WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS #243, AUGUST 20, 2025. Compiled by Dick Bennett
David
Swanson. Leaving WWII Behind.
Scott Ritter. “What Would Daniel Ellsberg Do?”
PEACEMAKER Scott Ritter’s book tour to
Russia in 2023 to promote amity between the US and Russia, arms control, and nuclear disarmament.
For several years, Scott
Ritter has been trying to inspire peace between the US and Russia. In
May 2023, he began a book tour of Kazan, Irkutsk, and Yekaterinburg for his
most recent book, Disarmament in the time of the Perestroika, which
examines nuclear weapons agreements between Russia and the United States. His essay at the time explains his hopes. --D
|
“What
Would Daniel Ellsberg Do?” April 28, 2023. |
“…I
prepare to embark on a new mission, one
built around the desire to make arms control and nuclear disarmament between
the US and Russia a priority for the US government, again in hopes of
forestalling the possibility of a nuclear war. This mission is derived from my
book about the implementation of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF)
treaty, and my role as a weapons inspector tasked with carrying out compliance
verification inspections in support of this task. This book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, was
recently published in Russia, and I have been invited to Russia to help promote
the Russian language edition.
But
this journey is far more than a simple book tour. It is an act of citizen diplomacy which, once again,
will put me in opposition to the policies of my government and the Russophobia of many of my fellow
Americans.
“My
book,” I explain in a statement I made to the Russian media on the eve of my
departure for Russia, “is about a time when our two nations took seriously the
important task of nuclear disarmament. Today this mission has been halted in
large part by the irrational fear of Russia on the part of the American people.
My goal in bringing this book to
Russia is to rekindle the spirit of friendship and cooperation that existed
three decades ago and, in doing so, help break down the wall of
misunderstanding and ignorance my fellow citizens have constructed that keeps
our two nations apart.”
This
book tour starts in Novosibirsk and will span several thousand kilometers and
eleven Russian cities. This is a journey in the tradition of Van Cliburn, seeking to restore
friendship between the US and Russia one handshake at a time.
Our
goal is to capture this experience so that it can be brought back to my country
as a documentary film which will be
shown to the American people so that they, too, will have a chance to share the
message that I am certain this tour will produce—of a shared humanity among our
two nations that transcends prejudice and fear, and which can return us to the path
of peaceful coexistence we once walked together, side by side, as friends.
“What
would Daniel Ellsberg do?,” I ask myself when thinking about the journey ahead
of me, and I’m comforted by the certainty that, if he were able, Dan would be
right beside me, as an ally and a friend, as we ventured forth together to once
again confront the evil of
ignorance-based fear and the policies of death and destruction that it
produces.
David
Swanson. Leaving World War II Behind. 2020.
For several years I have sometimes put a line through the
word defense when it was employed deceptively, as with
Department of Defense. Those of you
who have read OMNI’s Anthologies on US imperialism know that I have published
articles and books calling into question each of our wars. In Leaving World War II Behind David
Swanson advocates changing the name of the Department of Defense (originally
and truthfully the Department of War) to the DEPARTMENT OF ACTUAL DEFENSE. Its mission would be to look “very hard at
the twin dangers of nuclear and climate apocalypse….in order to actually defend
against them. . . .A Department of Actual Defense would need to be global, not
national. . . .[it] might encompass what’s been conceived of as a Department of
Peace, an agency aimed at moving from violence to nonviolence. But a Department of Actual Defense would also
be dedicated to preventing all major harm” (239-240). We can all be a part by signing the Declaration
of Peace, at the website worldbeyondwar.org. “I
understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us,
that they kill, injure, and traumatize, adults, children, and infants, severely
damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies,
siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. I commit to engage in and support nonviolent
efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and
just peace” (241). (D)
