Dynamite
Hiroshima Nagasaki Pre-Showing
Wed. March 18, 3:30 pm.
Omni Center.
CONTENTS
HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI
ANTHOLOGY 2026
FROM HIROSHIMA/NAGASAKI BOMBINGS to NUCLEAR WEAPONS ABOLITION MOVEMENT.
A House of Dynamite, March 18, 3:30, OMNI.
Art Hobson.
Renew The Start Treaty.
Senator Welch. Urgent Need for Talks
with Russia and China.
Win Without War Team. US Recklessness Has
Set the Doomsday Clock just 85 seconds away from “Midnight.”
Edward Markey. “Donald Trump’s Nuclear Delusions.”
Susi Snyder, ICAN. “Ways to move
closer to nuclear abolition in 2026.”
RootsAction . “We need a new start
to end an old problem.”
Andre Damon. “In major expansion of U.S. nuclear buildup, Trump orders
construction of nationwide missile defense system.”
LOOKING BACK
TO UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT FOR THE FUTURE
“The Never Ending Cycle of Nuclear Insanity.”
Defuse
Nuclear War. Another Missile Test at
Vandenberg.
Fred Kaplan. Gen. Groves lied about radiation poisoning.
John Rachel. “The Never Ending Cycle of Nuclear Insanity.”
Beyond the Bomb/Peace Coalition. Invest in Peace
Not War.
|
|
|
|
TEXTS
IMPORTANT FILM THIS
COMING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, AT OMNI, 3:30:
HOUSE
OF DYNAMITE.
Art Hobson praised the new film on Nuclear World War III,
The House of Dynamite, in his ADG column.
He saw the film on Netflix. I hope you will disseminate
the column and promote the film all you can. I am also glad to
report that PBS has presented a program on the film: An interview of Tom
Nichols of The Atlantic by Story in the Public Square, SALVE,
The Pell Center, 12-25-25. Nichols seems to have seen all of the
films ever made about nuclear war, and conveyed the immense importance and
urgency of The House of Dynamite. The 2 interviewers had
also seen the film and were well-informed. I am hoping these
are signs of growing awareness and interest in the US. My last War
Watch Wednesday summarized the 3 anti-nuclear movements in the US, concluding that
efforts of arms control/regulation must continue, but we will never be safe
until nuclear weapons are abolished. https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2025/12/omni-war-watch-wednesdays-261-december.html OMNI's next Hiroshima-Nagasaki Remembrance
2026 in August will again engage for Abolition! --Dick
WHAT’S AT STAKE: The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and
Ecology, inspired by the United Nations, remembers Hiroshima and Nagasaki, renounces war and
threats of war, joins the ICAN (Nobel Peace Prize) and Global Zero nuclear
weapons abolition movement, and celebrates the UN Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). It is dedicated
also to exposing the root of the nuclear arms race in US bigotry v. the Soviet
Union, the Sovietphobia that at the end of the Cold War slithered into
Russophobia (https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2025/12/omni-sovietrussophobia-anti-communism.html). The
propaganda machine promoting that hatred under the banner of “freedom” is
enormous, financed by the most powerful country on the planet.
But a counter argument has always
existed, and it is growing worldwide. Of
the many books I might recommend, Dan Kovalik’s The Plot to Scapegoat
Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Russia
(2017) offers a clear introduction. Of the book, David Talbot writes in his Foreword:: “This massive anti-Russian propaganda
campaign is one of the biggest fake news operations in US history….Unlike our
war-obsessed dia, human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik does understand that peace
and diplomacy are in the best interests of the American and Russian
peoples. His book is an urgently needed
counterassault against the propaganda forces that are trying to push us over a
precipice that is too terrifying to even contemplate. It’s time for all of us to speak truth to
power before it’s too late.”
TEXTS: FROM OMNI’S
HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE/BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO THE PRESENT
RENEW THE START TREATY
“START treaty must be renewed. Otherwise,
a disastrous nuclear arms race looms.” Art
Hobson. NWADG 10 February 2026.
The “Cold War” nuclear weapons race
between the U.S. and the Soviet Union ended in December 1991 with the fall of
the Soviet alliance. From that date until today, the most important
document regarding the prevention of nuclear war has been the Strategic Arms
Reduction Treaty (START) proposed by President Reagan in 1982 and first signed
by Presidents George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. That
document will expire in February 2026 unless the U.S. and Russia renew it or
replace it with a new treaty.
