[D66] [507] CollectAMexilioPubem

[RO]

consortiumnews.com
<https://consortiumnews.com/2022/07/11/chris-hedges-nato-most-dangerous-military-alliance-on-planet/>



  Chris Hedges: NATO — Most Dangerous Military Alliance on Planet

14-18 minutes
------------------------------------------------------------------------

*At no time, including the Cuban missile crisis, have we stood closer to
the precipice of nuclear war.*

“Together We Are Wrong” — by Mr. Fish

*ByChris Hedges <https://consortiumnews.com/tag/chris-hedges/>*
/ScheerPost.com
<https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/11/hedges-nato-the-most-dangerous-military-alliance-on-the-planet/>/

*T*he North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the arms industry
that depends on it for billions in profits, has become the most
aggressive and dangerous military alliance on the planet. Created in
1949 to thwart Soviet expansion into Eastern and Central Europe, it has
evolved into a global war machine in Europe, the Middle East, Latin
America Africa and Asia. 

NATO expanded its footprint, violating
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220709015200/https:/nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early> promises
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220630182227/https:/nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2021-11-24/nato-expansion-budapest-blow-1994> to
Moscow, once the Cold War ended
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220707131814/https:/nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16374-document-02-strategy-nato-s-expansion-and>,
to incorporate 14 countries
<https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm> in Eastern and
Central Europe into the alliance. It will soon add Finland and Sweden.

It bombed Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. It launched wars in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Syria and Libya, resulting in close to a million deaths and some
38 million people driven from their homes.
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710150710/https:/watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human> 

It is building a military footprint in Africa
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710161445/https:/www.counterpunch.org/2022/05/27/the-rise-of-nato-in-africa/> and
Asia. It invited Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea, the
so-called Asia Pacific Four, to its recent summit in Madrid at the end
of June. It has expanded its reach into the Southern Hemisphere, signing
a military training
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710095721/https:/www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_190042.htm>
partnership agreement with Colombia, in December 2021. It has backed
Turkey, with NATO’s second largest military, which has illegally invaded
<https://web.archive.org/web/20210731144624/https:/therealnews.com/in-afrin-the-turks-are-looting-and-pillaging-with-gunfire> and
occupied parts of Syria as well as Iraq.

Turkish-backed militias
<https://web.archive.org/web/20211029192653/https:/rojavainformationcenter.com/2020/09/summary-un-report-on-war-crimes-atrocities-committed-by-turkish-and-other-forces-in-syria/> are engaged
in
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220705155432/https:/www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/10/syria-damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-and-other-violations-by-turkish-forces-and-their-allies/> the
ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds and other inhabitants of north and east
Syria. The Turkish military has been accused of war crimes —
including multiple airstrikes
<https://web.archive.org/web/20210903234318/https:/morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/turkey-accused-war-crimes-second-attack-un-administered-refugee-camp> against
a refugee camp and chemical weapons
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220609013747/https:/defend-kurdistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Turkey-War-Report-Sweeney-V4-1.pdf> use
—in northern Iraq. In exchange
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220708220332/https:/www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_197251.htm> for
President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s permission for Finland and Sweden to
join the alliance, the two Nordic countries have agreed
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220709084205/https:/www.greenleft.org.au/content/nato-gives-green-light-genocide-against-kurds> to expand
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220707050348/https:/www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/220628-trilat-memo.pdf> their
domestic terror laws making it easier to crack down on Kurdish and other
activists, lift their restrictions on selling arms to Turkey and deny
support to the Kurdish-led movement for democratic autonomy in Syria.

It is quite a record for a military alliance that with the collapse of
the Soviet Union was rendered obsolete and should have been dismantled.
NATO and the militarists had no intention of embracing the “peace
dividend,” fostering a world based on diplomacy, a respect of spheres of
influence and mutual cooperation. It was determined to stay in business.
Its business is war. That meant expanding its war machine far beyond the
border of Europe and engaging in ceaseless antagonism toward China and
Russia. 

NATO sees the future, as detailed in its “NATO 2030: Unified for a New
Era
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220325123116/https:/www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/12/pdf/201201-Reflection-Group-Final-Report-Uni.pdf>,”
as a battle for hegemony with rival states, especially China, and calls
for the preparation of prolonged global conflict.

“China has an increasingly global strategic agenda, supported by its
economic and military heft,” the NATO 2030 initiative warned.

