Dear
friends and supporters:
Again, thank you for your support, which allows us to continue our work. For the 36th year, the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee will host events to remember the atomic bombings of Japan on August 6 & 9, 1945. The co-sponsors are the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Baltimore Peace Action, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Homewood Friends Meeting, Maryland Peace Action and Prevent Nuclear War Maryland.
This year, we are hosting three events with two on August 9. See the enclosed flyers for specific details. But note that on the evening of August 9, we have organized a Zoom conference.
Also note that on August 6 from 1:15 to 1:30 PM, as part of the 75 Years of shared Nuclear Legacy, four of us will be speaking out against Johns Hopkins weapons research. From 1:30 to 1:45 PM, listen to Councilperson Bill Henry and others talk about the Back from the Brink campaign. Baltimore was the first major city to pass a resolution supporting this campaign. To watch these segments and many others on both August 6 and 9, go to https://www.hiroshimanagasaki75.org/events?emci=cc643ffc-2dd0-ea11-9b05-00155d03bda0&emdi=0198b95e-3bd0-ea11-9b05-00155d03bda0&ceid=130901.
Despite the pandemic, outbreaks of famine, immense poverty and the other ills facing the world, governments continue to spend $100 billion per year on nuclear weapons and $1.9 trillion per year on weapons and war. Maryland Peace Action and Prevent Nuclear War Maryland organized virtual lobbying sessions with the staff for our senators and many of the Maryland members of the House of Representatives. A typical meeting was an opportunity to inform the legislator that we favored a Green New Deal, severe cuts to the military budget, Medicare for All and a renewed campaign for nuclear arms agreements and an end to the refurbishing of the nuclear arsenal at a cost of about $1 trillion.
Most recently, we focused on calling for severe cuts in the tax dollars going to the Pentagon in the National Defense [sic] Authorization Act. Sen. Markey [MA] and Sen. Sanders [VT] introduced an initiative to cut the Pentagon budget by 10%. There was a companion amendment in the House introduced by Reps. Pocan (WI-) and Lee (CA-). We were able to convince Sens. Cardin and Van Hollen and Reps. Mfume, Raskin and Sarbanes to vote for a 10% cut. But the amendment failed in both the Senate and the House.
Consider getting involved with Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland or Baltimore Peace Action. Forty countries have ratified the UN Treaty Ban. We need ten more for it to become international law. So get involved as there is much work for us to do.
Send contributions to BNC/Max, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore 21218. This is not a tax-deductible donation.
Max Obuszewski, on behalf of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee
Name: ___________________________Address:______________________________
______________________________________________________________________
Phone: _______________________________E.Mail:___________________________
Donation amount_______________________
BALTIMORE HOLDS 36th ANNUAL HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI
COMMEMORATIONS. IT IS THE 75th ANNIVERSARY OF THE ATOMIC BOMBINGS OF JAPAN.
For the 36th year, Baltimore's anti-nuclear weapons community, including the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, will gather August 6 and 9 to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The co-sponsors are the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Baltimore Peace Action, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Homewood Friends Meeting, Maryland Peace Action and Prevent Nuclear War Maryland. Participants will indicate support for the Black Lives Matter protests. Signs will state Demilitarize the Police and Denuclearize the Military. To get involved or to seek more information, contact Max Obuszewski at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net.
On August 6 from 5 to 6:30 PM with signs, banners, ribbons
and artwork, we will commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Our location
will be at the four corners at 33rd and North Charles Streets in
Baltimore. This area was selected because of its proximity to Johns
Hopkins University, a major nuclear weapons contractor. In fiscal year 2019,
JHU received more than one billion dollars in weapons contracts. JHU’s Applied Physics Laboratory is the research center
which engages in most of the university’s work on weapons research. The APL
renewed a seven-year
contract in 2017 worth $93 million to continue a
strategic partnership with the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. The protesters
will show support for the Back from the Brink resolution, five steps
towards the abolition of nuclear weapons, and will call for ratification of the
UN Ban Treaty. People will wear masks and stay six feet from
others.
######
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CounterPunch.org - https://www.counterpunch.org –
The Space Wars Have Begun
Artist rendering
of ground and space based laser weapons. Image: US Air Force.
“Space is now a distinct warfighting
domain,” says the U.S. Defense Space Strategy.
These reports invert the chronology of
events and omit the U.S. agenda to dominate space. Like China’s verified
destruction of its own weather satellite in 2007, Russia’s alleged maneuvers in
space are—if true—a response to what the Pentagon calls “Full Spectrum Dominance”: “dominating
the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and
investment.” This was a Clinton-era doctrine (1993-2001) which continues into
the present. The Bush administration (2001-09) extended the policy, going from
domination to “ownership”: Like the battles of old, “whoever owned
the high ground owned the fight.” So-called Ballistic Missile Defense, which is
supposedly designed counter nuclear weapons-carrying ICBMs, are actually
missiles with the potential for first-strike capacity.
There is a way to
stop Chinese and Russian anti-satellite tests: sign a treaty outlawing space
weapons. But doing so would also prevent the U.S. from testing its own
anti-satellite and other weapons, i.e., from “dominating” and “owning” space.