If START expires with no replacement,
the least that will happen is a renewed nuclear arms race entailing additional
new strategic (intercontinental) nuclear weapons. There will be additional
land-based Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), aircraft carrying
nuclear bombs, and Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) such as both
nations have today. There will also be new kinds of nuclear weapons. Without START, nuclear annihilation becomes
far more likely. . . .
Sen. Peter Welch.
“ Nuke treaty loss a ‘colossal’ failure that could lead to nuclear arms
race.” ACURA
(Feb 10, 2026).
Vermont Senator says work
needs to be done now to reinvigorate discussions with Russia, as well as with
China, which now has an estimated 600 nukes.
Read
in browser »
“This
is how we turn back the Doomsday Clock.”
Nuclear
Threat Watch @ Win Without war <info@winwithoutwar.org> We are closer to global catastrophe than ever
before, Dick: Closer than during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Closer than
the height of the Cold War in the 1980s. Closer than at the start of the
nuclear arms race in 1953.
The Doomsday Clock is
now just 85 seconds away from “midnight” — global disaster —
according to experts at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.[1]
One thing is clear:
Instead of de-escalation and diplomacy, Trump and others are choosing
recklessness that puts all of us at risk. Like just days ago, when the
Administration allowed New START, the last bilateral nuclear
arms control treaty between the United States and Russian governments, to
expire.
This backward thinking
only accelerates a race to the bottom that has deadly consequences for all of
humanity.
That’s why Win Without
War is working day in, day out to turn back the clock: Mobilizing the grassroots to act on this
warning and push Congress away from greenlighting Trump’s plans to upend an era
of hard fought arms control agreement, restart nuclear weapons testing, pour
fuel on the fire of a global nuclear arms race with dangerous, unnecessary
weapons, and more.
It’s not hard to see
why we keep losing precious seconds on the Doomsday Clock. Late last year, Trump vowed to restart
U.S. nuclear weapons testing and shatter a 30-year moratorium on testing
weapons that put us all at risk. This came after Elon Musk’s
DOGE recklessly fired nearly 200 National Nuclear Security Administration
employees, and the Pentagon raced to integrate AI into weapons
systems.
It’s all happening
against a backdrop of multiple crises that have tipped us toward global
disaster: Climate change, multiple devastating conflicts, and the potential
misuse of biological science and artificial intelligence. . . .
Thank you for working
for peace, The Win Without War team Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,
"It is now 85 seconds
to midnight"
Edward Markey. “Donald Trump’s Nuclear Delusions.” Jan. 15, 2026. The president wants to
resume nuclear testing. Senator Edward Markey asks,
“Is he a
warmonger or just an idiot?’
The Nation (February 2026).
This article appeared first in 2015.
It would be a mistake of
radioactive proportions to resume nuclear testing. None of the three major
nuclear powers—the United States, Russia, and China—has conducted a nuclear
test since 1996, when the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty was
approved. The CTBT bans all
nuclear tests worldwide and has been signed by 187 nations. The only country
that has conducted nuclear tests this century is North Korea, which is
universally regarded as a rogue state—not exactly the kind of company we should
be keeping.
By resuming nuclear
testing, the United States would give a major gift to its chief nuclear rivals.
China, which has been expanding its nuclear test sites, would welcome
the opportunity to conduct tests to develop more sophisticated weapons. Russia
would too; President Vladimir Putin announced in November that his country would return to nuclear testing if
Washington does.
Instead of deterring
foreign nations, renewed testing would be like setting off, well, a nuclear
chain reaction, with the US triggering Russia and China to ramp up their own
testing, which would then likely trigger other countries to do so as well.
But while Beijing and
Moscow may have much to gain from testing their nuclear weapons, the United
States does not. The US has already conducted over 1,000 nuclear tests,
more than all other nations combined. (By comparison, China has conducted 45
tests). We spend $25 billion each year to sustain the country’s nuclear
warheads, including funding the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which maintains
the weapons without explosive nuclear testing and includes room-size
supercomputers, the world’s most powerful X-ray machine, and a laser system the
size of a sports stadium. No other nation possesses such an extensive array of
tools for nonnuclear testing.
Trump’s own advisers are
confident that our nuclear weapons work—just as they are confident that other
countries are not testing their nuclear weapons. Trump’s nominee to run the US
Strategic Command, Navy Vice Adm. Richard Correll, told Congress in October,
“Neither China nor Russia has conducted a nuclear explosive test.”
In the face of such facts,
Trump changed his story. He said that Russia and China are conducting
secret nuclear tests and people “just don’t know about it.” According to Trump,
“You don’t necessarily know where they’re testing. They test way underground
where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test.”
