Monday, December 26, 2022

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #107, December 26, 2022

 

 CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #107, December 26, 2022

New Books on Climate

This week at Yale Climate Connections (12-9-22).
12 titles that make the perfect holiday gift for occasional climate readers.

12 titles for climate activists and academics on your holiday gift list.

REVIEW

MICHAEL SVOBODA .  12 titles that make the perfect holiday gift for occasional climate readers.”    DECEMBER 9, 2022. 
How do the titles in the two lists differ from each other? Included in this first list are new examples of long-standing popular genres: nature and natural history, history, current events, financial advice, and fiction. Climate change is not always the central focus, and the writing is generally easier to read. By contrast, most of the titles in the second list are published by university presses, written in more academic prose, and focused on specific aspects of climate change. Not everyone’s cup of tea.

But anyone might enjoy Paul Smith’s beautifully illustrated book on trees, novelist Annie Proulx’s personalized natural history of wetlands, or filmmaker Priyanka Kumar’s memoir about the birds in her life.

Douglas Brinkley’s magisterial account (over 850 pages) of the environmental movement will impress readers of history, while the works by climate and energy expert Hal Harvey and former journalist Justin Gillis (The Big Fix) or British author and climate activist George Monbiot (Regenesis) will captivate readers who follow climate change through the news.

For readers with a financial bent, there’s Bruce Usher’s guide to “investing in the era of climate change” and Gallup CEO Jon Clifton’s analysis of what global polling data reveal about the interconnections between the environment, economics, and human happiness and well-being.

Finally, the four fictional titles offer gift-givers a choice of genres: experimental, suspense, young adult disaster tale, and action-thriller.  Fictional ‘Two Degrees’ aims to engage 8 to 14 year olds on climate.

MORE   As with all of Yale Climate Connection’s monthly bookshelves, the descriptions of the titles are adapted from copy provided by the publishers.  https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2022/12/12-titles-that-make-the-perfect-holiday-gift-for-occasional-climate-readers/?utm_source=Weekly+News+from+Yale+Climate+Connections&utm_campaign=802c95a8a6-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_12_08_05_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-802c95a8a6-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

 

Thursday, December 22, 2022

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #106, December 19, 2022: UP SCIENCE

 


106.  CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #106, December 19, 2022

UP SCIENCE

Organizations Studying Climate Change (google search presented these 4 first, many more exist of course; the first two are distinguished UN science institutions,)

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change...
For example, The UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - or IPBES (IPCC)- report said Friday that unless humankind improves the sustainable use of nature, the Earth is on its way to losing 12% of its wild tree species, over a thousand wild mammal species and almost 450 species of sharks and rays, among other irreparable harm. . . .  https://apnews.com/article/climate-united-nations-pollution-biodiversity-deforestation-89b98843607312350b54374c6d8764a5

World Meteorological Organization |

A specialized agency of the United Nations whose mandate covers weather, climate and water resources. The UN's scientific voice on the state and behavior of weather.

       

Numerous organizations depend upon, contribute to, and publicize  these governmental institutions; for example
Climate Action Network  (CAN)
Climate Action Network - International is a global network of over 1,300 environmental non-governmental organisations in over 130 countries working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. Founded: March 1989.  Wikipedia

350.org
350.org is an international environmental organization addressing the climate crisis. Its stated goal is to end the use of fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy by building a global, grassroots ovement. Founders: Bill McKibbenJeremy Osborn.  Founded: 2007.  Wikipedia

Numerous other institutions; e.g. 
World Weather Attribution,

Giraffe Heroes Project,
Ann Medlock Founder, 11-19-22

 

 

 

German climatologist Friederike Otto knows that the climate is changing faster than anticipated, that human actions have gotten us into this crisis, and that human actions have to slow it down. Fast. Otto runs World Weather Attribution, a research group staffed by volunteers and funded by Otto and her supporters. Otto was recently delighted to have a WWA report accepted by a UN panel on the climate emergency. Follow her research and analyses here.

The history of the IPCC and other scientific climate organizations is a history of struggle between scientists and corporations and their political allies.  E.g., Deborah Birx.  Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administraton, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late.  2022.  Rev. “A Doc and a Hard Place,” May 22, 2022 by David Quammen in NYT Book Review.  Dr. Birx tells of her struggle, as coordinator of the White House Covid Task Force.  Strong defense of science and high praise for scientists Redfield,  Fauci,  and others.

 

We need a book on the Untold Story of the Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden Administrations’ Failure to support science and to seriously resist the Climate Calamity which is converging with diverse pandemics and with their wars.  What are the roots of that failure?  What is the root?  What are the science-based solutions?  Questions frequently asked and answered in CMM. 

