Friends,
See below for the details about BALTIMORE HOLDS 37th ANNUAL HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI COMMEMORATIONS. If you cannot attend our commemorations, consider sending me a brief write-up why Johns Hopkins University should renounce its nuclear weapons research. Kagiso, Max
- CounterPunch.org - https://www.counterpunch.org -
Nuclear Weapons: Rising Danger
By Marc Pilisuk On July 29, 2021
After a war has ended, historians, elected officials, and faith leaders, no less than the people involved, often raise doubts over whether the outcomes were worth the many horrific costs.
But mourning
diminishes over time and life for the survivors goes on.
Such a recovery
from destruction is no longer assured or even likely in the age of nuclear
weapons. World leaders, however, continue to play the game of war in ways that
risk the war that could end life on earth.
Recent US actions
in Asia are bringing us closer to such a war. The US has long held agreements
with many countries, including South Korea, permitting launch facilities for
nuclear missiles. Now the US is engaging in a program of assisting Japan in the
development of missiles capable of launching nuclear warheads.
The Japanese
constitution bans the development and deployment of such weapons. But
escalation of threats by US and Chinese officials may threaten this
longstanding policy.
This potential for
Japan to launch weapons of mass destruction comes at a time of increasing
presence of US warships in the South China Sea. China was cruelly devastated by
Japan in WW II, something effectively forgotten in the US but not in China.
Indeed, a Chinese Communist Party video, still not confirmed as Chinese policy,
threatens repeated nuclear attack on Japan in response to anticipated military
provocations.
This would amount
to a departure from China’s long-term policy of “no first use” (of nuclear
weapons). Incredibly, the US has not yet committed itself to a “no first use”
policy and has expanded its own nuclear weapons development programs. The
recognition of potential danger from such development was clearly visible in
the multi-lateral agreement preventing such activity in Iran. The US withdrew
its treaty obligations under the Trump administration and has still not been
able to revive the agreement.
History in the
atomic era contains several examples in which deficiencies in communication
during periods of hostility and threats almost led us inadvertently into the
launch of a nuclear war.
The atomic
scientists who monitor the level of risk have moved the nuclear doomsday clock
closer to midnight. Massive expenditures for nuclear weapons development have
produced tactical weapons more likely to be used and high yield weapons with
destructive capacity far exceeding those used to destroy Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
These weapons
continue to provoke adversaries, making us less secure. US military policy,
resulting in 800 military bases in 80 countries, has not brought us security.
We live in a world
in which the other greatest threats to life come from global warming and
pandemic illness. To combat these threats international cooperation is needed.
We have developed
a framework for such cooperation through the World Health Organization and
other agencies of the UN. They have not been perfect but strengthening
international collaboration in defeating pandemics and in radically reducing
climate chaos may prove to be an insurance policy against falling into a
nuclear war. When the reach of weaponry is global the reach of our
relationships must be too.
This is far better
than relying upon military powers to demonize competitors and continuing to see
threats and force as a way that supposedly sane leaders can vie for competitive
advantage. Building back better should mean the goods of life, not the
instruments of death.
An appropriate
agenda would start with rejecting first use of nuclear weapons, ending the
budget for nuclear weapons, ending the idea that wars are ever moral
alternatives to peaceful conflict resolution and demanding that our government
rise to a level of mature diplomacy with all nations.
Negotiations
toward zero nuclear weapons should be underway already, something that
inspection technology makes practical and doable. We should lead and should
incentivize all nuclear powers to join. This is literally a mortal threat to
humankind.
Well-meaning military strategists are
mired in a very dangerous game. They must be reminded that destroying our
planet in a nuclear war would be a betrayal of everything we hold dear.
Article printed from CounterPunch.org: https://www.counterpunch.org
URL to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/07/29/nuclear-weapons-rising-danger/
BALTIMORE HOLDS 37th ANNUAL HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI COMMEMORATIONS.
Under the umbrella of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, members of several organizations -- the Baltimore Club of the CPUSA, the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, Homewood Friends Meeting, Maryland Peace Action and Prevent Nuclear War Maryland – have planned two events to remember what took place on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima and three days later in Nagasaki. The atom bomb survivors, the Hibakusha, have always stated NEVER AGAIN. Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.
On August 6 from 6:30 to 7 PM ET, gather outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. to call for an end to Johns Hopkins University’s weapons contracts. The university is the #1 School of Mass Destruction as it receives the largest amount of research dollars for nuclear weapons contracts.
Inside Homewood, you must wear a mask and do social distancing. Charlie Cooper, with Get Money Out – Maryland, will make the point that money has corrupted many legislators. This makes it very difficult for advocates trying to convince their legislators to vote to cut back on bloated military spending and new nuclear weapons.
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On August 9 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM ET, there will be a vigil to commemorate the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, again outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse. Afterwards, the assembled will go into the meetinghouse.
Dr. Gwen DuBois, with Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility and Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland, will do a presentation on the Back from the Brink campaign, five steps towards the abolition of nuclear weapons. Baltimore was the first large city to pass a Back from the Brink resolution on August 6, 2018.
Then testimonials and statements condemning nuclear weapons will be read. These statements will challenge Johns Hopkins University to renounce its nuclear weapons contracts. Finally, some participants will go to Busboys and Poets, 33rd and St. Paul Streets, to break bread and enjoy a community meal. This is an opportunity to come together and commit to the task of eventually abolishing nuclear weapons.
On July 12, 2021, JHU was awarded a $530,000,000 contract
for research and development services in support of the nuclear enterprise. Another contract received was for research and
development services for $23 million to support the Ground Based Strategic
Deterrent weapon system. These contracts are for services in support of the
two intercontinental ballistic missile systems.
Charlie Copper with Get Money
Out – Maryland is working very hard to pass the For the People Act, the John
Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and D.C. Statehood. His group also wants to End gerrymandering, Stop dark
money spending, Protect elections by requiring voting machines made in U.S. and
with a paper trail and Make Election Day a holiday.
Greta
Zarro has a background in issue-based community organizing. Her experience includes volunteer
recruitment and engagement, event organizing, coalition building, legislative
and media outreach, and public speaking. Greta graduated as valedictorian from
St. Michael’s College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology. She
previously worked as New York Organizer for leading non-profit Food & Water
Watch. There, she campaigned on issues related to fracking, genetically
engineered foods, climate change, and the corporate control of our common
resources. Greta and her partner run Unadilla Community Farm, a non-profit
organic farm and permaculture education center in Upstate New York. Greta can
be reached at greta@worldbeyondwar.org.
SLOW MOTION NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST
As Tom Engelhardt wrote, “. . . climate change should really be reimagined as
the equivalent of a slow-motion nuclear holocaust. Hiroshima took place in
literally seconds, a single blinding flash of heat. Global warming will prove
to be a matter of years, decades, even centuries of heat.”
Back from the Brink calls on the government to 1] Actively pursuing a
verifiable agreement among nuclear-armed states to eliminate their nuclear
arsenals; 2] Renouncing the option of using nuclear weapons first; 3] Ending
the sole, unchecked authority of any U.S. President to launch a nuclear attack;
4] Taking U.S. nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert and 5] Cancelling the
plan to replace the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal with enhanced weapons.
Dr. Gwen will also speak about The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, the first legally binding international agreement to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons with the ultimate goal being their total elimination. It became effective on January 22, 2021 in countries which ratified the Treaty. A copy of the Treaty was delivered to the residence of JHU president Ron Daniels on January 22, 2021.
Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee, 431 Notre Dame Lane,
Apartment 206, Baltimore, MD 21212 – Phone – 410-323-1607-- Email --
mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.
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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