Current
Issue
What Trump seems to be
referring to are very small nuclear tests
that are hard to detect and are sometimes referred to as “hydronuclear” tests.
If Russia and China are conducting them, it would be in violation of the CTBT.
But there is no proof that this is happening. Moreover, even if it were,
renewed US nuclear testing would still not be justified. Even small US tests
would give Russia and China the green light to conduct many large nuclear tests
that would be much more useful. A better approach for the United States would
be to seek greater transparency of global test sites.
It appears that Trump’s
utter confusion—not any need to resume nuclear testing—is the root cause of
this entire kerfuffle. Russia recently tested two new missiles—the Poseidon and
the Skyfall—that Putin has said can evade US missile defenses. Crucially,
however, there were no nuclear warheads—the part that goes “boom”—on these
missiles. Trump is apparently mixing up the testing of missiles and the testing
of nuclear bombs.
Such errors are harmful
enough, but Trump has added to the danger by upping the ante in other ways. He
continues to insist that he will build his space-based Golden Dome
missile-defense system, which would cost more than $3 trillion. Yet
scientists say that such missile-defense systems, like Reagan’s “Star Wars”
boondoggle (or the scenario depicted in Kathryn Bigelow’s recent film A House of Dynamite), will not work. Instead of Golden
Dome, it should be called Golden Sieve—it will cost a lot of money, and it will
not be effective. And, once again, instead of reducing tensions, Trump is
increasing them: Nations will respond to US long-range-missile defenses by
building more offensive missiles.
[Real solution] If Trump actually wants to reduce the risk of
nuclear war, as he claims, he should not build the Golden Dome. Instead, he
should reach for the Golden Phone. He should talk to Putin and accept his
invitation to stick with the New START treaty—the last US-Russian agreement
to reduce nuclear weapons—which is set to expire in February 2026. Putin has
proposed a one-year extension; the United States has yet to respond.
Is Trump a warmonger or
just an idiot? Is he hell-bent on starting a new nuclear arms race, or is he
simply confused about the difference between a nuclear bomb test and a missile
test? As horrific as it sounds, Trump may be on the verge of undermining US and
global security—just so he doesn’t have to admit that he was wrong.
Edward
Markey Edward J.
Markey represents Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. He is a co-chair of the
bicameral congressional Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group.
“Ways
to move closer to nuclear abolition in 2026.”
Susi
Snyder, ICAN <admin@icanw.org> 1-8-26
ICAN is the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons,
Place de Cornavin 2, Geneve 1201, Switzerland
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
Dear Dick,
Happy new year! From everyone on the ICAN team, we hope you were
able to enjoy a warm celebration over the new year with family and
friends.
Despite - or because of - the year beginning with more aggression
by nuclear-armed states, with the US attack on Venezuela and no sign of Russia
agreeing to end its war with Ukraine, we’re excited to take our work to the
next level this year. So we wanted to share a little bit of our plans for the
next few months.
Here are three things we’re looking forward to:
Celebrating five years of the nuclear ban
treaty
On 22 January ICAN and partners around the
world will commemorate the
moment that nuclear weapons finally became illegal. With celebrations,
seminars, screenings, actions and activism across the globe. This is a moment
to look at how far we’ve come- and ready ourselves for what we still need
to do.
Evidence for action - strengthening the
resistance to nuclear deterrence
Throughout the year, we’ll be working with
our partners to make sure decision-makers see that the evidence shows that any
use of nuclear weapons (by design, miscalculation or accident) carries extreme
risks and causes catastrophic humanitarian consequences, and demand policy
reform to debunk the myths (and defund the costs) of nuclear deterrence.
ICAN is working closely with states parties to the Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to make sure that diplomatic efforts in 2026
reduce risks of nuclear weapons and build towards nuclear disarmament. With two
major nuclear weapons treaties under review this year, there will be a lot of
opportunities to engage governments and policy-makers to strengthen norms
against nuclear weapons and implement treaty agreements.
And that's just a few of the things we're looking ahead towards.
We will also be publishing reports, engaging the media and supporting our
partners in action and advocacy.
Thanks for all of your help as we move into what will certainly be a dynamic year to
come!
Susi Snyder, Director of Programmes
ICAN is the International
Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Place de Cornavin 2, Geneve 1201, Switzerland
“We need a new start to end an old problem.” RootsAction (Dec 16, 2025).
Hi
Dick,
It's
easy to be distracted by Trump's racist between-naps rants, but the
world is closer than ever to nuclear apocalypse, and there's something we
can do about it.
New
START, the last bilateral treaty limiting U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, is
about to expire. Now is the time to demand that both countries agree to save
the treaty and stop a new arms race.