Sunday, December 18, 2022

OMNI: WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #105, DECEMBER 21, 2022

 

 

105.    WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #105, DECEMBER 21, 2022

NUCLEAR WAR Prevention and Justice

Ron Ridenour. Preventing the Bomb.  CovertAction Magazine.
Beatrice Fihn.  ICAN: ICC, Nuclear Weapons War Crimes.
Union of Concerned Scientists.
 Urge Congress cosponsor a resolution supporting nuclear justice in
    the Marshall Islands.

Robin Andersen.  FAIR.  Corporate Media and the Ultimate Insanity.
Gerry Sloan.  “UnAmerican Activities.”

 



 

 

 

 

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Glance Back to Building the Bomb

Can An American Scientist Who Smuggled Critical Nuclear Secrets to the Russians After World War II Be Considered a “Good Guy”? New Film Says Yes.

CovertAction Magazine via gmail.mcsv.net   12-2-22

11:16 AM (2 hours ago)

 

 

Can An American Scientist Who Smuggled Critical Nuclear Secrets to the Russians After World War II Be Considered a “Good Guy”? New Film Says Yes.

By Ron Ridenour. CovertAction Magazine.   Dec 02, 2022 11:51 am
 

Controversial New Documentary Reveals How A Teenage Army Physicist Named Ted Hall Saved The Russian People From A Treacherous U.S. Sneak Attack In 1950-51—And May Well Have Prevented A Global Nuclear Holocaust.  2019 PBS documentary series repeated August 2022. 


The provocative documentary “A Compassionate Spy” tells the amazing but almost unknown story of a “near-genius” 16 year-old Harvard junior physics major who was drafted to help develop an atom bomb at America’s ultra-secret Manhattan Project.

At 18, after graduating from Harvard, Ted was the youngest physicist to work on the atomic bombs at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He worked with uranium and the implosion system for the plutonium bomb used in the Trinity test on July 16, 1945, one month before that bomb type killed tens of thousands of civilians at Nagasaki.

Between the bombings at Hiroshima, August 6, and Nagasaki, August 9, somewhere around 200,000 civilians were killed, and a similar number died within some months afterwards from radiation sickness and injuries.

The film also illustrates why and how Ted shared his knowledge with the Soviets: to prevent a post-war U.S. perhaps heading toward fascism and/or world domination intoxicated by having a nuclear monopoly. He foresaw correctly because, by 1946, Wall Street bankers and weapons industrialists had convinced President Harry Truman, as the film shows, to produce 400 more atomic bombs to attack the Soviet Union in 1950-51, kill millions of its people, and take over its huge land and natural resources. […]

Read in browser »

Accountability for grave international crimes

Beatrice Fihn, ICAN <admin@icanw.org> 12-6-22

8:55 AM (14 minutes ago)

 

Hi Dick --
Today, I’m writing to you from The Hague, where ICAN is attending the Assembly of States Parties of the Rome Statute, the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court (ICC), meeting with governments and delivering a statement to all states parties.

The
ICC is a key tool to ensure accountability for grave international crimes and provide an international system of justice. The ICC is where those who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity are prosecuted, and this body is very relevant for preventing the use of nuclear weapons.

Given their immense and indiscriminate destructive power and their wide-ranging catastrophic humanitarian consequences, the use of nuclear weapons would constitute a war crime and possibly a crime against humanity as defined under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute. But the nuclear armed states and nuclear allied states try to obscure this fact by hiding behind theoretical conversations about deterrence, abstract defence policies, and nuclear sharing agreements.

But any government who participates in the use of nuclear weapons would be responsible for committing war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, and the individuals responsible for such actions would be held responsible in The Hague eventually.

That’s why ICAN is here, to make sure we send a strong message to all governments and their political and military leaders – threatening to commit war crimes is unacceptable and illegal and those responsible will be held accountable. This is a key part of our strategy to delegitimize nuclear deterrence and prevent countries from using nuclear weapons by raising the threshold and cost. 

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons:

Read more about our work at ICC today here >>

“Act Now for Nuclear Justice in the Marshall Islands.”

UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS.  “US NUCLEAR WEAPONS TESTING: WHO ORDERED THEM PERFORMED? GIVE US THEIR NAMES.  WE CAN: Demand justice for the people of the world.
Dear Dick, 10-8-22
Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands. With the advances in power of the bombs over time, this averages out to the equivalent of dropping one Hiroshima-sized bomb a day for 20 years. These nuclear tests vaporized some islands completely, spread radioactive contamination across the remaining islands, and left many permanently uninhabitable. Marshallese people continue to suffer from cancers and other long-term health effects caused by radiation exposure.

