Antiwar News March 19
Trump Gave Israel the ‘Green Light’ To Restart Large-Scale Bombing in Gaza
The US is backing Israel's escalation by blaming the slaughter of Palestinians on Hamas
Dave DeCamp
March 19, 2025
The US is backing Israel's escalation by blaming the slaughter of Palestinians on Hamas
Dave DeCamp
March 19, 2025
A Palestinian is brought to a hospital following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Israel launched a series of attacks against Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, threatening a return to war after talks to release the remaining hostages held in the enclave stalled out.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to take strong action after Hamas failed to release more hostages or accept U.S. proposals for extending a fragile cease-fire that had held for two months, his office said.
The strikes were the most extensive since the cease-fire took effect in January, and Israel indicated they would continue.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force,” the prime minister’s office said.
President Trump gave Israel a green light to restart attacks on Hamas after the U.S.-designated terrorist group failed to give up hostages, an Israeli official said. Israel then gave the U.S. a heads up before starting the operation, the official said.
Read complete article on antiwar.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to take strong action after Hamas failed to release more hostages or accept U.S. proposals for extending a fragile cease-fire that had held for two months, his office said.
The strikes were the most extensive since the cease-fire took effect in January, and Israel indicated they would continue.
“From now on, Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military force,” the prime minister’s office said.
President Trump gave Israel a green light to restart attacks on Hamas after the U.S.-designated terrorist group failed to give up hostages, an Israeli official said. Israel then gave the U.S. a heads up before starting the operation, the official said.
Read complete article on antiwar.
Trump, Putin agree on ‘energy and infrastructure ceasefire’ – White House
The US and Russian presidents have also found common ground on curbing strategic weapons proliferation
Dave DeCamp
March 18, 2025
The US and Russian presidents have also found common ground on curbing strategic weapons proliferation
Dave DeCamp
March 18, 2025
FILE PHOTO. © Getty Images/Rudy Sulgan
President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and the two leaders agreed to an “energy and infrastructure ceasefire” in Ukraine as a first step toward a lasting peace, the White House said in a readout of the call.
“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the readout said, adding that the negotiations “will begin immediately in the Middle East.”
According to RT, the Kremlin has confirmed that Putin agreed with a proposal from Trump for Russia and Ukraine to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days and that he instructed his military accordingly.
The White House said that Trump and Putin also agreed “that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside. This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
So far, there’s been no immediate response from Ukraine about the potential partial ceasefire, which would require Ukraine to stop using drones to target infrastructure inside Russia.
The US and Ukraine initially proposed a 30-day ceasefire that would apply to all fighting, but Putin responded with several conditions, including a guarantee that the US wouldn’t provide military aid to Ukraine during the truce.
The Kremlin said that Putin told Trump during the call on Tuesday that the “key condition” needed to bring an end to the war and prevent escalation was the “complete cessation” of foreign military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine. Ukrainian neutrality was Russia’s main demand during negotiations before the invasion and in short-lived talks at the beginning of the invasion, which were discouraged by the US.
“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the readout said, adding that the negotiations “will begin immediately in the Middle East.”
According to RT, the Kremlin has confirmed that Putin agreed with a proposal from Trump for Russia and Ukraine to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days and that he instructed his military accordingly.
The White House said that Trump and Putin also agreed “that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside. This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
So far, there’s been no immediate response from Ukraine about the potential partial ceasefire, which would require Ukraine to stop using drones to target infrastructure inside Russia.
The US and Ukraine initially proposed a 30-day ceasefire that would apply to all fighting, but Putin responded with several conditions, including a guarantee that the US wouldn’t provide military aid to Ukraine during the truce.
The Kremlin said that Putin told Trump during the call on Tuesday that the “key condition” needed to bring an end to the war and prevent escalation was the “complete cessation” of foreign military aid and intelligence support for Ukraine. Ukrainian neutrality was Russia’s main demand during negotiations before the invasion and in short-lived talks at the beginning of the invasion, which were discouraged by the US.
Israel Restarts Large-Scale Bombing of Gaza, Over 400 Killed
Many of the dead are children as Israel is hitting homes and tents sheltering displaced Palestinians
Dave DeCamp
March 18, 2025
Many of the dead are children as Israel is hitting homes and tents sheltering displaced Palestinians
Dave DeCamp
March 18, 2025
Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, on civilian homes during the Gaza War 23-25. Jaber Jehad Badwan, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Israeli military on Tuesday morning began launching large-scale airstrikes on the besieged Gaza Strip, marking the full-scale resumption of Israel’s genocidal war.
Around 1:00 pm Gaza time, Al Jazeera reported that 404 Palestinians had been killed and 562 had been wounded by Israeli strikes on homes and tents sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Strip.
Pictures and videos from Gaza that have surfaced online show there is a large number of child casualties. “Israeli bombardment has returned to Gaza, bringing massacres with it once again,” Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif wrote on X. “The bodies of children, killed in their sleep, lay scattered in the aftermath.”
The massive attack came about two weeks after Israel imposed a total blockade on aid and all other goods entering Gaza at the end of the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Israel violated the agreement by imposing the blockade, refusing to engage in negotiations on the second phase, and killing Palestinians throughout the truce.
Around 1:00 pm Gaza time, Al Jazeera reported that 404 Palestinians had been killed and 562 had been wounded by Israeli strikes on homes and tents sheltering displaced Palestinians across the Strip.
Pictures and videos from Gaza that have surfaced online show there is a large number of child casualties. “Israeli bombardment has returned to Gaza, bringing massacres with it once again,” Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif wrote on X. “The bodies of children, killed in their sleep, lay scattered in the aftermath.”
The massive attack came about two weeks after Israel imposed a total blockade on aid and all other goods entering Gaza at the end of the first phase of the ceasefire deal. Israel violated the agreement by imposing the blockade, refusing to engage in negotiations on the second phase, and killing Palestinians throughout the truce.
Read article on antiwar.
Putin Signals He’s Open to Ceasefire as Witkoff Arrives for Talks
An aide to Putin said the proposal would only help Ukraine regroup and that it would need to be adjusted to meet Moscow's position
An aide to Putin said the proposal would only help Ukraine regroup and that it would need to be adjusted to meet Moscow's position
The aftermath of an attack in Dnipro, Ukraine, on Wednesday.Credit...Nicole Tung for The New York Times
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled that he’s open to the 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US and Ukraine but that there are “questions” that need to be discussed.
“The idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,” Putin said, according to The New York Times. “But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”
Putin said one of those questions was whether or not Ukraine would receive US weapons during the 30-day ceasefire. He also said any peace deal needs to address the “root causes” of the war.
Putin made the comments as US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia to discuss the proposal. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin official, said Witkoff would be holding a closed-door meeting with Putin.
Complete article on antiwar.
“The idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,” Putin said, according to The New York Times. “But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”
Putin said one of those questions was whether or not Ukraine would receive US weapons during the 30-day ceasefire. He also said any peace deal needs to address the “root causes” of the war.
Putin made the comments as US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia to discuss the proposal. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin official, said Witkoff would be holding a closed-door meeting with Putin.
Complete article on antiwar.
Judge Halts Trump Administration’s Attempts to Deport Mahmoud Khalil
Mahmoud Khalil NYC detention protest. SWinxy, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A federal judge has blocked, for now, the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a former student at Columbia University who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, ostensibly for his involvement and leadership during student-led demonstrations against Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestinians.
Khalil’s detention and planned deportation came days after President Donald Trump threatened universities and students across the country, ambiguously indicating that his administration would target those who engaged in so-called “illegal protests.” Trump also indicated, after Khalil was detained, that the policy would continue and expand in the future.
Stating that ICE “proudly apprehended” Khalil after his statements and executive orders, Trump wrongly described him on Truth Social as a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student.”
“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump added. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
Under U.S. law, Khalil, a graduate of the university and a current green card holder, can have his status revoked and can be deported if he engaged in criminal behavior or supported organizations that the government has defined as having ties to terrorism. However, there appears to be no evidence whatsoever that Khalil engaged in the kind of actions Trump is describing.
“The government would need to prove that he’s done something more than just speaking out, like offering material support to Hamas,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, speaking to Time about Khalil’s detention. “That would be a ground of deportability. They can’t deport only for free speech advocacy.”
Continue reading on Scheerpost.
Khalil’s detention and planned deportation came days after President Donald Trump threatened universities and students across the country, ambiguously indicating that his administration would target those who engaged in so-called “illegal protests.” Trump also indicated, after Khalil was detained, that the policy would continue and expand in the future.
Stating that ICE “proudly apprehended” Khalil after his statements and executive orders, Trump wrongly described him on Truth Social as a “Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student.”
“This is the first arrest of many to come,” Trump added. “We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the Country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it.”
Under U.S. law, Khalil, a graduate of the university and a current green card holder, can have his status revoked and can be deported if he engaged in criminal behavior or supported organizations that the government has defined as having ties to terrorism. However, there appears to be no evidence whatsoever that Khalil engaged in the kind of actions Trump is describing.
“The government would need to prove that he’s done something more than just speaking out, like offering material support to Hamas,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a retired immigration law professor at Cornell Law School, speaking to Time about Khalil’s detention. “That would be a ground of deportability. They can’t deport only for free speech advocacy.”
Continue reading on Scheerpost.
Columbia Complicit in Trump Arrest of Student Leader Mahmoud Khalil
Update
A federal judge in New York issued a ruling on Monday afternoon that the government cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil “unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”
US District Judge Jesse M. Furman set a hearing for Wednesday, 12 March, on Khalil’s habeas corpus petition – a legal challenge to the lawfulness of his detention. Khalil remains in federal custody.
Original article
As of Monday morning, Mahmoud Khalil was being detained at a federal immigration facility in Louisiana.
The recent Columbia graduate was inside his university-owned apartment on Saturday night in New York City when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered and detained him, his attorney Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.
As he languishes in a cell far from his home and family, fellow students are denouncing Columbia’s silence and apparent complicity in his arrest.
On Sunday, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed Khalil’s arrest, claiming it was for “activities aligned to Hamas.”
Khalil’s detention is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on supporters of Palestinian rights under the pretext of fighting “anti-Semitism” and support for “terrorism.”
Well-known and respected on campus, Khalil led negotiations between university officials and students during last year’s campus encampment protesting the Israeli genocide in Palestine and amid the ongoing crackdown.
An Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin and a legal permanent resident of the United States, Khalil’s green card is supposed to afford him all the constitutional free speech protections enjoyed by US citizens.
Arbitrary arrest
According to Greer, the ICE agents also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.
“Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa,” the Associated Press reported.
“Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared an AP article about Khalil’s arrest on Twitter/X on Sunday, vowing that “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
A federal judge in New York issued a ruling on Monday afternoon that the government cannot deport Mahmoud Khalil “unless and until the Court orders otherwise.”
US District Judge Jesse M. Furman set a hearing for Wednesday, 12 March, on Khalil’s habeas corpus petition – a legal challenge to the lawfulness of his detention. Khalil remains in federal custody.