Tell your Members of Congress to do everything they can to
extend New START.
Russian
leaders have said that their government is willing to continue to abide by the
limits of the New START treaty. Trump has repeatedly suggested that he, too,
supports continuing the limits established by the treaty.
Through Defuse Nuclear War, RootsAction and allies
are beginning a major, multifaceted effort to preserve New START by its
February 4th expiration date. Our campaign is focused on educating the
public and pushing both the U.S. and Russia to extend the treaty.
[The
Deadline was missed but the campaign continues.
–D]
If you'd like to be a
part of this effort, please sign up here.
Sign
up to help extend New START!
This
work is only possible with your financial support. Please chip in $12 now.
In
Solidarity, The RootsAction Team
[SEE SCOTT RITTER’S
SIMILAR ARGUMENT: EXTEND NEW START. –D]
An Iron Dome invites a First Strike
“In major expansion of U.S. nuclear buildup, Trump orders
construction of nationwide missile defense system.” Editor.
mronline.org (2-4-25).
The executive order
“directs implementation of a next-generation missile defense shield for the
United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missile, and other
next-generation aerial attacks.”
Originally published: Defend
Democracy Press on January 29, 2025 by Andre Damon (more by Defend Democracy Press) | (Posted Feb 03,
2025)
Empire, Fascism, Strategy, WarAmericas, United StatesNewswireExecutive Order, Nuclear Weapons, President Donald Trump, U.S. Iron Dome
On Monday, President
Donald Trump ordered the construction of a new missile defense system covering
the United States, the latest move in a years-long drive spanning multiple
administrations to massively expand U.S. nuclear capabilities.
Speaking later on
Monday, Trump said he would “immediately begin the construction of a
state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield.”
Trump added,
We’re going to ensure that we have the most lethal fighting
force in the world.
The executive order
“directs implementation of a next-generation missile defense shield for the
United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missile, and other
next-generation aerial attacks.”
Despite the
terminology, nuclear missile defense systems are inherently offensive, not
defensive in character. The purpose is to facilitate nuclear first strikes by
allowing the country building the shield to carry out a nuclear attack on
another nuclear-armed nation, then shoot down the nuclear missiles that are
sent in response to the attack.
The announcement comes
amid the stated threats by Trump—in addition to continuing the U.S./NATO proxy
war against Russia in Ukraine and escalating the military buildup against
China—to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland, a territory of NATO member Denmark,
through military force. Trump has also threatened to wage war against Mexico
and turn Canada into an American state, transforming North America into a
battlefield.
The executive order
signed by Trump is titled “The Iron Dome for America,” referencing the Israeli
Iron Dome missile defense system, which has enabled Israel to attack most of
its neighbors—including Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Iran—over the past year,
while suffering only limited damage from counterattacks.
The United States is
40 times larger than Israel, and any missile defense system covering the whole
of the United States would cost, at minimum, hundreds of billions of dollars—a
figure fully in keeping with the multi-trillion-dollar nuclear modernization
program that has been underway for years.
Commenting on the
scale of the plan, The Wall Street Journal wrote approvingly:
None of this will be cheap, and Mr. Trump will have to seek much
more than the $10 billion or so a year that the U.S. now spends on missile
defense. He’ll also need champions in the Pentagon and Congress to push it
through a bureaucracy that would prefer to spend on other things.
The implication, as
the Journal indicates, is that the allocation of resources for
this military buildup will entail massive cuts to domestic social spending.
The order instructs
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to submit to the White House within 60 days a
“reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation
plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.”
It envisions a program
for the “Defense of the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced
cruise missiles, and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer,
and rogue adversaries.”
The program would be
vast in scale, deploying a new array of sensors for tracking missiles as well
as the “development and deployment of proliferated space-based interceptors.”
Trump’s threats to use
the American military to carry out his annexationist foreign policy has
triggered alarms in Europe. Robert Brieger, chairman of the European Union
Military Committee, the bloc’s highest military body, told the German newspaper Die
Welt that the EU should deploy military forces to Greenland. “That
would send a strong signal,” Brieger said.
Meanwhile, Denmark has
announced the allocation of over one billion euros to expand its defenses in
the Arctic region, including Greenland. “We must face the fact that there are
serious challenges regarding security and defense in the Arctic and North Atlantic,”
said Troels Lund Poulsen, the country’s defense minister, on Monday.
Trump’s missile
defense program is only the latest move in a massive expansion of U.S. nuclear
forces, initiated under the Obama administration, in what U.S. military
planners call the “second nuclear age.”. . . .
|
LOOKING BACK TO UNDERSTAND THE PRESENT FOR THE
FUTURE “Pope Francis in Hiroshima: ‘Never again war’.”