Please urge your members of Congress to cosponsor a resolution supporting nuclear justice in the Marshall Islands.

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The ultimate insanity—nuclear Armageddon.

NATO Narratives And Corporate Media Are Leading To 'Doorstep Of Doom'

By Robin Andersen, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR, Extra!). Popular Resistance.org (12-6-22).    A popular cartoon aptly expresses the political angst provoked by media pundits today as they chatter on about nuclear war: Two people, both a little hunched over, burdened with the world, are walking down a city street. The woman says to the man, “My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane.” As we slide closer to what was once considered the ultimate insanity—nuclear Armageddon—corporate media seem to be egging on reckless leaders as they make thinly veiled threats across an imaginary nuclear line.  -more-

 

POETS INTO THE BREACH

UNAMERICAN ACTIVITIES

(for Peter Carroll)  by Gerald Sloan (2022)

 

The chances of writing a successful

political poem are slim to non-existent,

but we keep rolling the boulder uphill

while the raven perched on our shoulder

keeps croaking like Bertolt Brecht:

"Why were their poets silent?"

 

Because we're the Forlorn Hope,

idealistic volunteers to be first

through the thermo-nuclear breach

since weapons of mass destruction

place notions of victory out of reach,

our leaders playing high-stakes chicken,

the absurdity of their rhetoric

enough to make a maggot sicken.

 

GRETA
“Hope does not come from words.  Hope comes only from action.   We can act, but we don’t have time to wait.”  (Why are we waiting?)

Friday, December 16, 2022

OMNI US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #27 DECEMBER 16, 2022

 

OMNI

US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #27

DECEMBER 16, 2022

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

https://Omnicenter.org/donate/  

 

Total publications Nos. 1-27: 472 (including 2 books).

Note on these compilations.  I surveyed (and continue to survey) many print and online sources to identify publications opposed to US/NATO/Ukraine policies.  Each of the 27 anthologies, beginning in 2014, contains at least one comprehensive essay or chapter or book!  The additional chapters provide corroboration.  And the anthologies improve over these years as the authors know more.  In his 2015 book on tackling climate change, when all we needed to know was known, Nicholas Stern asked Why Are We Waiting?  Let’s ask ourselves the same question regarding the Ukraine War and other US wars.  Now the facts and the tactics for stopping this war are available to all, and all who abhor war should be banding with others to stop this one and reaching out to the injured and displaced.

 

CONTENTS  UKRAINE WAR ANTHOLOGY #27
16 ITEMS INCLUDING A BOOK

MAKING SENSE: Asking and answering all the essential questions that can lead to peace:  the achievement of these anthologies 2014-22 and of this summative book 2022.

War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict  by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies (2022).

PURPOSE OF WAR FOR US AND NATO?

Patrick Buchanan.  “To Weaken Russia.”

ANTI-COMMUNISM: Sovietphobia, Russophobia

Jonathan Söderberg.“100 million Russian books in line for ban.”
WHO’S INVADING EASTERN UKRAINE?

Sonja Van den Ende.  Russians Welcomed as Liberators in Many Eastern Ukrainian Cities Contrary to Western Media Depictions.” 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
 CENSORSHIP

Caitlin A. Johnstone.   UKRAINIAN CENSORSHIP.
Ukrainian Censorship of Russian Books.

LETHAL WEAPONS, UNEXPLODED BOMBS

JEFF ABRAMSON.  The US Won't Ban the Same Lethal Weapons It's Criticizing Russia for Using.” 
NUCLEAR RISK 
Has the Russia-Ukraine war blown up the global nuclear order? 

ATROCITIES
Art Hobson, “War is always an atrocity: Let's consider U.S. bombing.”

ATROCITIES: 5 ARTICLES ON UKRAINIAN ATTACKS ON DONETSK

GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR:

Economic Repercussions Around the World 
WORLD HUNGER

 Sean Howard, "War's Far-Reaching Effects" 

Dejan Kukic.  Egypt. 

With Benjamin and Davies, and the other writers in #27, more, explicit VOICES FOR PEACE

“US Activists reject escalation in Ukraine. . . .”

 

TEXTS UKRAINE WAR #27

War In Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict.  by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies (2022).
My copy of this book bristles with underlines, asterisks, arrows, cross-references, and exclamation points.  What to cite in a few words to illustrate the book’s density and importance?   For example, p. 80 offers a concise summary and evaluation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.    Russia illegally invaded Ukraine on several fronts.  But the preceding 80 pp. have unfolded how complex is this succinct, factual conclusion.

