Nuclear Weapons
“A new strategy is needed. If the human race is to survive, there is a desperate need for a new strategy that goes beyond deterrence. All it takes is one miscalculation, or one person, and not even a leader, to start a nuclear exchange. A greater number of nuclear powers, including countries that have their own enduring rivalries, makes everyone in the world less secure. Opportunities for third parties or unstable leaders to launch an attack proliferate in a world where fissionable material is unaccounted for and the technical skills for building a bomb are increasingly available. This reality holds important implications for policy going forward. Any strategy that assumes the rationality of leaders invites catastrophic consequences. Yet the formal plan to deter rogue actors does not differ from the strategy designed to ward off established state actors, even when it is clear the motives, goals, and incentives of non-state actors do not overlap with those of state leaders. If humanity is to survive, policy makers need to undertake major changes, including a strong push to reduce nuclear weapons across the board and a deeper investment in prevention, in order to reduce the risk of accidents and inadvertent escalation.”
“In 1977, I became the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, serving in the Carter administration. During my term in office I learned another lesson about the limitations of deterrence. I was awakened at 3 a.m. by a phone call from the watch officer at our missile warning center. He told me that his computers were showing 200 missiles on the way from the Soviet Union to the United States! Happily, he quickly added that he had determined that his computers were in error, and he was calling me to help him determine what was wrong with his computers. But before he had recognized that this was a false alarm, he had called the White House to alert them. We came within a few minutes of the president having to decide whether to launch our missiles in response to this presumed attack. If the president had ordered a launch he would have started a nuclear war by accident!
I learned one clear lesson from my experiences with the Cuban Missile Crisis and the false alarm: The United States’ deterrence policy was not sufficient to prevent a civilization-ending nuclear war. The danger of a nuclear war was not that one leader would suddenly launch a surprise disarming attack—which was what both the United States and Russia were preparing for—but that we would blunder into a nuclear war. The blunder could result from a political miscalculation, as in the Cuban Missile Crisis, or an accident, as in the false alarm. Either of them could have resulted in the end of civilization.”
New Costs of War Study: 37 Million Displaced by U.S. Post-9/11 Wars
In September 2020, the Costs of War project released a new report entitled, “Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the U.S. Post-9/11 Wars,” outlining the number of people displaced as a result of post-9/11 wars.
The United States’ post-9/11 wars have displaced at least 37 million people, according to a new report released today by Costs of War. This study, “Creating Refugees: Displacement Caused by the U.S. Post-9/11 Wars,” is the first to calculate the displacement toll of these wars. The estimate was derived by counting refugees, asylum seekers pursuing protection as refugees, and internally displaced people or persons (IDPs) in the eight countries that the United States has most targeted in the post 9/11 wars: Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Phillipines, Libya, and Syria.
North and South Korea
Christine Ann giving a great update at Quaker Meeting in Honolulu on the agreement between North and South Korea:
https://www.facebook.com/ann.wright.50/videos/10155399801166179/
Panmunjeom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula – During this momentous period of historical transformation on the Korean Peninsula, reflectig the enduring aspiration of the Korean people for peace, prosperity, and unification, President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea and Chairman Kim Jong Un of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea held an Inter-Korean Summit Meeting at the ‘Peace House’ at Panmunjeom on April 27, 2018.
From In These Times: The Historic Korean Peace Declaration Was Made Possible By Social Movements, Not Trump
Syria
The five-year conflict in Syria has become even more devastating after a chemical gas attack on innocent civilians in Idlib, Syria on April 4, 2017. The truth about what actually happened has been hard to discover. We will post a few articles that we hope will help us in this quest.
From The Center For Citizen Initiatives: America’s Former Intelligence Officers Speak Out
From Global Research: Assessment of White House Intelligence Report About Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria
Russia
From grahamefuller.com: Trump: Lurching Towards a New Foreign Policy? (1/6/19)
We are distressed by the growing tension between NATO and Russia. Here are some noteworthy articles to keep us unbiased and informed.
From Information Clearing House: Provoking Nuclear War by Media
From The Intercept: U.S. Defense Contractors Tell Investors Russian Threat Is Great for Business
From The Real News Network: US-NATO Border Confrontation with Russia Risks Nuclear War and Loss of European Partners
From CommonDreams: Imperial NATO: Before and After Brexit
From the Irish Independent: The militarisation of Europe is a far greater threat than Brexit
From The American Herald Tribune that discusses NATO and Russia among other topics : Dr. Michael Brenner: America has not come to terms to what it did and the devils that it unleashed
This is a 10 minute segment of a film that Regis Tremblay is making: The Scene of the Crime: Bruce Gagnon at Odessa Trades Hall