Catholic News Service
( 24 November, 2019, (similar article in Catholic Worker Newspaper, where I
read it. –D]) https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2019/11/24/pope-francis-in-hiroshima-never-again-war/ Pope Francis greets victims of the 1945 atomic bombing during
a meeting for peace at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (CNS) Holy Father asks: 'How can
we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war?'Pope Francis prayed for
peace Sunday at the site of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, where he called for
an end to war and the threat of nuclear weapons. “How can we propose peace if we constantly
invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution
of conflicts?” Pope Francis said Nov. 24 in Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park. “May
the abyss of pain endured here remind us of boundaries that must never be
crossed. A true peace can only be an unarmed peace,” the pope said. On
August 6, 1945 American armed forces dropped a uranium atomic bomb dubbed
“Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan killing an estimated 80,000 people
instantly.More than 90% of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed by the blast.
By the end of 1945, the death toll rose to 140,000 with people developing
intestinal bleeding and leukemia from the residual radiation that followed. “In
a single plea to God and to all men and women of good will, on behalf of all
the victims of atomic bombings and experiments, and of all conflicts, let us
together cry out: Never again war, never again the clash of arms, never again
so much suffering,” Pope Francis said after a moment of silence for the
victims of Hiroshima. “Indeed, if we
really want to build a more just and secure society, we must let the weapons
fall from our hands,” he said. Pope
Francis quoted Gaudium et Spes, which states that “peace is not merely
the absence of war … but must be built of ceaselessly.” He added that the
lessons of history show that peace is the fruit of justice, development,
solidarity, care for our common home, and promotion of the common good.“I am
convinced that peace is no more than an empty word unless it is founded on
truth, built up in justice, animated and perfected by charity, and attained
in freedom,” he said. Within
a week of the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the Japan announced its
unconditional surrender brining World War II to a close on August 15, 1945. Peace Memorial Park, located on the
epicenter of the atomic explosion, opened ten years after the bombing. The
Japanese parliament named Hiroshima a “city of peace” in 1949. “I felt a duty to come here as a pilgrim
of peace, to stand in silent prayer, to recall the innocent victims of such
violence, and to bear in my heart the prayers and yearnings of the men and
women of our time, especially the young, who long for peace, who work for
peace and who sacrifice themselves for peace,” Pope Francis said. “With deep conviction I wish once more to
declare that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than
ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any
possible future for our common home,” he said. The pope repeated: “The use of atomic
energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possession of atomic
weapons is immoral, as I said two years ago. We will be judged on this.” Earlier
on Sunday, Pope Francis visited the site of the atomic bombing in Nagasaki
where he denounced the ‘unspeakable horror’ of nuclear weapons. “The Catholic Church is irrevocably
committed to promoting peace between peoples and nations,” the pope said in
Nagasaki. “Peace and international
stability,” he stated, “are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear
of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation.” Twenty
survivors of the Hiroshima bombing attended the ceremony. Among them was KojÃ
Hosokawa, who was less than one mile from the epicenter of the bombing and
the only survivor in his building. He is now 91 years old. “Although there is little time left for
me, I believe that passing on the experience of Hiroshima to “We
cannot allow present and future generations to lose the memory of what
happened here,” Pope Francis said.
|
|
|
|
Fred Kaplan.
“A New, Chilling Secret About the Manhattan Project Has Just Been Made
Public.” Aug. 8, 2023. Fred Kaplan (Author).
Turns out Oppenheimer’s boss, Gen. Groves, lied, repeatedly, about radiation poisoning.
The Never Ending Insanity of US Imperialism
“The Never Ending Cycle of Nuclear Insanity.”
Editor.
Mronlne.org (9-26-21). Meet Originally
published: Dissident Voice on September 24, 2021 by
John Rachel
(more by Dissident Voice) (Posted Sep
25, 2021). Empire, Imperialism, WarUnited StatesNewswireNuclear.
Amidst all of the
sensible and sane cries to eliminate nuclear weapons, we are caught in a
self-sustaining, self-reinforcing feedback loop. Call it the Death Spiral of
Human Annihilation.
Yes, the U.S.
throughout its history, despite official denials even among historians who
should know better–maybe they do but prefer being manufacturers of myth rather
than chroniclers of history–has been territorial, possessive and aggressive.