Original article
As of Monday morning, Mahmoud Khalil was being detained at a federal immigration facility in Louisiana.
The recent Columbia graduate was inside his university-owned apartment on Saturday night in New York City when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entered and detained him, his attorney Amy Greer, told the Associated Press.
As he languishes in a cell far from his home and family, fellow students are denouncing Columbia’s silence and apparent complicity in his arrest.
On Sunday, the US Department of Homeland Security confirmed Khalil’s arrest, claiming it was for “activities aligned to Hamas.”
Khalil’s detention is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s crackdown on supporters of Palestinian rights under the pretext of fighting “anti-Semitism” and support for “terrorism.”
Well-known and respected on campus, Khalil led negotiations between university officials and students during last year’s campus encampment protesting the Israeli genocide in Palestine and amid the ongoing crackdown.
An Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin and a legal permanent resident of the United States, Khalil’s green card is supposed to afford him all the constitutional free speech protections enjoyed by US citizens.
Arbitrary arrest
According to Greer, the ICE agents also threatened to arrest Khalil’s wife, a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.
“Greer said she spoke by phone with one of the ICE agents during the arrest, who said they were acting on State Department orders to revoke Khalil’s student visa,” the Associated Press reported.
“Informed by the attorney that Khalil was in the United States as a permanent resident with a green card, the agent said they were revoking that instead, according to the lawyer.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared an AP article about Khalil’s arrest on Twitter/X on Sunday, vowing that “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Trump Says the US Can’t Cut Military Spending Now
The president has backed a House Republican budget plan that will increase military spending by $100 billion
Dave DeCamp
March 10, 2025
Dave DeCamp
March 10, 2025
Over 1,000 Reported Killed, Mostly Civilians, as HTS Syrian Forces Attack Alawites
Government forces reportedly control major cities, fighting continues in Latakia mountains
Jason Ditz
March 8, 2025
Government forces reportedly control major cities, fighting continues in Latakia mountains
Jason Ditz
March 8, 2025
Smoke rises while members of the Syrian forces ride on a vehicle as they battle against a nascent insurgency by fighters from ousted leader Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, in Latakia, Syria March 7, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri
The situation in northwestern Syria continues to spiral out of control this weekend, as the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been surging forces into the Alawite homelands in the Latakia and Tartus Governorates, clashing with Alawite militias and slaughtering civilians.
The fighting erupted Thursday, when the militias launched an organized attack on an HTS-run checkpoint near Jableh. It quickly escalated, and now the reported death tolls are enormous. The Associated Press is reporting over 600 killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) is saying over 1,000 deaths are believed to have happened. Currently, 125 militia fighters and 148 government forces loyal to the HTS have been confirmed killed, though those numbers are expected to rise, as the fighting continues across the region.
The majority of the deaths though, potentially the vast majority, are Alawite civilians, as HTS forces from the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry have been carrying out revenge killings en masse in several locations. At least 745 civilians have been killed killed in summary executions over the past three days, though that number is expected to continue to rise as the incidents continue.
Continue article on antiwar.
The fighting erupted Thursday, when the militias launched an organized attack on an HTS-run checkpoint near Jableh. It quickly escalated, and now the reported death tolls are enormous. The Associated Press is reporting over 600 killed, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) is saying over 1,000 deaths are believed to have happened. Currently, 125 militia fighters and 148 government forces loyal to the HTS have been confirmed killed, though those numbers are expected to rise, as the fighting continues across the region.
The majority of the deaths though, potentially the vast majority, are Alawite civilians, as HTS forces from the Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry have been carrying out revenge killings en masse in several locations. At least 745 civilians have been killed killed in summary executions over the past three days, though that number is expected to continue to rise as the incidents continue.
Continue article on antiwar.
Kremlin responds to Trump’s call for nuclear disarmament
Dialogue with the US is necessary, but the arsenals of America’s European allies cannot be ignored, Dmitry Peskov has said
March 7, 2025
March 7, 2025
FILE PHOTO. © Sputnik / Yekaterina Chesnokova
Moscow is ready to discuss arms control with Washington, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said, after US President Donald Trump called for nuclear disarmament among world powers.
Peskov told journalists on Friday that strategic stability and nuclear disarmament are topics on Moscow’s agenda, stating that dialogue between Russia and the US on arms control “is necessary.” He added that these discussions would benefit not just the two nations, but international security in general.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said, “it would be great if we could all denuclearize.” He noted that the US and Russia currently possess the largest nuclear arsenals, while China could reach similar levels in four to five years.
However, Moscow believes that talks should include not only the US, Russia, and China, but European nuclear powers – France and the UK – as well. “It is impossible to just overlook European nuclear arsenals in this dialogue,” the Kremlin spokesman said, pointing to recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Peskov told journalists on Friday that strategic stability and nuclear disarmament are topics on Moscow’s agenda, stating that dialogue between Russia and the US on arms control “is necessary.” He added that these discussions would benefit not just the two nations, but international security in general.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said, “it would be great if we could all denuclearize.” He noted that the US and Russia currently possess the largest nuclear arsenals, while China could reach similar levels in four to five years.
However, Moscow believes that talks should include not only the US, Russia, and China, but European nuclear powers – France and the UK – as well. “It is impossible to just overlook European nuclear arsenals in this dialogue,” the Kremlin spokesman said, pointing to recent remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Continue reading on RT.
Less Than Half in U.S. Now Sympathetic Toward Israelis
Support for establishment of independent Palestinian state remains at majority level
Megan Brenan
March 6, 2025
Support for establishment of independent Palestinian state remains at majority level
Megan Brenan
March 6, 2025
Although Americans remain more likely to say their sympathies in the Middle East situation are with the Israelis rather than the Palestinians, the 46% expressing support for Israel is the lowest in 25 years of Gallup’s annual tracking of this measure on its World Affairs survey. The previous 51% low point in this trend of Americans’ sympathy for Israelis was recorded both last year and in 2001.
At the same time, the 33% of U.S. adults who now say they sympathize with the Palestinians is up six percentage points from last year and the highest reading by two points.
At the same time, the 33% of U.S. adults who now say they sympathize with the Palestinians is up six percentage points from last year and the highest reading by two points.
The latest reading is from a Gallup poll conducted Feb. 3-16, during which the temporary ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas that started in mid-January continued. The poll began one day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s White House visit that included a joint press conference with President Donald Trump. During that press event on Feb. 4, Trump expressed his intent for the U.S. to own and redevelop the Gaza Strip.
Continue article on gallup.com.
Continue article on gallup.com.
The Trump administration has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine on top of the suspension of military aid as part of an effort to get Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pursue peace talks with Russia.
The intelligence pause has had an immediate effect on Ukraine’s war effort since it has relied on US intelligence for tracking Russian troops, and it’s required for firing US-provided HIMARS rocket systems.
A US official told Axios that the pause on intelligence sharing was focused on information that Ukraine could use to launch attacks inside Russian territory, operations that have risked provoking a direct clash between the US and Russia.
Continue reading on antiwar.
The intelligence pause has had an immediate effect on Ukraine’s war effort since it has relied on US intelligence for tracking Russian troops, and it’s required for firing US-provided HIMARS rocket systems.
A US official told Axios that the pause on intelligence sharing was focused on information that Ukraine could use to launch attacks inside Russian territory, operations that have risked provoking a direct clash between the US and Russia.
Continue reading on antiwar.
The Geopolitics of Peace —
Jeffrey Sachs in the European Parliament
Jeffrey Sachs in the European Parliament
House Passes Budget Resolution That Will Increase Military Spending by $100 Billion
Rep. Massie was the only Republican to vote against the budget plan, which has been backed by President Trump
Rep. Massie was the only Republican to vote against the budget plan, which has been backed by President Trump
smarthernews.com
House Republicans on Tuesday passed a budget blueprint that would raise military spending by $100 billion, a plan backed by President Trump despite his suggestions that Pentagon spending could be cut.
The budget plan also extends $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, would add $3 trillion to the deficit, and raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. It passed along party lines in a vote of 217-215, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) being the only Republican to vote against it.
Explaining his opposition, Massie cited the increases in the deficit. “If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better,” he wrote on X a day before the vote.
The budget plan also extends $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, would add $3 trillion to the deficit, and raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. It passed along party lines in a vote of 217-215, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) being the only Republican to vote against it.
Explaining his opposition, Massie cited the increases in the deficit. “If the Republican budget passes, the deficit gets worse, not better,” he wrote on X a day before the vote.
The Senate recently passed its own budget resolution that would increase military spending by $150 billion, but it didn’t include the tax cuts. Trump has said he wants the budget plan and tax cuts to be put together in “one big beautiful bill,” backing the House’s version.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said the extra $100 billion in military spending could be used to secure the southern border, among other things.
“The $100 billion in defense spending this resolution unlocks will enable us to begin restoring American deterrence, prioritizing lethality and ensuring peace through strength,” Rogers said, according to Stars and Stripes.
When Republican Senators introduced their version of the budget plan, they said the increase in military spending could be used to fund President Trump’s idea for an “Iron Dome for America,” a missile defense project that will come with a huge price tag and likely start a new arms race.
Article from antiwar.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said the extra $100 billion in military spending could be used to secure the southern border, among other things.
“The $100 billion in defense spending this resolution unlocks will enable us to begin restoring American deterrence, prioritizing lethality and ensuring peace through strength,” Rogers said, according to Stars and Stripes.
When Republican Senators introduced their version of the budget plan, they said the increase in military spending could be used to fund President Trump’s idea for an “Iron Dome for America,” a missile defense project that will come with a huge price tag and likely start a new arms race.
Article from antiwar.
US, Russia Agree To Normalize Diplomatic Ties, Seek End to War in Ukraine
Marco Rubio said the diplomats would work to bring the war in Ukraine to an end.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff attend an interview after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 18, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool
Following a high-level meeting between US and Russian officials, the State Department said Washington and Moscow will begin taking steps to normalize the diplomatic relationship between the two superpowers. US-Russian diplomacy sank during the first Donald Trump administration, and Joe Biden cut nearly all contact with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff met with a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday. During a press conference after the meeting, Rubio said the parties agreed on four points.
“First is that we are going to work – we’re going to point our teams’ respectively to work very quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in Moscow.” He continued, “For us to be able to continue to move down this road, we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally.”
Finish article on antiwar.com.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff met with a Russian delegation led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday. During a press conference after the meeting, Rubio said the parties agreed on four points.
“First is that we are going to work – we’re going to point our teams’ respectively to work very quickly to reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in Moscow.” He continued, “For us to be able to continue to move down this road, we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally.”
Finish article on antiwar.com.
Explosive Remnants in Gaza Cause Dozens of Casualties
Up to 10% of munitions fired by Israel into Gaza have failed to detonate, leaving behind deadly hazards for years to come
Up to 10% of munitions fired by Israel into Gaza have failed to detonate, leaving behind deadly hazards for years to come
An unexploded munition inside a house in Rafah, southern Gaza. (Photo by Anas Zeyad Fteha/Anadolu via Getty Images)
On January 19, the day the “ceasefire” in Gaza went into effect, 29-year-old Yousef Kassab couldn’t wait to return to his neighborhood of Tel al-Sultan in central Rafah to check on his home. He left ahead of his father along with his nephew and neighbor. But when he arrived, he couldn’t find his house—the Israeli military had destroyed the building and bulldozed the ground where it once stood.