 To understand fully one needs to be aware of US rejection of Putin’s peace proposals, nuclear NATO’s eastward expansion, US and NATO’s nuclear “modernization,” US scrapping arms control treaties, US dismissal of Russia’s concerns, US failure to support the Minsk II agreement, Zelensky’s refusal to negotiate with the “terrorists” in Donbas, the huge escalation of artillery violations by Ukraine in the days preceding the invasion, and more.  And those complications are presented, for a short book, in detail from public documents.  Among them, Putin on p. 80 cites official US policy regarding the possibility of preemptive nuclear strikes against Russia, and Ukraine the “bridgehead for such a strike.”  

Yes, despite repeated US official and US mainstream media denial, the invasion was provoked, Russia was threatened, as the remainder of the book further confirms.

The first half of the book, Intro. and chapters 1-3, are narrative, the second half topical.   The Introduction’s title is “Collision Course.”  Chapter 1: “How 2014 Set the Stage for War.”  Chapter 2: “The Success and Failure of the Minsk II Peace Plan.”  Chapter 3: “The Russian Invasion of Ukraine” (including p. 80).  And the remainder of the book elaborates: Chapter 4: “NATO Myth and Reality.”  Chapter 5: “Informaton Warfare.”  Chapter 6: ‘The Consequences of Western Sanctions on Russia.”  Chapter 7: “Flirting with Nuclear War.”  Conclusion: “How on Earth Will this End?”
We can’t predict that, but we can and must join others in demanding a ceasefire and armistice.    –Dick

 

PURPOSE OF WAR FOR US AND NATO?

WEAKEN RUSSIA
THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE UKRAINE WAR FOR THE US AND NATO IS TO WEAKEN RUSSIA

“Will Putin Submit to US-Imposed 'Weakening'?”   By Patrick J. Buchanan.  April 29, 2022.

  "Once war is forced upon us, there is no alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. War's very object is victory — not prolonged indecision."  So said Gen. Douglas MacArthur in his April 1951 address to Congress after being fired by President Harry Truman as commander in chief in the Korean War.
And what is now America's goal with our massive infusion into the Ukraine war of new and heavier NATO weapons?  Said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on his return from a Sunday meeting in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: The United States wants "to see Russia weakened to the point where it can't do things like invade Ukraine."  "Russia," said Austin, has "already lost a lot of military capability and a lot of its troops ... and we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability." 
Thus, the new, or newly revealed, goal of U.S. policy in Ukraine is not just the defeat and retreat of the invading Russian army but the crippling of Russia as a world power.  The sanctions imposed on Russia and the advanced weapons we are shipping into Ukraine are not only to enable the country to preserve its independence and territorial integrity but also to inflict irreversible damage on Mother Russia.   MORE 
Will Putin Submit to US-Imposed "Weakening'?, by Pat ...

Pat Buchanan Columns | TribLIVE.com

Pat BuchananPutin to Biden — Finlandize Ukraine, or we will. Either the U.S. and NATO provide us with “legal guarantees” that Ukraine will never join NATO ...

 

ANTI-COMMUNISM IS ALWAYS INVOLVED IN US FOREIGN POLICY

“The removal of Russian books must be seen in the greater context of the ‘decommunisation’ of Ukraine. Since 2015, all communist parties and symbols have been banned, and the war has only been used to further ramp up political repression: the Zelensky regime has banned another eleven parties, and has placed all TV stations under government control.”  Jonathan Söderberg.“100 million Russian books in line for ban.”  Editor.  Mr.online.org (6-10-22)  https://mronline.org/2022/06/09/100-million-russian-books-in-line-for-ban/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=100-million-russian-books-in-line-for-ban&mc_cid=d6a3fd1e44&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

 

 

WHO’S INVADING EASTERN UKRAINE?

Russians Welcomed as Liberators in Many Eastern Ukrainian Cities Contrary to Western Media Depictions.”  By Sonja Van den Ende. CovertAction Magazine. Aug 10, 2022 05:57 pm.   People of liberated territories likely to vote in favor of joining Russia in forthcoming referenda—just like Crimeans did in 2014.  [Her prophecy happened.]

 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR: CENSORSHIP

 UKRAINIAN CENSORSHIP

Caitlin A. Johnstone.  “PayPal blocks multiple alternative media figures critical of U.S. empire narratives.”  Mronline.org (5-6-22).