The Monroe Doctrine declared the entire Western hemisphere
as America’s backyard. The U.S. was hardly shy about grabbing as much as it
could from Spain at the end of the Spanish-American War, lands as far away as
the Philippines. Through treaties and hard-headed diplomacy, it has effectively
turned most European nations, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan
into vassal states, which promote and serve the interests of the U.S.,
including using their military assets and personnel to take to the battlefield
in undeclared wars and provocations against those countries the U.S. perceives
as enemies or obstacles to its imperial rule.
This is not
particularly extraordinary or surprising. Competition defines and drives much
of what goes on between countries, each nation vying for advantage and
improvements in its own standing and accumulation, regardless of what hardships
it might impose on other countries and their populations. Thus U.S. adventurism
and colonization was pretty much business-as-usual for much of its history, as
it was for every other ambitious nation on the rise.
However, beyond
predictable overt aggressiveness, it was at the end of, and immediately after,
WWII that a seismic change occurred in Washington DC that has elevated our
country to become the “greatest purveyor of violence
in the world“,
and propelled the entire planet toward the unstable, chaotic mess we now find
ourselves in.
Politically there was
the marginalization of Henry Wallace, and the installation of Harry Truman as
president. Institutionally it was the creation of the extremely independent
security organization, the CIA, as successor to the OSS (Office of Security
Services). Programmatically, it
was bringing 1600 Nazi scientists into the U.S. under Operation Paperclip. Economically, it was the continuation of a war economy and
the expansion of the MIC–the military industrial complex — cementing in place the core
elements of “forever war” even in times of peace. Dwight D. Eisenhower
saw what was happening and in January 1961 warned the country
of the dangers of this in his
farewell speech.
The
U.S. pursuit of empire and global hegemony now had the mechanisms, the funding,
the know-how, the institutional momentum, the “right stuff”, to take the world
stage. All of the toxic
premises and preconditions were now circulating in the bloodstream of the
military and diplomatic channels, a cocktail of pathogens for the madness that
infected and captivated those in power, and still does to this day.
By
the late 90s the U.S. pulled out all of the stops. It would leave no technology untapped, no
opportunity unexploited, no promise or treaty unbroken, UN resolutions and
world opinion be damned, international law deemed irrelevant. The trajectory we
are now on was set in stone. It’s our way or bombs away.
Let’s not get
distracted or deluded by claims of noble intent and appeals to the twisted
logic of empire.
And
our mental discipline starts with our never ever forgetting who started this
mess. And thus who must take the lead in fixing it.
[HIROSHIMA AND
NAGASAKI BOMBINGS]
Dropping
the atomic bombs on Japan sent a message to the world, particularly the Soviet
Union. We have the ultimate weapon and we will use it.
Don’t mess with us, don’t doubt our resolve, no one can stop us. The Soviet Union had no choice. Either develop a sufficient
nuclear potential to counter that of the U.S. or be held hostage to bullying
and coercion.
That unfortunate
dynamic unleashed a nuclear arms race that at one point saw enough nuclear
weaponry in the stockpiles of the U.S. and the USSR, to destroy the planet 50
times over. This madness has been tempered slightly with treaties but it’s
still insanity by any rational measure. Russia and the U.S. still have over
13,000 nuclear weapons–much more powerful and “usable” than when they were at
peak numerical levels–and other nuclear nations add another 1,125 to the mix.
This is an improvement. The same improvement we could claim if a person only
got shot 14 times instead of 50 times. The coroner’s work reconstructing the
body for viewing might be a little easier. Should we count our blessings?
RACHEL’S WAY TO PEACE
Listen, folks. It’s on
us! Both the U.S. as a nation and the U.S. as citizens. There’s no passing the
buck here, not when the survival of life on Earth is at stake.
Until
the U.S. steps forward and leads the effort, nuclear warfare will always be
with us. And annihilation of the human species will always hover over us as a
real, increasingly probable result.
Moreover, please never
forget: Those now in power will never backtrack on this suicidal course. It is
what defines them, drives them. It’s as much a part of them as their hearts and
brains and the void where their souls would be if they weren’t morally bankrupt,
sociopathic mutants.
The
only way we’ll have peace is if we REMOVE FROM POWER every single one of the
warmongers.
No excuses. No
compromise. No fear.
I recommend a massive awakening of 150-200
million U.S. citizens as to the personal costs of war, the inevitable product of: our military
adventurism and expansion; our endless, unnecessary, illegal, immoral wars; our
completely wasteful procurement of unneeded weapon systems, upgrading our
nuclear arsenal, now putting weapons is space in violation of existing treaties; a commitment without the approval of the
citizenry to “full- spectrum dominance“; i.e., world rule by an unchallengeable
empire.