“It has proven its willingness to use force against its neighbors, as
well as economic coercion and intimidatory diplomacy well beyond the
Indo-Pacific region. Over the coming decade, China will likely also
challenge NATO’s ability to build collective resilience, safeguard
critical infrastructure, address new and emerging technologies such as
5G and protect sensitive sectors of the economy including supply chains.
Longer term, China is increasingly likely to project military power
globally, including potentially in the Euro-Atlantic area.”

*Spurned Cold War Strategy *

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, with U.S. President Joe
Biden on June 30, at the alliance’s summit in Madrid. (NATO)

The alliance has spurned the Cold War strategy that made sure Washington
was closer to Moscow and Beijing than Moscow and Beijing were to each
other. U.S. and NATO antagonism have turned Russia and China into close
allies.

Russia, rich in natural resources, including energy, minerals and
grains, and China, a manufacturing and technological behemoth, are a
potent combination. NATO no longer distinguishes between the two,
announcing in its most recent mission statement
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220708201933/https:/www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/290622-strategic-concept.pdf> that
the “deepening strategic partnership” between Russian and China has
resulted in “mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based
international order that run counter to our values and interests.” 

On July 6, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI, and Ken McCallum,
director general of Britain’s MI5, held a joint news conference
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220709203702/https:/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-62064506> in
London to announce that China was the “biggest long-term threat to our
economic and national security.” They accused China, like Russia, of
interfering in U.S. and U.K. elections. Wray warned the business leaders
they addressed that the Chinese government was “set on stealing your
technology, whatever it is that makes your industry tick, and using it
to undercut your business and dominate your market.”

This inflammatory rhetoric presages an ominous future.

One cannot talk about war without talking about markets. The political
and social turmoil in the U.S., coupled with its diminishing economic
power, has led it to embrace NATO and its war machine as the antidote to
its decline.

Washington and its European allies are terrified of China’s
trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) meant to connect an
economic bloc of roughly 70 nations outside U.S. control.

The initiative includes the construction of rail lines, roads and gas
pipelines that will be integrated with Russia. Beijing is expected to
commit $1.3 trillion
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220708185137/https:/www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative> to
the BRI by 2027. China, which is on track to become the world’s largest
economy
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-11/when-will-china-be-the-world-s-biggest-economy-maybe-never> within
a decade, has organized the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710130855/https:/theinterregnum.net/china-japan-and-south-korea-are-the-big-winners-as-major-trade-deal-is-signed-economist-explains/>,
the world’s largest trade pact of 15 East Asian and Pacific nations
representing 30 percent of global trade. It already accounts for
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710131133/https:/globalupside.com/top-10-manufacturing-countries-in-the-world/> 28.7
percent of the Global Manufacturing Output, nearly double the 16.8
percent of the U.S. 

China’s rate of growth last year was an impressive  8.1 percent
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710162835/https:/www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-q4-2021-gdp-grow-faster-than-expected-2022-01-17/>,
although slowing to around 5 percent
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220421024352/https:/www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-gdp-growth-seen-slowing-50-2022-covid-hit-2022-04-14/> this
year.  By contrast, the U.S.’s growth rate in 2021 was 5.7 percent
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710165019/https:/www.reuters.com/world/us/us-economy-regained-speed-q4-2021-growth-best-since-1984-2022-01-27/> —
its highest since 1984 — but is predicted to fall below 1 percent
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710164109/https:/www.reuters.com/markets/us/feds-williams-sees-growth-lagging-below-1-2022-2022-07-08/> this
year, by the New York Federal Reserve.

June 8, 2018: Chinese President Xi Jinping welcoming Russian President
Vladimir Putin’s state visit.(Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)

If China, Russia, Iran, India and other nations free themselves from the
tyranny of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency and the
international Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial
Telecommunication (SWIFT), a messaging network financial institutions
use to send and receive information such as money transfer instructions,
it will trigger a dramatic decline in the value of the dollar and a
financial collapse in the U.S.

The huge military expenditures, which have driven the U.S. debt to $30
trillion <https://www.usdebtclock.org/>, $6 trillion more than the
U.S.’s entire GDP, will become untenable. Servicing this debt costs $300
billion a year. The U.S. spent more on the military in 2021, $801
billion which amounted to 38 percent of total world expenditure on the
military, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia,
combined.

The loss of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency will force the
U.S. to slash spending, shutter many of its 800 military bases overseas
and cope with the inevitable social and political upheavals triggered by
economic collapse. It is darkly ironic that NATO has accelerated this
possibility.