In what appears to be yet another escalation in Silicon Valley’s redoubled efforts to quash dissident voices since the beginning of the Ukraine war, PayPal has just blocked the accounts of multiple alternative media voices who’ve been speaking critically against official U.S. empire narratives.

Ukrainian Censorship of Russian Books

100 million Russian books in line for ban.”
Editor.  Mr.online.org (6-10-22)

Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute (part of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture), has claimed that they will begin working towards withdrawing over 100 million so-called ‘propaganda’ books from public libraries in Ukraine.  https://mronline.org/2022/06/09/100-million-russian-books-in-line-for-ban/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=100-million-russian-books-in-line-for-ban&mc_cid=d6a3fd1e44&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

 

 

 

CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR: ATROCITIES

US-NATO-UKRAINIAN FORCES KILLING CIVILIANS? 

War is always an atrocity: Let's consider U.S. bombing.”

Art Hobson, ahobson@uark.edu.  NWADG, 1 November 2022.

           When existential threats cause nations to take up arms, all available means are employed to achieve victory.  Propaganda and hypocrisy are part of the arsenal.  Thus, U.S. reporting on the Ukraine War inevitably reeks of hypocrisy. 

          The "available means" have always included burning the enemy's towns, raping its women, and pillaging its homes.  Such atrocities against civilians can devastate the enemy's morale, destroy its ability to fight, and satisfy the victor's righteous anger. 

          As humankind "advanced" from arrows and swords to rifles and cannons, civilian suffering became more widespread.  For example, America's Civil War killed an estimated 750,000, of whom 50,000 were civilians.

          The invention of dynamite and airplanes around 1900 made warfare far more deadly.  WW1 killed about 20 million, including 10 million civilians.  WW2 killed 70-85 million, 3 percent of all humans on the planet, including 50-55 million civilians. 

          It's a plus that civilian wartime deaths are today largely viewed as atrocities.  But paradoxically, this very concern results in the use of civilian deaths as evidence of the cruelty of one's adversary, heightening the bitterness and anger on all sides.  In fact, it is war itself--the purposeful and organized slaughter of large numbers of our own species--that is the ultimate atrocity.  Rather than banishing any particular nation, war must be banished if we are to survive. 

          America, whose military budget equals that of the next 9 countries combined, is by far the most militarily powerful nation the world has ever seen.  If humankind is ever to understand the atrocious nature of all wars, it is imperative that we Americans understand the consequences of our own actions.  Here is part of the record.

          During WW2 in the Pacific Theater, American air raids attacked 67 Japanese cities, burning down 25 to 75 percent of each.  Tokyo was 51 percent destroyed, including 16 square miles in the city's center where many died in the ensuing firestorm.  Japanese cities, where civilian houses were made of wood and paper, were especially vulnerable to U.S. incendiary bombs.  Repeated attacks focused on the large cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe.  And of course U.S. nuclear bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, raising firestorms and killing about 200,000, largely civilians.  All of these bombings were clearly designed to terrorize civilians and force Japan's surrender.  They were quite successful in this task. 

          There was a similar story in the European Theater.  Allied (mostly U.S. and U.K.) bombing killed between 400,000 and 600,000 German civilians, while 7.5 million German civilians were rendered homeless.  Air raids against Hamburg and Dresden raised firestorms., and Berlin was bombed into rubble.  

          During the Korean War, U.S. bombing destroyed nearly all North Korea's cities, including 85 percent of its buildings.  Total North Korean civilian casualties (dead, injured, missing) were 1.5 million.  U.S. bombs destroyed five hydroelectric and irrigation dams, resulting in flooding and starvation.

          The bombing campaigns during the U.S. invasion of Vietnam constituted the longest and heaviest aerial bombardment in history.  We dropped more than three times as much explosive energy on that small nation as we dropped in all theaters of WW2.  A careful study calculated between 0.8 million and 1.1 million deaths on all sides during the war, of which 30,000 to 182,000 were estimated to be North Vietnamese civilians killed in U.S. bombings. 

          Finally, an estimated 387,000 civilians have died violent deaths as a direct result of the U.S. post-9/11 wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. 

          Thus, bombing civilians has been standard intentional practice for America since at least 1941.  Set against this backdrop, Russian-caused civilian wartime deaths in Ukraine are deplorable but hundreds of times less numerous.  The United Nations, which carefully studies civilian casualties, provides an estimate of about 6,000 civilian deaths through October.  For comparison, the number of military deaths in Ukraine appears to be around 20,000 on each side.  The numbers of Russian-killed civilians in the present Ukraine War is at least hundreds of times smaller than the number of U.S.-killed civilians killed during our wars.  