His neighbor’s home nearby was battered, yet somehow still standing, so the three of them went inside to take a break and inspect the damage, Kassab’s father told Drop Site News. “As they were about to leave, Yousef was near the kitchen window and saw a strange object that blew up in his face,” Kassab’s 53-year-old father said. “This is what his neighbor and nephew told me after they were severely wounded by the explosion.”
Mohammed arrived just minutes after the explosion to find his son dead on the ground. “I found him with half a head and several gashes in his body. The two others had serious shrapnel wounds. There was blood splattered all over the floor,” Mohammed said. “I took Yousef and buried him in a graveyard in Khan Younis. I couldn’t take the loss since I lost many of my relatives and he was my only son, he was my backbone, he was everything in my life.”
Yousef, a father of three, was killed by a munition fired into Gaza that had failed to detonate, until he came upon it in his neighbor’s house. Dr. Zaher al-Wahaidi, the director of the Information Center at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Drop Site that Yousef was one of at least two people killed by unexploded ordnances in Gaza since the ceasefire began, with at least 40 others wounded.
His neighbor’s home nearby was battered, yet somehow still standing, so the three of them went inside to take a break and inspect the damage, Kassab’s father told Drop Site News. “As they were about to leave, Yousef was near the kitchen window and saw a strange object that blew up in his face,” Kassab’s 53-year-old father said. “This is what his neighbor and nephew told me after they were severely wounded by the explosion.”
Mohammed arrived just minutes after the explosion to find his son dead on the ground. “I found him with half a head and several gashes in his body. The two others had serious shrapnel wounds. There was blood splattered all over the floor,” Mohammed said. “I took Yousef and buried him in a graveyard in Khan Younis. I couldn’t take the loss since I lost many of my relatives and he was my only son, he was my backbone, he was everything in my life.”
Yousef, a father of three, was killed by a munition fired into Gaza that had failed to detonate, until he came upon it in his neighbor’s house. Dr. Zaher al-Wahaidi, the director of the Information Center at Gaza’s Ministry of Health, told Drop Site that Yousef was one of at least two people killed by unexploded ordnances in Gaza since the ceasefire began, with at least 40 others wounded.
Yousef Kassab in an undated photo. Credit: Mohammed Kassab
The Israeli military has fired tens of thousands of munitions into Gaza since the war began on October 7, 2023—most of them U.S.-made—with as many as 30,000 bombs dropped in the first seven weeks alone. The United Nations Mine Action Service (UMAS), which has been operating in Gaza since 2009 and remained there throughout the past 15 months, has warned that between 5 to 10 percent of weapons fired into Gaza have failed to detonate, leaving behind deadly hazards for years to come. Since October 2023, at least 92 people have been killed or injured by explosive ordnance, UMAS chief Luke Irving told reporters in a live streamed press briefing from Gaza on January 29. He added that informal reports suggested there have been 24 victims of unexploded ordnance since the ceasefire began.
Continue reading on Substack.
VFP Virtual Screening of What I Want You To Know
Saturday, March 15, 1 Pacific, 4 Eastern
Saturday, March 15, 1 Pacific, 4 Eastern
To mark the anniversary of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, Veterans For Peace presents a virtual screening of What I Want You To Know, an award-winning documentary produced by two veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Military Families Speak Out and Servicemembers for Ceasefire are co-sponsors.
$571 Million in VA Spending on Suicide Prevention Isn’t Working, Vets Groups Say
Veteran advocates are asking for accountability on how the Department of Veterans Affairs uses its $571 million suicide prevention budget, and whether those efforts are working.
Patty Nieberg, Jeff Schogol
February 10, 2025
Patty Nieberg, Jeff Schogol
February 10, 2025
Marines at Twentynine Palms, California, Feb. 10, 2024. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Sean Potter.
Veteran advocates are calling on recently confirmed Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins to investigate why the millions of dollars that the agency spends each year to prevent suicides has yet to significantly curtail the number of veterans who take their own lives.
The VA received an estimated $571 million for suicide prevention efforts in Fiscal Year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, and it requested even more money for this fiscal year, according to the VA’s latest budget request.
In a press release, Grunt Style Foundation, a veteran advocacy group, pressed Collins to look at how the VA’s suicide prevention funds are being used.
“We’re looking at 156,000 of our brothers and sisters that have taken their lives over the last 20 years,” Tim Jensen, president of Grunt Style Foundation, told Task & Purpose “That is just frankly unacceptable.”
The foundation has partnered with Veterans of Foreign Wars on looking at different ways to prevent veteran suicide, such as promoting alternative treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues that veterans face, said VFW spokesman Robert Couture. Both organizations also seek to reduce the stigma that veterans face when they seek mental help.
“We want to be really intentional about that, and we want to be more action-oriented in this partnership,” Couture told Task & Purpose on Monday. “We have these very clear objectives that we’re looking to focus on. It’s really to develop joint campaigns to educate veterans, their families, and the public about the importance of mental health and available support services.”
The VFW is the largest and oldest combat veterans service organization. The group along with the VFW Auxiliary have more than 1.4 million members. Grunt Style Foundation launched in 2021 and focuses on mental health, food security, and military transition and sustainment issues for troops, veterans, and their families.
The Grunt Style Foundation is spearheading the call for the VA secretary to investigate veterans suicide prevention efforts, Couture said.
“It’s about, really: Hey, what is the VA doing with the money and are they doing what’s smart and what’s best for veterans and not just continuing to throw money at a problem,” Couture told Task & Purpose. “What’s the results? That’s what they’re taking the lead on.”
The VA received an estimated $571 million for suicide prevention efforts in Fiscal Year 2024, which ran from Oct. 1, 2023, to Sept. 30, 2024, and it requested even more money for this fiscal year, according to the VA’s latest budget request.
In a press release, Grunt Style Foundation, a veteran advocacy group, pressed Collins to look at how the VA’s suicide prevention funds are being used.
“We’re looking at 156,000 of our brothers and sisters that have taken their lives over the last 20 years,” Tim Jensen, president of Grunt Style Foundation, told Task & Purpose “That is just frankly unacceptable.”
The foundation has partnered with Veterans of Foreign Wars on looking at different ways to prevent veteran suicide, such as promoting alternative treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health issues that veterans face, said VFW spokesman Robert Couture. Both organizations also seek to reduce the stigma that veterans face when they seek mental help.
“We want to be really intentional about that, and we want to be more action-oriented in this partnership,” Couture told Task & Purpose on Monday. “We have these very clear objectives that we’re looking to focus on. It’s really to develop joint campaigns to educate veterans, their families, and the public about the importance of mental health and available support services.”
The VFW is the largest and oldest combat veterans service organization. The group along with the VFW Auxiliary have more than 1.4 million members. Grunt Style Foundation launched in 2021 and focuses on mental health, food security, and military transition and sustainment issues for troops, veterans, and their families.
The Grunt Style Foundation is spearheading the call for the VA secretary to investigate veterans suicide prevention efforts, Couture said.
“It’s about, really: Hey, what is the VA doing with the money and are they doing what’s smart and what’s best for veterans and not just continuing to throw money at a problem,” Couture told Task & Purpose. “What’s the results? That’s what they’re taking the lead on.”
Officials from the two organizations are scheduled to attend the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs annual hearing with Veteran Service Organizations at the end of February where they testify on issues impacting the veteran community.
Some of the topics that Grunt Style Foundation officials hope to address in front of Congress are issues that they have long advocated for, such as the overmedication of veterans by the VA and the lack of data around alternative therapies like hyperbaric oxygen therapy and veteran-centric community events like hiking for mental health treatment.
Suicide was the second-leading cause of death for veterans younger than 45 in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the VA’s annual suicide prevention report, issued in December.
There was an average of 17.6 veteran suicide deaths per day in 2022, compared to 16.5 suicides per day in 2001, the report states. The highest was in 2018, when an average of 18.4 veterans died by suicide each day.
Some of the topics that Grunt Style Foundation officials hope to address in front of Congress are issues that they have long advocated for, such as the overmedication of veterans by the VA and the lack of data around alternative therapies like hyperbaric oxygen therapy and veteran-centric community events like hiking for mental health treatment.
Suicide was the second-leading cause of death for veterans younger than 45 in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the VA’s annual suicide prevention report, issued in December.
There was an average of 17.6 veteran suicide deaths per day in 2022, compared to 16.5 suicides per day in 2001, the report states. The highest was in 2018, when an average of 18.4 veterans died by suicide each day.
Read more on Task & Purpose.
Virginia House Unanimously Passes Defend the Guard Act
Defend the Guard needs volunteers to help advance legislation in other states.
Defend the Guard needs volunteers to help advance legislation in other states.
On Tuesday, the Virginia House of Delegates passed the Defend the Guard Act, legislation that would prohibit the deployment of the state’s National Guard to combat zones without a declaration of war from Congress, as required by the Constitution.
The bill passed unanimously in a vote of 99-0, and it now heads to the Virginia Senate. “HB2193 Defend the Guard Act passes the Virginia House of Delegates 99-0. On to the Virginia Senate,” Delegate Nick Freitas, a retired Green Beret who sponsored the bill, wrote on X. “Thank you all and God speed!”
Sgt. Dan McKnight, the chairman of Bring Our Troops Home, the organization behind the Defend the Guard Act, noted Virginia was the “home of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, all of whom agreed that this country can only go to war when there’s been a vote cast by the people’s elected representatives.”
McKnight said the Virginia House “made their forefathers incredibly proud by unanimously taking a stand and telling the federal government that it needs to obey Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution; before Virginia’s National Guard put their boots on the ground, members of Congress need to put their names on the dotted line.”
Complete article on antiwar.
The bill passed unanimously in a vote of 99-0, and it now heads to the Virginia Senate. “HB2193 Defend the Guard Act passes the Virginia House of Delegates 99-0. On to the Virginia Senate,” Delegate Nick Freitas, a retired Green Beret who sponsored the bill, wrote on X. “Thank you all and God speed!”
Sgt. Dan McKnight, the chairman of Bring Our Troops Home, the organization behind the Defend the Guard Act, noted Virginia was the “home of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, all of whom agreed that this country can only go to war when there’s been a vote cast by the people’s elected representatives.”
McKnight said the Virginia House “made their forefathers incredibly proud by unanimously taking a stand and telling the federal government that it needs to obey Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution; before Virginia’s National Guard put their boots on the ground, members of Congress need to put their names on the dotted line.”
Complete article on antiwar.
How the West hides its Gaza genocide guilt behind Holocaust Day remembrance
The ghosts of thousands of Palestinian children crushed by Israeli bombs loomed over this year's Auschwitz commemorations.
Jonathan Cook
January 31, 2025
The ghosts of thousands of Palestinian children crushed by Israeli bombs loomed over this year's Auschwitz commemorations.