For decades the DOD
and their rah-rah imperialists in office have had a blank check. And like
anyone with a blank check, they’ve spent OUR MONEY with wild abandon. THIS is a strategy for defunding the military just enough so
that it can properly defend our nation and its people, but no longer use
everyday citizens as an ATM machine for its delusional, monomaniacal pursuit of
hegemony over the entire planet. We the people never voted for this
psychopathic agenda, one which smacks of master race conquest. THIS MECHANISM will sufficiently drain the Treasury so
that unnecessary DOD spending is impossible, and most importantly, extricate the crazies from the toxic dump they’ve turned our
once-democratic institutions into.
Please repeat after
me: No excuses. No compromise. No fear.
John Rachel has a B. A. in Philosophy, has traveled
extensively, is a songwriter, music producer, neo-Marxist, and a bipolar
humanist. He has written eight novels and three political non-fiction books. His
most recent polemic is “The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in
the History of the World.” His political articles have appeared at many
alternative media outlets. He is now somewhat rooted in a small traditional
farming village in Japan near Osaka, where he proudly tends his small but
promising vegetable garden. “Scribo ergo sum.” Read other articles by John, or visit John’s website.
[We didn’t
change the Trump administration’s belligerent policies, but the idea
remains urgently relevant: move
investing in death to investing in life.
-D]
Beyond the Bomb/Peace Coalition campaigns@beyondthebomb.org via email.actionnetwork.org
https://peacecoalition.org/recent-coverage.html#:~:text=On%20this%2079th%20anniversary%2C%20we%20recommit%20ourselves,total%20destruction%20can%20never%20again%20be%20inflicted.%E2%80%9D
Dick,
7-27-20
We hope this message
finds you well. Although it’s certainly a difficult time, we’re as committed as
ever to speak truth to power. That’s why, over the last month, we’ve been
meeting with members of Congress to demand that they support sensible nuclear weapons
policies. And, that’s why we’re calling on you to sign up for a meeting with
your members of Congress.
We need to dramatically
rearrange our priorities - to stop investing in death and start investing in
life. We simply cannot afford to spend trillions of dollars on nuclear weapons.
Our issue is an urgent one. On May 22, it was reported that the Trump administration
is considering resuming nuclear testing for the first time since 1992. We
shouldn’t be escalating tensions with other countries; we need to de-escalate
for the sake of the entire world. Our elected officials in Congress must step
up to challenge the Trump administration’s belligerent policies.
We know that we’re more
powerful when we act together. Our message must be heard. Cooperation is key to
our success!
Lobby for a budget that
puts our #FutureFirst!
In solidarity,
Ryan and the Beyond the
Bomb team
“LISTEN
TO HIROSHIMA SURVIVORS 75 YEARS LATER.” Arkansas
WAND via gmail.mcsv.net 7-8-20.
[Arkansas WAND no longer exists; its founder and OMNI’s good friend Jean
Gordon died. But its history of actions
against nuclear weapons remains to guide our necessary future direction. -D]
Dear Dick,
Arkansas WAND, along with ACPJ, Arkansas Peace Week and Pax Christi Little Rock, is planning a
special 75th Anniversary Remembrance of the American bombing of
Hiroshima/Nagasaki. Amid world chaos, the August 6th and 9th anniversaries are
a reminder of the urgency to rid the world of living under the threat of
nuclear annihilation. Thirty-two
nations have ratified the U.N/Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty, not including the
nine countries that possess them. As soon as 50 nations have signed, the treaty
will become International law. [Sufficient
nations have ratified the TPNW and testing and possession of nuclear weapons
are against international law. –D]
The
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is offering three upcoming
webinars featuring Hibakusha (survivors) describing the horrors following
the bombings. Registration instructions are included in the following article
from ICAN:
[ICAN received the Nobel Peace Prize for its support of the Treaty. –D]
The
opinions about nuclear weapons that we hear most are those of “policy experts”
and government officials, people who have never experienced the realities of
nuclear weapons. And unfortunately in many political conversations, the
perspective of survivors - the real experts on nuclear weapons - is often
ignored. But we are working to change
that. Together with our partner organisations, we are so excited to be able to
offer three unique online events where you get a chance to talk to and learn
from those that know what happens when a nuclear bomb drops on your home.
July 7 - Hear the Voices of the Survivors: Ms Setsuko Thurlow. Time:
Toronto EDT 10:00 am / PDT 7:00 am / Paris 4:00 pm / Beijing 10:00 pm. Register via Peace Boat
July 15
- Hear the Voices of the Survivors: Mr Yasuaki Yamashita, Nagasaki
survivor. Time: Mexico City 10:00 am / Madrid 5:00 pm. Register via Peace Boat
July
16th - After Trinity: 75 years of Resistance.