          Has Russia killed many civilians in Ukraine?  Yes.  Was some of this intentionally directed at civilians?  Yes.  Is this an atrocity?  Yes.  But it pales beside past U.S. atrocities. 

          Be careful before you point your finger, and be sure to first look into the mirror.  If you wish to help the human race rather than just thoughtlessly letting off steam, remember that the real enemy is neither President Putin nor Russia, nor is it America.  The real enemy is war itself.  The real solution is war prevention.

 

Art Hobson is professor emeritus of physics at the University of Arkansas.  He worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and co-authored "The Future of Land-Based Strategic Missiles" (Am. Inst. of Physics, 1989).  For references to this column email him at ahobson@uark.edu.   

 

ATROCITIES: 5 ARTICLES ON DONETSK

UN slams Ukrainian attack on Donetsk maternity hospital.”
Editor.  Mronline.org (6-19-22).

The United Nations called the shelling of the maternity hospital in Donetsk a breach of humanitarian law.

 

 “Western media and politicians prefer to ignore the truth about civilians killed in Donetsk shelling.”  Eva Bartlett.  Mronline.org (6-19-22).

Following intense Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk on June 13, some Western media sources, in tandem with outlets in Kiev, unsurprisingly claimed that the attack–which killed at least five civilians and struck a busy maternity hospital–was perpetrated by Russian forces.


“Ukrainian strike on Donetsk Market was a terrorist act
.”

Eva Bartlett.  When artillery hit a busy public space in Donetsk, it brought flashbacks of attacks in Gaza and Syria.

 

The Ukrainian Army is murdering the Donbass children with the help and approval of the West.   Editor.  Mronline.org (7-13-22).  

In two days, the Ukrainian army’s terror shelling of residential areas in the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic), some of which was carried out with weapons supplied by the West, has killed four children in the Donbass.

 

Sonja Van den Ende.  Ten-Year-Old Girl Among Those Killed with Western Weapons in Ukrainian Shelling of Donetsk.  By Jeremy Kuzmarov on Jul 11, 2022 02:05 am.
Among “unworthy victims” ignored by western media.
In the first week of July, Ukrainian army bombing of the Donetsk People’s Republic—carried out with western supplied weapons—resulted in the death of four children.  One of those kids was a 
10-year-old girl, Veronica Sergeevna Badina, who was killed by a standard NATO 155 millimeter shell fired by the Ukrainian army against central Donetsk.

According to Veronica’s grandfather and mother, Veronica went outside of her grandmother’s house which she was visiting to get some fresh air and talk with a boy her age.

She then decided to run home to brush her hair, but was torn into three pieces by the 155 millimeter shell, which was fired by a French Caesar self-propelled gun.

Veronica was a vivacious ten-year-old who loved animals and was a sports dancer. She was only two when the war in Eastern Ukraine broke out, so was among the generations of kids who grew up with its horrors.

For several years Veronica suffered from anemia, from which she recovered last year thanks to the help of Dr Lisa’s foundation—only to be cut down by the Ukrainian army.

The 155 millimeter shell is manufactured by the British based BAE systems, whose shares have reached an all-time high since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February.

During the 2020 U.S. election campaign, the U.S. division of BAE Systems donated $569,202 to Democratic Party candidates, and $452,594 to Republicans, according to opensecrets.org Joe Biden received $102,591 compared to $94,966 for Donald Trump.

BAE Systems also has spent over $5 million on lobbying in the U.S. over the last two years. Recipients of BAE’s largesse include such anti-Russia hawks as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA—$7,373)Steny Hoyer (D-MD—$10,000), Chuck Schumer (D-NY—$5,605); Liz Cheney (R-WY—$3,259 and another $5,500 in 2022); Jamie Raskin (D-MD—$4,089); Adam Schiff (D-CA—$8,036); Mitch McConnell (R-KY—$9, 289), James Inhofe (R-OK-$13,300) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC-$11,383), who all voted in favor of more than $6.92 blilion in U.S. military assistance to Ukraine since the war started. […]

The post Ten-Year-Old Girl Among Those Killed with Western Weapons in Ukrainian Shelling of Donetsk appeared first on CovertAction Magazine.

 

GLOBAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR:

Economic Repercussions Around the World 
Cost of the UkrainE War felt in Africa, Global South.  Editor.  Mronline.org (5-6-22). 

While international news headlines remain largely focused on the war in Ukraine, little attention is given to the horrific consequences of the war which are felt in many regions around the world. Even when these repercussions are discussed, disproportionate coverage is allocated to European countries, like Germany and Austria, due to their heavy reliance on Russian energy sources.