Jonathan Cook
January 31, 2025
Displaced Palestinians make their way from the southern to the northern parts of the Gaza Strip on 29 January 2025 (Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
An entirely mendacious message lay at the heart of this week’s coverage by the BBC of the 80th Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations.
The British state broadcaster asserted throughout the day that the voices of the few remaining survivors of the Nazi extermination programme were still being heard “loud and clear” in western capitals. Those survivors – now in their 80s and 90s – warned that the genocide of a people must “never again” be allowed to take place.
As if to bolster its claim, the BBC showed western leaders – from Britain’s King Charles III, to Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron of France – prominently in attendance at the main ceremony at Auschwitz, the most notorious of the death camps, where more than a million Jews, Roma and other stigmatised groups were burned in ovens.
As a counterpoint, the BBC highlighted the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been excluded from the ceremony for ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Steve Rosenberg, the corporation’s Moscow correspondent, underscored the irony that Russia, so visibly absent, was responsible for liberating Auschwitz on 27 January 1945 – the date that eventually came to be marked as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
But hanging over the proceedings – and the coverage – was a heavy cloud of unreality. Had those western leaders really heard the message of “never again”? Had media outlets like the BBC?
There was an unwanted ghost at the commemorations. In fact, tens of thousands of ghosts.
Those ghosts included the children shredded by US-supplied bombs; the children who slowly suffocated under the rubble of their destroyed homes; the children whose bodies were left to rot, picked apart by feral dogs, because snipers shot at anyone who tried to retrieve them; the children who starved to death because they were seen as “human animals”, denied all food and water; the homeless babies who froze to death in plunging winter temperatures; and the premature babies left to die in their incubators after soldiers invaded hospitals and cut off the power.
Those ghosts were every bit as present at the ceremony as the mountains of shoes and suitcases – separated forever from their owners – lining the corridors of the Auschwitz museum.
Western leaders were determined to look back at the crimes of the past, but not to look at the crimes of the present – crimes they have been so deeply complicit in perpetrating.
Continue reading on Middle East Eye.
The British state broadcaster asserted throughout the day that the voices of the few remaining survivors of the Nazi extermination programme were still being heard “loud and clear” in western capitals. Those survivors – now in their 80s and 90s – warned that the genocide of a people must “never again” be allowed to take place.
As if to bolster its claim, the BBC showed western leaders – from Britain’s King Charles III, to Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron of France – prominently in attendance at the main ceremony at Auschwitz, the most notorious of the death camps, where more than a million Jews, Roma and other stigmatised groups were burned in ovens.
As a counterpoint, the BBC highlighted the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been excluded from the ceremony for ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Steve Rosenberg, the corporation’s Moscow correspondent, underscored the irony that Russia, so visibly absent, was responsible for liberating Auschwitz on 27 January 1945 – the date that eventually came to be marked as Holocaust Remembrance Day.
But hanging over the proceedings – and the coverage – was a heavy cloud of unreality. Had those western leaders really heard the message of “never again”? Had media outlets like the BBC?
There was an unwanted ghost at the commemorations. In fact, tens of thousands of ghosts.
Those ghosts included the children shredded by US-supplied bombs; the children who slowly suffocated under the rubble of their destroyed homes; the children whose bodies were left to rot, picked apart by feral dogs, because snipers shot at anyone who tried to retrieve them; the children who starved to death because they were seen as “human animals”, denied all food and water; the homeless babies who froze to death in plunging winter temperatures; and the premature babies left to die in their incubators after soldiers invaded hospitals and cut off the power.
Those ghosts were every bit as present at the ceremony as the mountains of shoes and suitcases – separated forever from their owners – lining the corridors of the Auschwitz museum.
Western leaders were determined to look back at the crimes of the past, but not to look at the crimes of the present – crimes they have been so deeply complicit in perpetrating.
Continue reading on Middle East Eye.
Israeli Military Blows Up Neighborhood in West Bank’s Jenin Refugee Camp
At least 20 residential buildings were destroyed in the blast, which also damaged a hospital.
Dave DeCamp
February 3, 2025
At least 20 residential buildings were destroyed in the blast, which also damaged a hospital.
Dave DeCamp
February 3, 2025
Smoke rises during an Israeli army operation in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 2, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman
On Sunday, the Israeli military blew up a neighborhood in the Jenin refugee camp as its stepped-up assault on the northern West Bank city continues.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the Israeli military rigged residential buildings in the refugee camp with explosives and blew up at least 20. The blast also damaged the main hospital in Jenin.
The WAFA report noted that the “residential buildings in Jenin refugee camp are built vertically, with each structure containing multiple apartments. As a result, a large number of families have been displaced due to the demolitions.”
Continue reading on antiwar.
According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, the Israeli military rigged residential buildings in the refugee camp with explosives and blew up at least 20. The blast also damaged the main hospital in Jenin.
The WAFA report noted that the “residential buildings in Jenin refugee camp are built vertically, with each structure containing multiple apartments. As a result, a large number of families have been displaced due to the demolitions.”
Continue reading on antiwar.
New Secretary of State Marco Rubio Says Ukraine War Needs To End
The fighting in Ukraine continues despite Trump's pledge to end the conflict in 24 hours.
Dave DeCamp
January 21, 2025
Dave DeCamp
January 21, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was sworn in on Tuesday, has said the war in Ukraine needs to end and that the new Trump administration would work to bring it to a close, although it’s still unclear how that will happen.
On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to bring the war to an end within “24 hours,” but fighting continues to rage along the frontlines, and Russia and Ukraine traded heavy drone attacks overnight Monday into Tuesday.
Ahead of his swearing-in ceremony, Rubio was asked in an interview about Trump’s promise and the situation in Ukraine. “The promise the President made, really if you look at it, is it’s going to be the priority – it’s going to be the official policy of the United States that the war in Ukraine needs to come to an end. It is a stalemate,” he said.
Continue reading in antiwar.com.
On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to bring the war to an end within “24 hours,” but fighting continues to rage along the frontlines, and Russia and Ukraine traded heavy drone attacks overnight Monday into Tuesday.
Ahead of his swearing-in ceremony, Rubio was asked in an interview about Trump’s promise and the situation in Ukraine. “The promise the President made, really if you look at it, is it’s going to be the priority – it’s going to be the official policy of the United States that the war in Ukraine needs to come to an end. It is a stalemate,” he said.
Continue reading in antiwar.com.
In 60 Minutes Interview, Ex-State Dept. Officials Spotlight US Complicity in Gaza Assault
"There is a linkage between every single bomb that is dropped in Gaza and the U.S.," said one former official.
Eloise Goldsmith
January 13, 2025
Eloise Goldsmith
January 13, 2025
In a Sunday interview with 60 Minutes, former State Department officials spoke with journalist Cecilia Vega and offered a window into how the United States has greased the wheels of carnage in Gaza.
Hala Rharrit, an American diplomat who spent 18 years working on human rights and counterterrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere, left her post last spring—becoming the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration's policies backing Israel's siege on Gaza, according to Democracy Now!.
Rharrit would send daily reports to senior leadership in Washington containing "gruesome images and her warnings," according to 60 Minutes. "I would show the complicity that was indisputable. Fragments of U.S. bombs next to massacres of... mostly children," Rharrit recounted.
Continue reading on Common Dreams.
Hala Rharrit, an American diplomat who spent 18 years working on human rights and counterterrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere, left her post last spring—becoming the first State Department diplomat to publicly resign over the Biden administration's policies backing Israel's siege on Gaza, according to Democracy Now!.
Rharrit would send daily reports to senior leadership in Washington containing "gruesome images and her warnings," according to 60 Minutes. "I would show the complicity that was indisputable. Fragments of U.S. bombs next to massacres of... mostly children," Rharrit recounted.
Continue reading on Common Dreams.
In an exclusive new documentary, Max Blumenthal rips the cover off the media deceptions and atrocity hoaxes Israel pushed after October 7 to create political space for its gruesome assault on the Gaza Strip. Blumenthal exposes the US mainstream media's role as a megaphone for the Israeli government, introducing new lies even after their initial ones were debunked.
Atrocity Inc raises serious questions about the official narrative of October 7, while revealing how Israel's army has consciously engaged in the same hideous atrocities which it falsely accused Palestinian militants of committing.
Directed & Edited by Sut Jhally
Written by Max Blumenthal and Sut Jhally
Atrocity Inc raises serious questions about the official narrative of October 7, while revealing how Israel's army has consciously engaged in the same hideous atrocities which it falsely accused Palestinian militants of committing.
Directed & Edited by Sut Jhally
Written by Max Blumenthal and Sut Jhally
VFP-111 Announces Conscientious Objector Project
"The best way to engage the interest of community members is to provide an action that they can take. Chapter 111's Conscientious Objection Project does that," says chapter president Aneesa Ahad. "It offers a direct path to fighting militarism through draft resistance and developing awareness of how the military is forced upon students in high school."
ICAN Report:
Surge in 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending
The nine nuclear-armed countries spent more than $10 billion more on their nuclear arsenals last year than the year before, as ICAN shows in “Surge: 2023 Global Nuclear Weapons Spending”. Between them, they pumped $91.4 billion into the nuclear arms race, or $2,898 per second.
The biggest spender, also with the largest one-year increase, was the United States at $51.5 billion - $1,633 per second!, more than all other nuclear-armed countries combined.
Read complete report, with takeaways, here.
Read complete report, with takeaways, here.
Moving Back from the Brink
Pacific Northwest organizers join a global campaign to abolish all nukes and push for a city council resolution to start
Gene Marx
Apr 04, 2024
Pacific Northwest organizers join a global campaign to abolish all nukes and push for a city council resolution to start
Gene Marx
Apr 04, 2024
nuclear sun - kattomic energy
At 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945, a flash “brighter than a thousand suns” lit the Alamogordo desert in New Mexico. General Leslie Groves, the overseer of the Manhattan Project estimated the explosive force of Trinity, the first full scale test of the implosion-type atomic fission bomb, “in excess of the equivalent of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT.”
Grove’s report continued to describe “a fireball brighter than several midday suns;” a stratospheric mushroom cloud over 41,000 feet; and an explosive force resulting in a crater 1,200 feet in diameter and shattering windows 125 miles away.
According to War Secretary Henry Stimson, President Truman was giddy, “tremendously pepped up,” confident and invigorated enough to call the annihilation of Hiroshima three weeks later to the sailors on the USS Augusta while returning from Potsdam “the greatest thing in history.”
Today, a mere lifetime and thousands of Trinities later, nine nuclear nations control the futures of billions of global inhabitants. The cataclysmic potential of more than 13,000 nuclear weapons in 2024, each with unimaginable destructive power, are but a single miscalculation, false flag attack or accident away from ravaging the planet.
Grove’s report continued to describe “a fireball brighter than several midday suns;” a stratospheric mushroom cloud over 41,000 feet; and an explosive force resulting in a crater 1,200 feet in diameter and shattering windows 125 miles away.
