32. WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, JULY 28, 2021
VS. CHEMICAL
AND BIOLOGICAL WAR
Applies to NUCLEAR WAR
from Linus
Pauling’s Nobel Peace Lecture 1963
Pauling protested the huge US
expenditure for research and development of biological and chemical war, which
had increased “sixteenfold in a decade.”
He points out especially the horrors of nerve gas and toxins such as
botulism, viruses (yellow fever), and bacterial spores (anthrax) which could
“kill tens of hundreds of millions of people.”
And the special danger of large-scale development of weapons of mass
destruction by the US is that it might spread around the world. He appeals to the US to stop it. “This terrible prospect could be eliminated
now by a general agreement to stop research and development of these weapons,
to prohibit their use, and to renounce all official secrecy and security
controls over micro-biological, toxicological, pharmacological, and
chemical-biological research.”
His efforts helped to produce the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC,
1972). (The international community banned the use of chemical
and biological weapons after World War 1 and reinforced
the ban in 1972 and 1993 by prohibiting their development,
stockpiling and transfer.)
The ban has been violated,
but in general the Convention has held, and its success gives hope to the
campaign to ban similarly nuclear weapons. That hope received a huge boost on January 22, 2021, when the UN Treaty
on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was ratified by the nations of the
world, the first legally
binding international agreement to
comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total
elimination. Nations who refused to sign the Treaty and who
violate its regulation (USA and other nuclear nations and allies) are outlaws
against international law. --Dick
VS. NUCLEAR WAR
But Biden has not chosen to follow the pathway of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention but
is following preceding presidents, Democrats and Republicans (the War Party),
in continuing research and development of nuclear weapons.
Biden’s Nukes Backflip
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11:56
AM (1 hour ago) |
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Biden
is adding billions toward Trump’s nuclear weapons spending spree. It’s
unacceptable, and we need your help to stop it. Can you donate $15 to help stop
an unfolding nightmare nuclear arms race? |
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Dick — President
Biden just said he wants to hand over $44.5 billion dollars to continue Trump’s
[and Obama’s --D] 30-year, TRILLION DOLLAR plus spending spree on new nuclear
bombers, submarines, ICBMs, air-launch cruise missiles, and MORE.
It’s a massive
backflip on his campaign pledge, the national platform of the Democratic Party,
and his own position as vice president and senator — and the consequences could not be more
serious.
Just one of
the new nuclear weapons being funded has TWENTY TIMES the explosive power of
the bomb dropped on Hiroshima: able to kill hundreds of thousands of people in
one go.
But because Congress
controls the purse strings of this inordinate expense, we have a critical
window to block this nuclear nightmare spending spree. And in parallel to pushing lawmakers,
legislative aides, and the media, we’re simultaneously working to strengthen
international agreements to stop a global nuclear arms race — and we
need your support to keep all this going:
One reason for this
reversal could be the piles of radioactive cash plied into lobbying and
campaign contributions by the nuclear arms industry. Last year alone, nuclear
weapons producers spent $117 million in lobbying on defense. And it’s a clear
money maker — for every $1 spent lobbying, an average of $236 in
nuclear weapon contract money came back.
This corrupt nexus
between defense mega-corporations and government policymakers is key to
understanding why Obama, Trump, and now Biden ALL effectively handed the
checkbook — and the reins of nuclear policy — over to the Pentagon and private
corporations.
Because the truth is:
None of these programs make us safer. They ALL make the world far more
dangerous and ramp up Trump’s reckless nuclear arms race with China and Russia that dramatically
increases the risks of nuclear war. And that’s why we’re pulling out all the
stops to block these new initiatives from moving forward — and we need your
support:
Can you donate $15 to help stop an
unfolding nightmare nuclear arms race?
It’s easy to forget
the destructive capacity the United States and Russia have to end the world in
a moment, an armageddon that can be unleashed at the sole discretion of a
single human being.
Building up and
developing new nuclear weapons is the exact opposite of where
we should be heading, and it’s essential in this moment, with this
administration and this Congress, that we immediately turn this dangerous
trajectory around.
Thank you for working
for peace,
Kate, Michael, Abbey, and the Win Without War team
[Compare Obama’s nuclear
budget = Dem War Party militarism. –D]
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