 

WORLD HUNGER

 Sean Howard, "War's Far-Reaching Effects," Cape Breton Spectator.

"The NATO-Ukraine-Russia war is being waged far from the Global South. But in its direst global humanitarian consequences it is a European earthquake poised to trigger cascades of hunger and deprivation, certain to kill many more people in the South than the North."  ​​​​

Dejan Kukic.  Sisi says ‘let them eat leaves’ as food crisis sharpens class lines in Egypt.”  Originally published: In Defence of Marxism  on July 8, 2022 by (more by In Defence of Marxism)  |  (Posted Jul 15, 2022)  Editor.mronline.org (7-16-22).    

The war in Ukraine, rising oil prices and spiralling global inflation have fuelled food scarcity and surges in the price of basic goods in Egypt. Most worrying among the goods affected is bread, which makes up almost 40 percent of the average Egyptian’s diet.

 

LETHAL WEAPONS, UNEXPLODED BOMBS

JEFF ABRAMSON.  The US Won't Ban the Same Lethal Weapons It's Criticizing Russia for Using.”  Responsible Statecraft.   March 5, 2022 .

America's UN mission was forced to amend its ambassador's comments because of its own refusal to ban such weapons.

In an impassioned address Wednesday at a special United Nations meeting on Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield drew attention to "videos of Russian forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield. That includes cluster munitions." These weapons, which are notorious for leaving small bomblets behind that later kill and injure civilians, are one of a small number of indiscriminate weapons that have infamous global recognition as markers of the horror of war—recently also used in Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as Syria, garnering international disgust.

As many human rights groups are now doing, the United States was right to point to cluster munitions in criticizing Russia. However, within hours of Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield's comments, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations edited the transcript, striking ot that the weapons have no place on the battlefield, as indicated below.

The new formulation, which only expresses concern if these weapons are "directed against civilians," undermines U.S. opprobrium of Russian behavior. So too does the fact that the United States has refused to abandon cluster munitions—despite functionally not using the weapons itself in nearly two decades and no longer having a domestic manufacturer of them. 

Tragically, cluster munitions are not the only weapons the United States is clinging to that undermine its ability to call Russia, and others, to account.  MORE https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/03/05/us-wont-ban-same-lethal-weapons-its-criticizing-russia-using

  

NUCLEAR RISK

NUCLEAR RISK
Has the Russia-Ukraine war blown up the global nuclear order?  BAS (7-6-22). 
The war in Ukraine has reignited fear of the possibility of nuclear war and decimated cooperation efforts on arms control. Restoring the global nuclear order will require bringing Russia once again to the negotiating table, says Bulletin editorial fellow Lauren Sukin. Read more.

 

 

 

VOICES FOR PEACE

Activists reject escalation in Ukraine, even when it’s unpopular.”  Peoples Dispatch.  Mronline.org (11-24-22).

An event hosted at New York City’s People’s Forum featured seven activists who spoke out against U.S. and NATO involvement in the war in Ukraine and called for negotiations and peace.  By Peoples Dispatch (Posted Nov 23, 2022)  Protest, WarAmericas, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, United StatesNewswire 
On November 19, 300 activists, organizers, and working people gathered in New York City to listen to seven anti-war leaders speak out against U.S. and NATO involvement in the war in Ukraine. The event hosted at the Peoples Forum was titled “The Real Path to Peace in Ukraine,” and featured philosopher Noam Chomsky, historian Vijay Prashad, People’s Forum executive directors Manolo De Los Santos and Claudia De La Cruz, Brian Becker of the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, Eugene Puryear of Breakthrough News, former U.S. presidential candidate for the Green Party, Jill Stein, and CODEPINK .

In Saturday’s event, speakers specifically underlined the need for negotiations to end the war in Ukraine and not escalation of violent conflict. Many pointed out that this war, like many before it, works directly against the interests of working people across the globe. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has sent over $80 billion to Ukraine in military and non-military aid.

Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK, highlighted:

People who are working for things like healthcare for all in the United States, a free college education, all of those people have to recognize that as we are going to spend over $100 billion in less than a year on this war, we must make people understand that that money could be going for needs at home.

Despite this, voters in both the Democratic and Republican parties overwhelmingly support sending weapons to Ukraine. However, a majority in the U.S. is becoming concerned with the growing possibility of direct confrontation between two nuclear powers.

Who benefits from this war?

In the very outset of the war, the stocks of the top war manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin skyrocketed. An October 2 headline in Barron’s read,

Russia’s War on Ukraine Is Escalating. It’s Time to Buy Defense Stocks.