According to War Secretary Henry Stimson, President Truman was giddy, “tremendously pepped up,” confident and invigorated enough to call the annihilation of Hiroshima three weeks later to the sailors on the USS Augusta while returning from Potsdam “the greatest thing in history.”
Today, a mere lifetime and thousands of Trinities later, nine nuclear nations control the futures of billions of global inhabitants. The cataclysmic potential of more than 13,000 nuclear weapons in 2024, each with unimaginable destructive power, are but a single miscalculation, false flag attack or accident away from ravaging the planet.
Recently, longtime antinuclear activist, Dr. Helen Caldicott described the medical effects of a single 20-megaton bomb dropped on an American city, New York or maybe Boston:
Russian 20-megaton bomb would enter at 20 times the speed of sound exploding with the heat of the sun, digging a hole three-quarters of a mile wide and 88 feet deep, converting all buildings, people and earth shot up into the air as a mushroom cloud. Twenty miles from the epicenter, all humans would be killed or lethally injured, some converted to charcoal statues. Winds of 500 mph turn people into missiles traveling at 100 mph. A massive conflagration would follow covering 300 square miles and the fires would coalesce across the nation.
As cities burn across the world, a massive cloud of toxic black smoke will elevate into the stratosphere blocking out the sun for ten years inducing a short ice age nuclear winter when all humans and most plants and animals will perish.
greg wegwich pinterest.com
Closer to home, the Pacific Northwest is a major nuclear, strategically targeted region in any war, if only to include the 1,300 nuclear warheads at Kitsap Bangor Naval Base and submarine communications base, Naval Radio Station Jim Creek, near Oso, both within 73 and 58 miles, as eagles fly, from Bellingham, both listed as primary U.S. ground zeros for Russia’s crosshairs. Doing the cataclysmic math for a strike on Oso, the City of Subdued Excitement and most of Skagit County would be consumed in less than fifteen minutes in a mega-inferno, and finished off by shockwaves and Carl Sagan’s “witches brew of radioactive particles” raining down as fallout.
Those lucky enough to have survived will realize within minutes they are entirely on their own. No 911. No FEMA. Just struggling to self-survive.
While individual and cultural psychic-numbing provides most of the post-Cold War populace with a much-needed coping mechanism to keep from being overwhelmed. Many of the rest of us remember all too well nuclear annihilation threats from U.S. presidents and Soviet leaders, the inefficacies of civil defense exercises and the Cuban Missile crisis, and most refuse to check out, just yet.
Read complete article on Substack.
Those lucky enough to have survived will realize within minutes they are entirely on their own. No 911. No FEMA. Just struggling to self-survive.
While individual and cultural psychic-numbing provides most of the post-Cold War populace with a much-needed coping mechanism to keep from being overwhelmed. Many of the rest of us remember all too well nuclear annihilation threats from U.S. presidents and Soviet leaders, the inefficacies of civil defense exercises and the Cuban Missile crisis, and most refuse to check out, just yet.
Read complete article on Substack.
Update -
Bellingham City Council
unanimously passes resolution calling
for permanent cease-fire in Gaza
It took nine years and a do-over,
but perseverance and peaceful protest win out
Bellingham City Council
unanimously passes resolution calling
for permanent cease-fire in Gaza
It took nine years and a do-over,
but perseverance and peaceful protest win out
On Monday, Bellingham, Washington’s City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting an “Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza, Israel and Palestine,” crafted by Whatcom (County) Families for Justice, Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, and Veterans for Peace Chapter 111. Interestingly, Bellingham’s latest successful resolution effort is a do-over from Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when a similar Gaza resolution calling for an end to violence on both sides, failed for the simple lack of a second. The Israeli tactic of “mowing the grass” in the Gaza Strip nine years ago, resulting in more than 2,000 Palestinian deaths, including 500 children, was not enough to move the measure forward. Threats, intimidation and political expediency won out.
But that was then.
Almost a decade later, visibly affected Council Members passed the latest version of the resolution during its preliminary Committee of the Whole discussion. Following measured revisions to the original draft submitted by local activists, an impassioned Council recognized the urgency of the 2023 carnage in Gaza and voted unanimously to support its passage during that evening’s business meeting.
Read complete piece on Substack.
But that was then.
Almost a decade later, visibly affected Council Members passed the latest version of the resolution during its preliminary Committee of the Whole discussion. Following measured revisions to the original draft submitted by local activists, an impassioned Council recognized the urgency of the 2023 carnage in Gaza and voted unanimously to support its passage during that evening’s business meeting.
Read complete piece on Substack.
JFK's Commencement Address at American University, Washington, D.C., June 10, 1963
President John F. Kennedy
June 10, 1963
President Anderson, members of the faculty, board of trustees, distinguished guests, my old colleague, Senator Bob Byrd, who has earned his degree through many years of attending night law school, while I am earning mine in the next 30 minutes, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
It is with great pride that I participate in this ceremony of the American University, sponsored by the Methodist Church, founded by Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, and first opened by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. This is a young and growing university, but it has already fulfilled Bishop Hurst's enlightened hope for the study of history and public affairs in a city devoted to the making of history and the conduct of the public's business. By sponsoring this institution of higher learning for all who wish to learn, whatever their color or their creed, the Methodists of this area and the Nation deserve the Nation's thanks, and I commend all those who are today graduating.
Professor Woodrow Wilson once said that every man sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time, and I am confident that the men and women who carry the honor of graduating from this institution will continue to give from their lives, from their talents, a high measure of public service and public support.
"There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university," wrote John Masefield in his tribute to English universities--and his words are equally true today. He did not refer to spires and towers, to campus greens and ivied walls. He admired the splendid beauty of the university, he said, because it was "a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."
I have, therefore, chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived--yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.
What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children--not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women--not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.
I speak of peace because of the new face of war. Total war makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those forces. It makes no sense in an age when a single nuclear weapon contains almost ten times the explosive force delivered by all the allied air forces in the Second World War. It makes no sense in an age when the deadly poisons produced by a nuclear exchange would be carried by wind and water and soil and seed to the far corners of the globe and to generations yet unborn.
Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year on weapons acquired for the purpose of making sure we never need to use them is essential to keeping the peace. But surely the acquisition of such idle stockpiles--which can only destroy and never create--is not the only, much less the most efficient, means of assuring peace.
I speak of peace, therefore, as the necessary rational end of rational men. I realize that the pursuit of peace is not as dramatic as the pursuit of war--and frequently the words of the pursuer fall on deaf ears. But we have no more urgent task.
Some say that it is useless to speak of world peace or world law or world disarmament--and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitude--as individuals and as a Nation--for our attitude is as essential as theirs. And every graduate of this school, every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace, should begin by looking inward--by examining his own attitude toward the possibilities of peace, toward the Soviet Union, toward the course of the cold war and toward freedom and peace here at home.
First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable--that mankind is doomed--that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade--therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable--and we believe they can do it again.
I am not referring to the absolute, infinite concept of peace and good will of which some fantasies and fanatics dream. I do not deny the value of hopes and dreams but we merely invite discouragement and incredulity by making that our only and immediate goal.
Let us focus instead on a more practical, more attainable peace-- based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on a gradual evolution in human institutions--on a series of concrete actions and effective agreements which are in the interest of all concerned. There is no single, simple key to this peace--no grand or magic formula to be adopted by one or two powers. Genuine peace must be the product of many nations, the sum of many acts. It must be dynamic, not static, changing to meet the challenge of each new generation. For peace is a process--a way of solving problems.
With such a peace, there will still be quarrels and conflicting interests, as there are within families and nations. World peace, like community peace, does not require that each man love his neighbor--it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance, submitting their disputes to a just and peaceful settlement.
And history teaches us that enmities between nations, as between individuals, do not last forever. However fixed our likes and dislikes may seem, the tide of time and events will often bring surprising changes in the relations between nations and neighbors.
So let us persevere. Peace need not be impracticable, and war need not be inevitable. By defining our goal more clearly, by making it seem more manageable and less remote, we can help all peoples to see it, to draw hope from it, and to move irresistibly toward it.
Second: Let us reexamine our attitude toward the Soviet Union. It is discouraging to think that their leaders may actually believe what their propagandists write. It is discouraging to read a recent authoritative Soviet text on Military Strategy and find, on page after page, wholly baseless and incredible claims--such as the allegation that "American imperialist circles are preparing to unleash different types of wars . . . that there is a very real threat of a preventive war being unleashed by American imperialists against the Soviet Union . . . [and that] the political aims of the American imperialists are to enslave economically and politically the European and other capitalist countries . . . [and] to achieve world domination . . . by means of aggressive wars."
Truly, as it was written long ago: "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." Yet it is sad to read these Soviet statements--to realize the extent of the gulf between us. But it is also a warning--a warning to the American people not to fall into the same trap as the Soviets, not to see only a distorted and desperate view of the other side, not to see conflict as inevitable, accommodation as impossible, and communication as nothing more than an exchange of threats.
No government or social system is so evil that its people must be considered as lacking in virtue. As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity. But we can still hail the Russian people for their many achievements--in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.
Among the many traits the peoples of our two countries have in common, none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence of war. Almost unique among the major world powers, we have never been at war with each other. And no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War. At least 20 million lost their lives. Countless millions of homes and farms were burned or sacked. A third of the nation's territory, including nearly two thirds of its industrial base, was turned into a wasteland--a loss equivalent to the devastation of this country east of Chicago.
Today, should total war ever break out again--no matter how--our two countries would become the primary targets. It is an ironic but accurate fact that the two strongest powers are the two in the most danger of devastation. All we have built, all we have worked for, would be destroyed in the first 24 hours. And even in the cold war, which brings burdens and dangers to so many nations, including this Nation's closest allies--our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. For we are both devoting massive sums of money to weapons that could be better devoted to combating ignorance, poverty, and disease. We are both caught up in a vicious and dangerous cycle in which suspicion on one side breeds suspicion on the other, and new weapons beget counterweapons.
In short, both the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its allies, have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests of the Soviet Union as well as ours--and even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.
So, let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.
Third: Let us reexamine our attitude toward the cold war, remembering that we are not engaged in a debate, seeking to pile up debating points. We are not here distributing blame or pointing the finger of judgment. We must deal with the world as it is, and not as it might have been had the history of the last 18 years been different.
We must, therefore, persevere in the search for peace in the hope that constructive changes within the Communist bloc might bring within reach solutions which now seem beyond us. We must conduct our affairs in such a way that it becomes in the Communists' interest to agree on a genuine peace. Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy--or of a collective death-wish for the world.
To secure these ends, America's weapons are nonprovocative, carefully controlled, designed to deter, and capable of selective use. Our military forces are committed to peace and disciplined in self- restraint. Our diplomats are instructed to avoid unnecessary irritants and purely rhetorical hostility.
For we can seek a relaxation of tension without relaxing our guard. And, for our part, we do not need to use threats to prove that we are resolute. We do not need to jam foreign broadcasts out of fear our faith will be eroded. We are unwilling to impose our system on any unwilling people--but we are willing and able to engage in peaceful competition with any people on earth.