Beginning 2001, “China, at first alone but
later with Russia, … made several proposals” to the UN Conference on
Disarmament “on possible elements for a future treaty banning the weaponization
of space,” says Arms Control Today. That’s not because the Chinese or Russian
elites are good people who want peace, but rather because they know that they
cannot complete with U.S. space domination. In 2002, Bush withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile
Treaty 1972 and provoked Russia by constructing a missile
system in Eastern Europe. In June of that year, Russia and China proposed a treaty committing signatories to
“[n]ot place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying any kinds of
weapons.” It was rejected by the U.S.
In February 2018, the USAF Vice Chief of
Staff, Gen. Stephen W. Wilson, told Congress: “We own the high ground of
air and space. We project decisive combat power forward with our joint team to
defend America’s interests and our allies worldwide.” At the end of the year,
Russia was accused by the U.S. of doing what the U.S.
had done a decade earlier vis. the X37B: orbiting a potential space weapon.
Making diplomatic efforts to defend against Full Spectrum Dominance, Russia and
China continued their efforts to ban the weaponization of space. The U.S.
continued its policy of “domination” and “ownership.”
Notions of Full Spectrum Dominance and
ownership of space mean that the U.S. rejects every effort at the UN General
Assembly to strengthen the Outer Space Treaty 1967. In November 2018, Russia
introduced a draft treaty, “No first placement of weapons in outer space”
(A/C.1/73/L.51). The second draft passed, with 128 nations voting in favor and 12
against, including the U.S. and Britain. In November 2019, the General
Assembly reported: “The Committee approved, by a
recorded vote of 175 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with no
abstentions, the draft resolution ‘Prevention of an arms race in outer space’
(document A/C.1/74/L.3).”
The draft resolution “Further practical
measures for the prevention of an arms race in outer space” (document
A/C.1/74/L.58/Rev.1) was also approved, though the UN noted: “The representative of the United
States reiterated his delegation’s opposition to the Chinese‑Russian draft
treaty presented to the Conference on Disarmament.” In January 2020, the U.S.
Space Force joined in Global Lightning, the annual exercise that sees Russia potentially
getting nuked by U.S. forces. It is in this broader context that Russia is
alleged to have tested an anti-satellite weapon.
“Russia conducted a non-destructive test
of a space-based anti-satellite weapon,” claims the Space Command (not to be confused
with the Space Force). If this is true, the U.S.’s legal objection is unclear.
As noted, the U.S. has rejected multiple efforts to ban anti-satellite weapons,
so Russia has a legal right to test weaponry. This is against the spirit of the
Outer Space Treaty 1967, but so are U.S. activities in space, such as the
launch and test of the X37B. Either way, Russia rejects the claim as false. “On
July 15, Russia injected a new object into orbit from [its satellite] Cosmos
2543,” the U.S. Space Command continues. The only evidence for this claim is a
website: Space-Track.org.
But, according to the Defense Intelligence
Agency, U.S. space policy includes spoofing: “Spoofing deceives the receiver by
introducing a fake signal with erroneous information.” How do we know that the
Space-Track.org returns regarding Russia’s alleged probe were not spoofs?
Notice that the U.S. is not concerned
about Chinese or Russian dominance in space. U.S. planners are
aware that neither Russia nor China has the financial or technological means to
dominate space. Rather, they are concerned about Sino-Russian capacity to limit
U.S. operational freedoms; in other words to scupper U.S. attempts at Full
Spectrum Dominance. The Defense Intelligence Agency does not mention Chinese or Russian space
dominance, but rather, how those countries “view counter-space capabilities as
a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness.” Likewise, the Defense
Space Strategy says: “China and Russia each have weaponized
space as a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness and challenge
our freedom of operation in space.”
In addition to
nuclear war/accident and climate change, space weaponization poses a terminal
threat. If and when something goes seriously wrong, national tensions will rise
to the point of escalation and potential accident involving nuclear weapons.
Furthermore, military planners are aware of this yet they do nothing to stop
it: quite the contrary.
One UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) document
casually notes: “By 2050, space-based weapons systems
… could include nuclear weapons.” Another states: “nuclear possession may lead
to greater adventurism and irresponsible conventional and irregular behaviour,
to the point of brinkmanship and misunderstanding.” As noted above, Ballistic
Missile Defense (BMD) is a potential first-strike weapon. A third MoD document
states: “the development of strategic BMD systems is likely to
continue along multiple technical tracks by the major powers” (emphases in
original).
Anti-satellite (AS) weapons expert, Nancy Gallagher, calls AS war without nuclear weapons “a mirage”: “Should a satellite be struck by a piece of space debris during a crisis or a low-level terrestrial conflict,” says Gallagher, “leaders might mistakenly assume that a space war had begun and retaliate before they knew what had actually happened.”
Time is getting short, threats are multiplying.
Article printed from CounterPunch.org: https://www.counterpunch.org
URL to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/07/31/the-space-wars-have-begun/
Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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