Time: Adelaide, Australia 11:30am / Tokyo, Japan, 11am, 16 July / Albuquerque,
USA, 8pm, 15 July / New York, USA, 10pm, 15 July
Register via ICAN Australia
Tomorrow
is the third anniversary of the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Mark
it by signing up to hear from survivors themselves!
Sincerely, Lucero Oyarzun
Digital Campaign Coordinator
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
PS- ICAN
will celebrate the anniversary of the nuclear ban treaty on our social media
accounts tomorrow, so make sure you follow us on Twitter and Instagram — we’ll have an
exciting surprise for you there by the end of the day.
It’s time to end nuclear weapons.
“URGENT:
Stop Trump from Testing Nuclear Weapons.”
|
May 23, 2020 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Ann Wright. US VFP, 8/3/2025 speech in Hiroshima. https://youtu.be/4NQPs69oLD8?si=lDSWPuWia9oj2LmP “Abolish Nuclear Weapons and War”! Preview YouTube video Ann Wright, US VFP, 8/3/2025
speech in Hiroshima.
Abel Tomlinson H-N 2019
speech (Long Version)EDIT Stop Imperialist Warfare
https://abeltomlinson.wordpress.com/2019/07/21/stop-imperialist-warfare/ We must stop lying to ourselves
and our children. Dozens
of U.S. wars and coups were not in honest self
defense, or to spread “freedom” and “democracy.” These lies are made obvious
when one studies history, and knows the U.S.
has overthrown several democracies, and installed,
supported and armed
numerous dictators. The coups are overwhelmingly waged for
corporate imperialist interests, for profits for the richest few. Perhaps the most persuasive
voice in describing U.S. imperialism is the highly decorated General Smedley
Butler. Way back in 1933, Butler blew the whistle
on corporate empire: “I spent 33 years (in the)
Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to
Major-General. And during that period, I (was) a high class muscle- man for
Big Business, for Wall Street… I was a racketeer, a gangster for
capitalism...I helped make Mexico (safe) for American oil interests in
1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank
boys…I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for
the benefits of Wall Street….I helped purify Nicaragua for (Brown Brothers
banking) in 1909-1912…I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American
sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil
went its way unmolested.” Fast forward to recent history,
and see the U.S. empire has grown to over 800
foreign military bases in over 80 nations, and
has neared total world domination. Most governments, whether democracy or
dictatorship, have become subservient to U.S.-enforced corporate imperialist
interests. When a given government stands up too strongly, like
nationalizing key resources, that is the cue for regime
change. Imperialist warfare is not only
military assault or CIA covert operations, but also economic
warfare such as sanctions. We know sanctions often prove
deadly to civilian populations. Just recently, sanctions were found to
have killed
over 40,000 civilians in Venezuela. In the 1990s, the New
York Times reported Bush-Clinton sanctions
killed 500,000 Iraqi children. On national television, Lesley
Stahl interviewed Secretary of State Madeleine Albright about these
sanctions. Stahl asked, “We have heard that a half million children have
died…that’s more children than died in Hiroshima…is the price worth it?”
Albright calmly replied, “We think the price is
worth it.” Her statement displays an utter lack of conscience, and
brings to mind a choice psychological term. My political awakening was
triggered by 935
documented lies about Iraq’s nonexistent WMD
and connections to 9-11. These lies led to a textbook definition of not just
a war crime, but the “supreme
international crime,” which killed
over a million humans, wasted trillions
of taxpayer dollars, and other ongoing horrors. That
war had nothing to do with freedom, and everything to do with imperialism
and oil. Since Iraq, imperialist coups
or attempted coups have been waged on several more nations, including Libya, Honduras, Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria, etc.
The most catastrophic coup du jour on the menu is Iran.
General Anthony Zinni warned, “If you
liked Iraq…you will love Iran.” The “best” case scenario is,
like Iraq, killing another million people and wasting trillions more. The
worst case scenarios are unspeakable. We must stop the lies and
imperialism. Most people correctly see slavery was deeply immoral, and we
must now realize imperialism is equally evil. What is imperialism but a love
of money so extreme that it demands killing people? About 75
percent of Americans consider themselves Christians. Perhaps it
is time to re-read Matthew, “No one
can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and money,” and
Timothy, ” For the love of money is
the root of all evil.” |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
END
H-N NUCLEAR ABOLITION 2019-2026 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