Meanwhile, we seek to strengthen the United Nations, to help solve its financial problems, to make it a more effective instrument for peace, to develop it into a genuine world security system--a system capable of resolving disputes on the basis of law, of insuring the security of the large and the small, and of creating conditions under which arms can finally be abolished.
At the same time we seek to keep peace inside the non-Communist world, where many nations, all of them our friends, are divided over issues which weaken Western unity, which invite Communist intervention or which threaten to erupt into war. Our efforts in West New Guinea, in the Congo, in the Middle East, and in the Indian subcontinent, have been persistent and patient despite criticism from both sides. We have also tried to set an example for others--by seeking to adjust small but significant differences with our own closest neighbors in Mexico and in Canada.
Speaking of other nations, I wish to make one point clear. We are bound to many nations by alliances. Those alliances exist because our concern and theirs substantially overlap. Our commitment to defend Western Europe and West Berlin, for example, stands undiminished because of the identity of our vital interests. The United States will make no deal with the Soviet Union at the expense of other nations and other peoples, not merely because they are our partners, but also because their interests and ours converge.
Our interests converge, however, not only in defending the frontiers of freedom, but in pursuing the paths of peace. It is our hope-- and the purpose of allied policies--to convince the Soviet Union that she, too, should let each nation choose its own future, so long as that choice does not interfere with the choices of others. The Communist drive to impose their political and economic system on others is the primary cause of world tension today. For there can be no doubt that, if all nations could refrain from interfering in the self-determination of others, the peace would be much more assured.
This will require a new effort to achieve world law--a new context for world discussions. It will require increased understanding between the Soviets and ourselves. And increased understanding will require increased contact and communication. One step in this direction is the proposed arrangement for a direct line between Moscow and Washington, to avoid on each side the dangerous delays, misunderstandings, and misreadings of the other's actions which might occur at a time of crisis.
We have also been talking in Geneva about the other first-step measures of arms control designed to limit the intensity of the arms race and to reduce the risks of accidental war. Our primary long range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament-- designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms.
The pursuit of disarmament has been an effort of this Government since the 1920's. It has been urgently sought by the past three administrations. And however dim the prospects may be today, we intend to continue this effort--to continue it in order that all countries, including our own, can better grasp what the problems and possibilities of disarmament are.
The one major area of these negotiations where the end is in sight, yet where a fresh start is badly needed, is in a treaty to outlaw nuclear tests. The conclusion of such a treaty, so near and yet so far, would check the spiraling arms race in one of its most dangerous areas. It would place the nuclear powers in a position to deal more effectively with one of the greatest hazards which man faces in 1963, the further spread of nuclear arms. It would increase our security--it would decrease the prospects of war. Surely this goal is sufficiently important to require our steady pursuit, yielding neither to the temptation to give up the whole effort nor the temptation to give up our insistence on vital and responsible safeguards.
I am taking this opportunity, therefore, to announce two important decisions in this regard.
First: Chairman Khrushchev, Prime Minister Macmillan, and I have agreed that high-level discussions will shortly begin in Moscow looking toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty. Our hopes must be tempered with the caution of history--but with our hopes go the hopes of all mankind.
Second: To make clear our good faith and solemn convictions on the matter, I now declare that the United States does not propose to conduct nuclear tests in the atmosphere so long as other states do not do so. We will not be the first to resume. Such a declaration is no substitute for a formal binding treaty, but I hope it will help us achieve one. Nor would such a treaty be a substitute for disarmament, but I hope it will help us achieve it.
Finally, my fellow Americans, let us examine our attitude toward peace and freedom here at home. The quality and spirit of our own society must justify and support our efforts abroad. We must show it in the dedication of our own lives--as many of you who are graduating today will have a unique opportunity to do, by serving without pay in the Peace Corps abroad or in the proposed National Service Corps here at home.
But wherever we are, we must all, in our daily lives, live up to the age-old faith that peace and freedom walk together. In too many of our cities today, the peace is not secure because the freedom is incomplete.
It is the responsibility of the executive branch at all levels of government--local, State, and National--to provide and protect that freedom for all of our citizens by all means within their authority. It is the responsibility of the legislative branch at all levels, wherever that authority is not now adequate, to make it adequate. And it is the responsibility of all citizens in all sections of this country to respect the rights of all others and to respect the law of the land.
All this is not unrelated to world peace. "When a man's ways please the Lord," the Scriptures tell us, "he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." And is not peace, in the last analysis, basically a matter of human rights--the right to live out our lives without fear of devastation--the right to breathe air as nature provided it--the right of future generations to a healthy existence?
While we proceed to safeguard our national interests, let us also safeguard human interests. And the elimination of war and arms is clearly in the interest of both. No treaty, however much it may be to the advantage of all, however tightly it may be worded, can provide absolute security against the risks of deception and evasion. But it can--if it is sufficiently effective in its enforcement and if it is sufficiently in the interests of its signers--offer far more security and far fewer risks than an unabated, uncontrolled, unpredictable arms race.
The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war. We do not want a war. We do not now expect a war. This generation of Americans has already had enough--more than enough--of war and hate and oppression. We shall be prepared if others wish it. We shall be alert to try to stop it. But we shall also do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just. We are not helpless before that task or hopeless of its success. Confident and unafraid, we labor on--not toward a strategy of annihilation but toward a strategy of peace.
Never Too Late to Shout About It
”In the next war the survivors will envy the dead.” If there was ever a time for antiwar dialogue, engagement, resistance, it’s right now.
Gene Marx
February 10, 2023
”In the next war the survivors will envy the dead.” If there was ever a time for antiwar dialogue, engagement, resistance, it’s right now.
Gene Marx
February 10, 2023
Vue du siège de Gibraltar et explosion des batteries flottantes commons.wikimedia
“All acts of healing and love – and the defiance of war is an affirmation of love – allow us to shout out to the vast powers of the universe that, however broken we are, we are not helpless. However we despair we are not without hope, however weak we may feel, we will always, always, always resist.”
Chris Hedges, War is the Greatest Evil
Chris Hedges, War is the Greatest Evil
Respectfully, I have been all in for hope for as long as I can remember, but never a devotee. During the chaotic 60s of my shamelessly irresponsible youth, hope was an emotional default. Despite the radicalization of my generation, historic levels of civil unrest, and friends ending up as human remains in US issue body bags, hope was just a coping mechanism to counter undercurrents of dread and the white noise of Lyndon Johnson’s falling dominoes. Most of my draft-age fodder peers could never begin to imagine an end to the killing, but Congressional opposition to the genocide in Southeast Asia caught on and LBJ was driven out of office. Democrats and Republicans alike – Pete McCloskey, Mike Mansfield, Charles Mathias and Mike Gravel and others – challenged the pro-war narrative. Eugene McCarthy primaried LBJ. Bobby Kennedy joined the fray. It turned out my hope was more than a thing with feathers.
In sharp contrast to today’s 118th Congress, lawmakers recognized a regrettable debacle when they saw one.
In sharp contrast to today’s 118th Congress, lawmakers recognized a regrettable debacle when they saw one.
Eugene McCarthy
Mike Gravel
Bobby Kennedy
That was a lifetime ago, when wars ended, for everyone but the survivors.
A half century later, after escaping in one piece, from my own war to end all wars, a flailing American empire is now poised on the brink of direct confrontations with the world’s largest nuclear superpowers. As if a viral pandemic and planetary climate collapse weren’t enough, NATO and the US National Security State are trying to kill us all, including the very last man in Ukraine in America’s latest proxy war. And if the new Ukrainian conscription policy - lowering the draft age to 16 –and reports of a 4-hour life expectancy for new untrained troops in the Donbass are true, that poor grunt bastard’s days are numbered.
But, in a brutally frank, nightmare scenario, so are ours.
But, in a brutally frank, nightmare scenario, so are ours.
With global alliances for the Ukraine conflict set in stone and diplomatic entreaties more unlikely or unthinkable, the possibility of a massive nuclear exchange becomes more thinkable with each new weapon shipped to Zelenskyy forces by the collective West. Still, 100 US tactical nukes in Europe, intractable war power rhetoric, cornered adversaries with nothing to lose and the unfettered hubris of US foreign policy neocons is a recipe for a maelstrom, but barely gets a mention anywhere, from anyone.
Russia - Total nuclear warheads as of 2022 - 6,257 (Reuters)
An exchange of tactical nuclear devices in Eastern Europe - by accident or design - would result in counterattacks from all sides. We have been warned since Trinity, but while American support for the conflict in Ukraine has flat-lined, the escalation ladder of US and NATO weapons continues to, well, escalate. Still, no one with or without agency is talking or, better yet, shouting about it. For uncensored, unbridled antiwar dialogue, alternative media is our last best hope – there’s that word again – against unrelenting war propaganda.
US - Total nuclear warheads as of 2022 - 5,550 (Reuters)
“This threat is largely ignored by politicians and the mainstream media,” writes nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott, “who continue to practice psychic numbing as we stumble blindly toward our demise.” For many progressives self-censorship became a safe place. Whoever countered the pro-NATO narrative continue to be labeled alarmists or Kremlin agents at the mere mention of a diplomatic off ramp. (Read: Peace).
And JFK’s 1963 warning at American University couldn’t have been more prescient:
And JFK’s 1963 warning at American University couldn’t have been more prescient:
“Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy--or of a collective death-wish for the world.”
Incredibly, we would joke about nuclear annihilation in 1965, as we sang singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer’s satirical piece “So Long, Mom, I’m off to Drop the Bomb,” a much-needed musical respite from the psychotrauma of the Cuban Missile Crisis. When the laughter died, this rendition of a Cold War musical deflection had a short shelf life.
Dr. Helen Caldicott would later write:
“Knowing man’s propensity to fight, why in God’s name did the U.S. Government and Soviet Union authorize the brilliant scientists and weapons makers to construct thousands of nuclear weapons during and after the Cold War, culminating in more than 70,000 nuclear weapons during the '70s and '80s?"
No one should be breathing any easier today with over 13,000 warheads distributed among the nine nuclear armed states - United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. One targeting miscalculation or false flag provocation could result in a global crossette of destruction lasting an hour, give or take, eventually eradicating billions with the survivors envying the dead, as JFK would often quote Nikita Khrushchev.
Read complete article on Substack.
Dr. Helen Caldicott would later write:
“Knowing man’s propensity to fight, why in God’s name did the U.S. Government and Soviet Union authorize the brilliant scientists and weapons makers to construct thousands of nuclear weapons during and after the Cold War, culminating in more than 70,000 nuclear weapons during the '70s and '80s?"
No one should be breathing any easier today with over 13,000 warheads distributed among the nine nuclear armed states - United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. One targeting miscalculation or false flag provocation could result in a global crossette of destruction lasting an hour, give or take, eventually eradicating billions with the survivors envying the dead, as JFK would often quote Nikita Khrushchev.
Read complete article on Substack.
Wait a Minute, We Got in This Ukrainian Mess...How?