“We see very clearly that the only group of people who benefit from this war—the only people who benefit from there not being peace negotiations—are the elites in Washington,” said De Los Santos.

We will not allow them to sacrifice the planet for their new war of greed!De La Cruz highlighted that the people of the U.S. have a responsibility to stand against the war as it is their tax money that is funding the war. “We have a responsibility to say, shut down NATO, shut down AFRICOM, and shut down every instrument of war that [the U.S. has] across the globe,” said De La Cruz.

Not in our name!

The struggle for peace

While De La Cruz focused on collective responsibility in winning peace, others highlighted the enormous power that average working people have in ending the war. Stein quoted author Alice Walker when she said, “the most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” Eugene Puryear, who brought up the rich history of fightback against slavery, said “People power has defeated every terrible institution that you can imagine.”

ANSWER Coalition director Brian Becker touched upon the historic role of the U.S. anti-war movement during struggles in the cases of past wars, such as Vietnam. “Whenever people have organized and fought for and mobilized for peace, they draw the wrath of the warmakers,” Becker said.  It doesn’t matter if their slogans are soft or mild, whether they talk about negotiations or overturning capitalism, just mobilizing the people against war is a great danger to the warmakers, because if the people finally say no to war, the wars end. The ruling class can’t do the wars without the people.

Between escalation and negotiation

The specter of nuclear war also hangs in the horizon as two nuclear superpowers inch closer and closer to direct conflict. This is especially true considering that when a missile hit Poland on November 15, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky immediately jumped to blame Russia. “Hitting NATO territory with missiles…This is a Russian missile attack on collective security! This is a really significant escalation. Action is needed,” Zelensky urged on the same day. This was a potentially catastrophic language, as Article 5 of NATO states that “an armed attack against one or more of [the members] in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.” Zelensky was advocating for a war between nuclear powers. The next day the truth came out: the missile was launched by accident by Ukrainian forces.

Despite the possibility of a world-ending nuclear war, NATO and the U.S. steadfastly refuse to move towards peace. “The central matter is the ghastly gamble,” said Chomsky.  The willingness to gamble that Russia will accept defeat and not react in the manner of the Western warrior states.  “The international committee of the Red Cross said that there would be a catastrophic humanitarian crisis from even a limited nuclear war, whatever that is,” said Eugene Puryear.  Nuclear winter. Crops destroyed. Water poisoned…talk about sowing salt in the soil, this is a million times worse than that.       MORE click on title

Peoples Dispatch, formerly The Dawn News, is an international media organization with the mission of bringing to you voices from people’s movements and organizations across the globe. Since its establishment three years ago, it has sought to ensure that the coverage of news from around the world is not restricted to the rhetoric of politicians and the fortunes of big companies but encompasses the richness and diversity of mobilizations from around the world. Peoples Dispatch also seeks to bring to you breaking news from a perspective widely different from that of the mainstream media. We invite people’s movements and political organizations everywhere to send us information and news from their countries. The information can be in Spanish, Portuguese, English or Hindi.

 

 

Published Russia Ukraine Article and Books Count : Anthologies #1-24, 2014-2022:
Total number of entries: 424 as of 8-1-22 .

 

CONTENTS OF US/NATO/UKRAINE/RUSSIA WAR #26 October 18, 2022 (1 book and 15 essays).  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2022/10/omni-us-nato-ukraine-russia-war.html

Causes

Dan Kovalik.  The Plot to Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.

Laurence H. Shoup.  “Giving War a Chance.  Council on
   Foreign Relations and Preparing for World War.”

Cook.  Hollywood.

Provocations.

Keeping the War Going

Weiss.  Ukraine v. International Law

Kuzmarov.  US Involvement.

Knight.  “Credibility Gulch.”

Global War: Two Reports on Pelosi’s Vist to Taiwan

Consequences

de Sousa Santos.  An Overview
Stopping the War, Making Peace

Tulsi Gabbard leaves the Democratic War Party.
Marcy Winograd and Media Benjamin report US history of nuclear extortion and call for
    stopping the Ukraine War as JFK did the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Brad Wolf on the corrupting influence war and profits have on everything, including the press.
Chay Bowes. War Propaganda About Ukraine. . . . .” 

Sonja van den Ende.   Russians welcomed as liberators in many Eastern Ukrainian cities….”
John Parker. Western War, Western Media.

Anthology #25 Table of Contents

 

 

 

END US-NATO-UKRAINE-RUSSIA WAR ANTHOLOGY #27