Feb 6, 2014, Victoria Nuland handing out food to insurgents in Maidan Square who overthrew the government two weeks later. US Ambassador to her left.
By Dianne Foster • Feb 20, 2022
I am writing with urgency to correct the mainstream media’s disinformation about Ukraine and supposed Russian aggression there. I clearly remember taking a group of peace activists including Occupy Bellingham, Veterans for Peace, and Whatcom Peace and Justice, into Representative Rick Larsen’s office after the February 2014 United States-backed coup in Ukraine. We helped overthrow the democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, and installed the neo-Nazi Svoboda and Right Sector parties into power. Yanukovich’s election in 2010 had been validated by the U.N. as fair and square.
The image of then U.S. Secretary of European Affairs Victoria Nuland, a Dick Cheney appointee promoted by Hillary Clinton, standing on the stage in Kiev’s Maiden Square, throwing cookies out to the mobs of neo-Nazi’s and encouraging them to riot, is imprinted in my memory. On the stage behind her stood John McCain and Joe Biden, she had requested Obama send them as “point men” in this putsch. Shots were fired, Yanukovich left in haste for Russia, and millionaire Petro Poroshenko was selected to lead the country. Even Henry Kissinger, the king of “regime change” operations, protested in a Washington Post editorial, that this was over-the-top and Ukraine deserved their own sovereignty. Notably, Nuland’s husband, Robert Kagan, was a leading neocon architect of the Iraq War.
It was no surprise, therefore, that Putin took back the historically Russian seaport of Crimea, the Black Sea gem that was bequeathed to Ukraine, for uncertain reasons, by Ukrainian-born former Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1954.
Then there’s the history of the Svoboda and Right Sector political parties during WW2 in Ukraine: it is horrific. They were notorious for heinous crimes such as carving up Jewish children. Even today they are carrying out anti-Semitic pogroms, primarily by the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi paramilitary group that is now incorporated into the Ukraine National Guard. Although Congressman Ro Khanna attempted to insure that no American aid went to that organization, it has unfortunately been funded in an attempt to oppose Russian interests there.
The neo-Nazi-leaning Ukraine government has been bombing the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine since the 2014 coup, prompting nationalist leaders in Russia to push Putin into some action to take back the entire country, though current CIA Director William Burns does not believe Putin will do it. During April of 2014, we Democrats in the 40th Legislative District passed a resolution condemning this coup, in accordance with the Whatcom Dems platform that states: “Our government should not engage in overt or covert efforts to destabilize other nations’ governments.”
As someone whose father was a POW in Nazi Germany, I have spent much of my academic and personal life researching and opposing fascist movements. Many people forget that it was Russia and the Russian people who suffered the most in World War II, and without Russian leadership we would have lost to Hitler. If they hadn’t won the war in Europe, I wouldn’t be here today.
It should also be noted that when President Mikhail Gorbachev voluntarily ended the Cold War in 1990 by lowering the Berlin Wall, the U.S. promised in return that the West would not bring former Soviet states into NATO, thereby guaranteeing a safety zone around Russia. How would we feel if Russia incorporated Mexico or Canada into their sphere of influence? By 1994, President Clinton reneged on that promise, as one country after another was admitted to NATO, whose purpose at that time was to perpetrate a new Cold War. For a brief period, Clinton proposed a “peace dividend” that would divert money from the military to social needs. It appeared the military-industrial complex was not too happy with that idea. Thus we have had “endless wars” and regime changes; one of the most tragic was in Afghanistan. I am, however, optimistic to see countries like Chile and Honduras reversing the trend and moving away from neoliberal imperial domination.
What is most disturbing about this narrative is that President Biden was there, in Ukraine: he participated in that coup, and is now blaming it on the Russians. We cannot have real diplomacy based on lies. I plan to call the White House and my congressional representatives and encourage them to tell the truth. They are provoking a potential nuclear war that would end history. I have attached the Veterans for Peace resolution that was passed nationally in March of 2014 by that organization; it provides accurate details.
See NWCitizen.com for related links.
Dianne Foster guest wrote this opinion article for NW Citizen about our involvement today with Ukraine. She has a B.A. political science/international relations from the U. of W., and is a former “PCO of the Year” with the Whatcom Democrats.
Veterans Release Nuclear Posture Review
The U.S.-based international organization Veterans For Peace has released its own assessment of the current global threat of nuclear war, ahead of the anticipated release of the Biden Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review. The Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review warns that the danger of nuclear war is greater than ever and that nuclear disarmament must be vigorously pursued. Veterans For Peace plans to deliver their Nuclear Posture Review to the President and Vice President, to every member of Congress, and to the Pentagon.
With the first anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on January 22, the Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review calls on the U.S. government to sign the treaty and to work with other nuclear-armed states to eliminate all the world’s nuclear weapons. The TPNW, approved by a vote of 122-1 in the UN General Assembly in July of 2017, reflects the international consensus against the existence of such weapons.
Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review also calls for measures that would reduce the risk of nuclear war, such as implementing policies for No First Use and taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
As early as this month, President Biden is expected to issue a United States Nuclear Posture Review, prepared by the Department of Defense in a tradition started in 1994 during the Clinton Administration and continued during the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. Veterans For Peace anticipates that the Biden Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review will continue to reflect the unrealistic goals of full spectrum dominance and justify the continuing expenditure of billions of dollars on nuclear weapons.
“Veterans have learned the hard way to be skeptical of our government’s military adventures, which have led us from one disastrous war to another,” said Ken Mayers, a retired Marine Corps major. “Nuclear weapons are a threat to the very existence of human civilization,” continued Mayers, “so the U.S. nuclear posture is too important to be left to the cold warriors at the Pentagon. Veterans For Peace has developed our own Nuclear Posture Review, one that is consistent with U.S. treaty obligations and reflects the research and work of many arms control experts.”
The 10-page document prepared by Veterans For Peace reviews the nuclear posture of all the nuclear-armed states – the U.S., Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. It makes a number of recommendations for how the U.S. could provide leadership to begin a process of worldwide disarmament.
“This is not rocket science,” said Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and former president of Veterans For Peace. “The experts make nuclear disarmament seem impossibly difficult. However, there is a growing international consensus against the existence of such weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was approved overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly in July 2017 and went into effect on January 22, 2021. It IS possible and necessary to eliminate all nuclear weapons, as 122 nations of the world have agreed.”
LINK to the Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review
With the first anniversary of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) on January 22, the Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review calls on the U.S. government to sign the treaty and to work with other nuclear-armed states to eliminate all the world’s nuclear weapons. The TPNW, approved by a vote of 122-1 in the UN General Assembly in July of 2017, reflects the international consensus against the existence of such weapons.
Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review also calls for measures that would reduce the risk of nuclear war, such as implementing policies for No First Use and taking nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.
As early as this month, President Biden is expected to issue a United States Nuclear Posture Review, prepared by the Department of Defense in a tradition started in 1994 during the Clinton Administration and continued during the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. Veterans For Peace anticipates that the Biden Administration’s Nuclear Posture Review will continue to reflect the unrealistic goals of full spectrum dominance and justify the continuing expenditure of billions of dollars on nuclear weapons.
“Veterans have learned the hard way to be skeptical of our government’s military adventures, which have led us from one disastrous war to another,” said Ken Mayers, a retired Marine Corps major. “Nuclear weapons are a threat to the very existence of human civilization,” continued Mayers, “so the U.S. nuclear posture is too important to be left to the cold warriors at the Pentagon. Veterans For Peace has developed our own Nuclear Posture Review, one that is consistent with U.S. treaty obligations and reflects the research and work of many arms control experts.”
The 10-page document prepared by Veterans For Peace reviews the nuclear posture of all the nuclear-armed states – the U.S., Russia, the UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. It makes a number of recommendations for how the U.S. could provide leadership to begin a process of worldwide disarmament.
“This is not rocket science,” said Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era veteran and former president of Veterans For Peace. “The experts make nuclear disarmament seem impossibly difficult. However, there is a growing international consensus against the existence of such weapons. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was approved overwhelmingly by the UN General Assembly in July 2017 and went into effect on January 22, 2021. It IS possible and necessary to eliminate all nuclear weapons, as 122 nations of the world have agreed.”
LINK to the Veterans For Peace Nuclear Posture Review
National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund
On July 19, 2012, one year after the death of Rep. John Lewis, Representative Jim McGovern of Massachusetts became the new sponsor of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Bill, H.R. 4529. "To affirm the freedom of taxpayers who are conscientiously opposed to participation in war, to provide that the income, estate, or gift tax payments of such taxpayers be used for nonmilitary purposes, to create the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund to receive such payments, to improve revenue collection, and for other purposes."
This bill "directs the Department of Treasury to establish in the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund for the deposit of income, gift and estate taxes paid by or on behalf of taxpayers: (1) who are designated conscientious objectors opposed to participation in war in any form based upon their sincerely held moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or training (within the meaning of the Military Selective Service Act); and (2) who have certified their beliefs in writing."
"Amounts deposited in the Fund shall be allocated annually to any appropriation not for a military purpose. Treasury shall report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on the total amount transferred into the Fund during the preceding fiscal year and the purposes for which such amount was allocated. The privacy of the individuals using the Fund shall be protected."
Please sign this petition to move your Congressional representatives to support this bill.
This bill "directs the Department of Treasury to establish in the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund for the deposit of income, gift and estate taxes paid by or on behalf of taxpayers: (1) who are designated conscientious objectors opposed to participation in war in any form based upon their sincerely held moral, ethical, or religious beliefs or training (within the meaning of the Military Selective Service Act); and (2) who have certified their beliefs in writing."
"Amounts deposited in the Fund shall be allocated annually to any appropriation not for a military purpose. Treasury shall report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on the total amount transferred into the Fund during the preceding fiscal year and the purposes for which such amount was allocated. The privacy of the individuals using the Fund shall be protected."
Please sign this petition to move your Congressional representatives to support this bill.
April 21, 2021
Support the
Tropes
How media language encourages the left to support wars, coups and intervention
Alan MacLeod
Support the
Tropes
How media language encourages the left to support wars, coups and intervention
Alan MacLeod
In an earlier piece (FAIR.org, 3/3/21), we explored some country case study examples of how the press helps to manufacture consent for regime change and other US actions abroad among left-leaning audiences, a traditionally conflict-skeptical group.
Some level of buy-in, or at least a hesitancy to resist, among the United States’ more left-leaning half is necessary to ensure that US interventions are carried out with a minimum of domestic opposition. To this end, corporate media invoke the language of human rights and humanitarianism to convince those to the left of center to accept, if not support, US actions abroad—a treatment of sorts for the country’s 50-year-long Vietnam syndrome.
What follows are some of the common tropes used by establishment outlets to convince skeptical leftists that this time, things might be different, selling a progressive intervention everyone can get behind.
Think of the women!
The vast majority of the world was against the US attack on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks in 2001. However, the idea had overwhelming support from the US public, including from Democrats. In fact, when Gallup (Brookings, 1/9/20) asked about the occupation in 2019, there was slightly more support for maintaining troops there among Democrats than Republicans—38% vs. 34%—and slightly less support for withdrawing troops (21% vs. 23%).
Media coverage can partially explain this phenomenon, convincing some and at the least providing cover for those in power. This was not a war of aggression, they insisted. They were not simply there to capture Osama bin Laden (whom the Taliban actually offered to hand over); this was a fight to bring freedom to the oppressed women of the country. As First Lady Laura Bush said: We respect our mothers, our sisters and daughters. "Fighting brutality against women and children is not the expression of a specific culture; it is the acceptance of our common humanity—a commitment shared by people of goodwill on every continent…. The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women."
Wars are not fought to liberate women (FAIR.org, 7/26/17), and bombing people is never a feminist activity (FAIR.org, 6/28/20). But the New York Times was among the chief architects in constructing the belief in a phantom feminist war. Within weeks of the invasion (12/2/01), it reported on the “joyful return” of women to college campuses, profiling one student who strode up the steps tentatively at first, her body covered from face to foot by blue cotton. As she neared the door, she flipped the cloth back over her head, revealing round cheeks, dark ringlets of hair and the searching brown eyes of a student.
The over-the-top symbolism was hard to miss: This was a country changed, and all thanks to the invasion.
Time magazine also played heavily on this angle. Six weeks after the invasion (11/26/01), it told readers that “the greatest pageant of mass liberation since the fight for suffrage” was occurring, as “female faces, shy and bright, emerged from the dark cellars,” casting off their veils and symbolically stomping on them. If the implication was not clear enough, it directly told readers “the sight of jubilation was a holiday gift, a reminder of reasons the war was worth fighting beyond those of basic self-defense.”
“How much better will their lives be now?” Time (12/3/01) asked. Not much better, as it turned out.
A few days later, Time‘s cover (12/3/01) featured a portrait of a blonde, light-skinned Afghan woman, with the words, “Lifting the Veil. The shocking story of how the Taliban brutalized the women of Afghanistan. How much better will their lives be now?”
This was representative of a much wider phenomenon. A study by Carol Stabile and Deepa Kumar published in Media, Culture & Society (9/1/05) found that, in 1999, there were 29 US newspaper articles and 37 broadcast TV reports about women’s rights in Afghanistan. Between 2000 and September 11, 2001, those figures were 15 and 33, respectively. However, in the 16 weeks between September 12 and January 1, 2002, Americans were inundated with stories on the subject, with 93 newspaper articles and 628 TV reports on the subject. Once the real objectives of the war were secure, those figures fell off a cliff.
Antiwar messages were largely absent from corporate news coverage. Indeed, as FAIR founder Jeff Cohen noted in his book Cable News Confidential, CNN executives instructed their staff to constantly counter any images of civilian casualties with pro-war messages, even if “it may start sounding rote.” This sort of coverage helped to push 75% of Democratic voters into supporting the ground war.
As reality set in, it became increasingly difficult to pretend women’s rights in Afghanistan were seriously improving. Women still face the same problems as they did before. As a female Afghan member of parliament told Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies (CounterSpin, 2/17/21), women in Afghanistan have three principal enemies:
"One is the Taliban. Two is this group of warlords, disguised as a government, that the US supports. And the third is the US occupation…. If you in the West could get the US occupation out, we’d only have two."
However, Time managed to find a way to tug on the heartstrings of left-leaning audiences to support continued occupation. Featuring a shocking image of an 18-year-old local woman who had her ear and nose cut off, a 2010 cover story (8/9/10) asked readers to wonder “what happens if we leave Afghanistan,” the clear implication being the US must stay to prevent further brutality—despite the fact that the woman’s mutilation occurred after eight years of US occupation (Extra!, 10/10).
Vox (3/4/21) asserted that the US occupation of Afghanistan has meant “better rights for women and children” without offering evidence that that is the case.
The trick is still being used to this day. In March, Vox (3/4/21) credulously reported that Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Mark Milley made an emotional plea to Biden that he must stay in Afghanistan, otherwise women’s rights “will go back to the Stone Age.” It’s so good to know the upper echelons of the military industrial complex are filled with such passionate feminists.
In reality, nearly 20 years of occupation has only led to a situation where zero percent of Afghans considered themselves to be “thriving” while 85% are “suffering,” according to a Gallup poll. Only one in three girls goes to school, let alone university.
And all of this ignores the fact that the US supported radical Islamist groups and their takeover of the country in the first place, a move that drastically reduced women’s rights. Pre-Taliban, half of university students were women, as were 40% of the country’s doctors, 70% of its teachers and 30% of its civil servants—reflecting the reforms of the Soviet-backed government that the US dedicated massive resources to destroying.
Today, in half of the country’s provinces, fewer than 20% of teachers are female (and in many, fewer than 10% are). Only 37% of adolescent girls can read (compared to 66% of boys). Meanwhile, being a female gynecologist is now considered “one of the most dangerous jobs in the world” (New Statesman, 9/24/14). So much for a new golden age.
The “think of the women” trope is far from unique to Afghanistan. In fact, 19th century British imperial propagandists used the plight of Hindu women in India and Muslim women in Egypt as a pretext to invade and conquer those countries. The tactic’s longevity is perhaps testament to its effectiveness.
Read complete article on FAIR.
Some level of buy-in, or at least a hesitancy to resist, among the United States’ more left-leaning half is necessary to ensure that US interventions are carried out with a minimum of domestic opposition. To this end, corporate media invoke the language of human rights and humanitarianism to convince those to the left of center to accept, if not support, US actions abroad—a treatment of sorts for the country’s 50-year-long Vietnam syndrome.
What follows are some of the common tropes used by establishment outlets to convince skeptical leftists that this time, things might be different, selling a progressive intervention everyone can get behind.
Think of the women!
The vast majority of the world was against the US attack on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks in 2001. However, the idea had overwhelming support from the US public, including from Democrats. In fact, when Gallup (Brookings, 1/9/20) asked about the occupation in 2019, there was slightly more support for maintaining troops there among Democrats than Republicans—38% vs. 34%—and slightly less support for withdrawing troops (21% vs. 23%).
Media coverage can partially explain this phenomenon, convincing some and at the least providing cover for those in power. This was not a war of aggression, they insisted. They were not simply there to capture Osama bin Laden (whom the Taliban actually offered to hand over); this was a fight to bring freedom to the oppressed women of the country. As First Lady Laura Bush said: We respect our mothers, our sisters and daughters. "Fighting brutality against women and children is not the expression of a specific culture; it is the acceptance of our common humanity—a commitment shared by people of goodwill on every continent…. The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women."
Wars are not fought to liberate women (FAIR.org, 7/26/17), and bombing people is never a feminist activity (FAIR.org, 6/28/20). But the New York Times was among the chief architects in constructing the belief in a phantom feminist war. Within weeks of the invasion (12/2/01), it reported on the “joyful return” of women to college campuses, profiling one student who strode up the steps tentatively at first, her body covered from face to foot by blue cotton. As she neared the door, she flipped the cloth back over her head, revealing round cheeks, dark ringlets of hair and the searching brown eyes of a student.
The over-the-top symbolism was hard to miss: This was a country changed, and all thanks to the invasion.
Time magazine also played heavily on this angle. Six weeks after the invasion (11/26/01), it told readers that “the greatest pageant of mass liberation since the fight for suffrage” was occurring, as “female faces, shy and bright, emerged from the dark cellars,” casting off their veils and symbolically stomping on them. If the implication was not clear enough, it directly told readers “the sight of jubilation was a holiday gift, a reminder of reasons the war was worth fighting beyond those of basic self-defense.”
“How much better will their lives be now?” Time (12/3/01) asked. Not much better, as it turned out.
A few days later, Time‘s cover (12/3/01) featured a portrait of a blonde, light-skinned Afghan woman, with the words, “Lifting the Veil. The shocking story of how the Taliban brutalized the women of Afghanistan. How much better will their lives be now?”
This was representative of a much wider phenomenon. A study by Carol Stabile and Deepa Kumar published in Media, Culture & Society (9/1/05) found that, in 1999, there were 29 US newspaper articles and 37 broadcast TV reports about women’s rights in Afghanistan. Between 2000 and September 11, 2001, those figures were 15 and 33, respectively. However, in the 16 weeks between September 12 and January 1, 2002, Americans were inundated with stories on the subject, with 93 newspaper articles and 628 TV reports on the subject. Once the real objectives of the war were secure, those figures fell off a cliff.
Antiwar messages were largely absent from corporate news coverage. Indeed, as FAIR founder Jeff Cohen noted in his book Cable News Confidential, CNN executives instructed their staff to constantly counter any images of civilian casualties with pro-war messages, even if “it may start sounding rote.” This sort of coverage helped to push 75% of Democratic voters into supporting the ground war.
As reality set in, it became increasingly difficult to pretend women’s rights in Afghanistan were seriously improving. Women still face the same problems as they did before. As a female Afghan member of parliament told Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies (CounterSpin, 2/17/21), women in Afghanistan have three principal enemies:
"One is the Taliban. Two is this group of warlords, disguised as a government, that the US supports. And the third is the US occupation…. If you in the West could get the US occupation out, we’d only have two."
However, Time managed to find a way to tug on the heartstrings of left-leaning audiences to support continued occupation. Featuring a shocking image of an 18-year-old local woman who had her ear and nose cut off, a 2010 cover story (8/9/10) asked readers to wonder “what happens if we leave Afghanistan,” the clear implication being the US must stay to prevent further brutality—despite the fact that the woman’s mutilation occurred after eight years of US occupation (Extra!, 10/10).
Vox (3/4/21) asserted that the US occupation of Afghanistan has meant “better rights for women and children” without offering evidence that that is the case.
The trick is still being used to this day. In March, Vox (3/4/21) credulously reported that Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Gen. Mark Milley made an emotional plea to Biden that he must stay in Afghanistan, otherwise women’s rights “will go back to the Stone Age.” It’s so good to know the upper echelons of the military industrial complex are filled with such passionate feminists.
In reality, nearly 20 years of occupation has only led to a situation where zero percent of Afghans considered themselves to be “thriving” while 85% are “suffering,” according to a Gallup poll. Only one in three girls goes to school, let alone university.
And all of this ignores the fact that the US supported radical Islamist groups and their takeover of the country in the first place, a move that drastically reduced women’s rights. Pre-Taliban, half of university students were women, as were 40% of the country’s doctors, 70% of its teachers and 30% of its civil servants—reflecting the reforms of the Soviet-backed government that the US dedicated massive resources to destroying.
Today, in half of the country’s provinces, fewer than 20% of teachers are female (and in many, fewer than 10% are). Only 37% of adolescent girls can read (compared to 66% of boys). Meanwhile, being a female gynecologist is now considered “one of the most dangerous jobs in the world” (New Statesman, 9/24/14). So much for a new golden age.
The “think of the women” trope is far from unique to Afghanistan. In fact, 19th century British imperial propagandists used the plight of Hindu women in India and Muslim women in Egypt as a pretext to invade and conquer those countries. The tactic’s longevity is perhaps testament to its effectiveness.
Read complete article on FAIR.
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