Russia, in the eyes of NATO and U.S. strategists, is the appetizer*.
*Its military, NATO hopes
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710000831/https:/blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2022/03/30/why-the-us-and-nato-have-long-wanted-russia-to-attack-ukraine/>,
will get bogged down and degraded in Ukraine. Sanctions and diplomatic
isolation, the plan goes, will thrust Vladimir Putin from power. A
client regime that will do U.S. bidding will be installed in Moscow.

NATO has provided more than $8 billion 
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-04-28/nato-s-stoltenberg-ukraine-military-aid-tops-8-billion-video>in
military aid to Ukraine, while the US has committed nearly $54 billion
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710033828/https:/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/20/upshot/ukraine-us-aid-size.html> in
military and humanitarian assistance to the country.

China, however, is the main course
<https://web.archive.org/web/20210729203830/https:/www.thecanary.co/feature/2019/08/12/us-desire-to-remain-a-superpower-ended-key-nuclear-treaty-and-may-lead-to-war-with-china/>.
Unable to compete economically, the U.S. and NATO have turned to the
blunt instrument of war to cripple their global competitor. 

*Provocation of China*

The provocation of China replicates the NATO baiting of Russia.

NATO expansion and the 2014 U.S.-backed coup
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220426135635/http:/www.mearsheimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Why-the-Ukraine-Crisis-Is.pdf> in
Kiev led Russia to first occupy Crimea, in eastern Ukraine, with its
large ethnic Russian population, and then to invade all of Ukraine to
thwart the country’s efforts to join NATO. 

The same dance of death is being played with China over Taiwan, which
China considers part of Chinese territory, and with NATO expansion in
the Asia Pacific. China flies warplanes
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220602040746/https:/www.cbsnews.com/news/china-taiwan-warplanes-fly-incursions-air-defense-zone/> into
Taiwan’s air defense zone and the U.S. sends naval ships
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220604005530/https:/www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-warship-transits-sensitive-taiwan-strait-2022-02-26/>through
the Taiwan Strait which connects the South and East China seas.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May called China
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220704075218/https:/www.politico.com/news/2022/05/26/blinken-biden-china-policy-speech-00035385> the
most serious long-term challenge to the international order, citing its
claims to Taiwan and efforts to dominate the South China Sea
<https://web.archive.org/web/20210928031138/https:/www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150304/us-sends-warships-through-south-china-sea-latest-transit>.
Taiwan’s president, in a Zelensky-like publicity stunt, recently posed
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710140554/https:/www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4558341> with
an anti-tank rocket launcher in a government handout photo.

    Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is pictured holding a locally-made
    rocket launcher this morning.

    Source: https://t.co/Ly18NmZJfN pic.twitter.com/nnYE6Vtvcd
    <https://t.co/nnYE6Vtvcd>

    — Rik Glauert (@RikGlauert) June 2, 2022
    <https://twitter.com/RikGlauert/status/1532187658310414336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

The conflict in Ukraine has been a bonanza for the arms industry
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220701032135/https:/theconversation.com/global-arms-industry-getting-shakeup-by-war-in-ukraine-and-china-and-us-look-like-winners-from-russias-stumbles-182213>,
which, given the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, needed a new
conflict. Lockheed Martin’s stock prices are up 12 percent. Northrop
Grumman is up 20 percent. The war is being used by NATO to increase its
military presence in Eastern and Central Europe.
<https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_136388.htm> The U.S. is
building a permanent military base
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220702162251/https:/www.reuters.com/world/europe/warsaw-hails-planned-us-military-base-poland-clear-signal-russia-2022-06-29/> in
Poland. The 40,000-strong NATO reaction force is being expanded
to 300,000 troops
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220707040551/https:/www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-massively-increase-high-readiness-forces-300000-stoltenberg-2022-06-27/>.
Billions of dollars in weapons are pouring into the region.

The conflict with Russia, however, is already backfiring. The ruble
has soared to a seven-year high
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-20/ruble-soars-to-seven-year-high-in-challenge-to-bank-of-russia> against
the dollar. Europe is barreling towards a recession
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/04/europe-recession-risk-russia-gas-supplies> because
of rising oil and gas prices and the fear that Russia could terminate
supplies completely. The loss of Russian wheat, fertilizer, gas and oil,
due to Western sanctions, is creating havoc in world markets and
a humanitarian crisis
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710141414/https:/press.un.org/en/2022/sc14846.doc.htm> in
Africa and the Middle East. Soaring food and energy prices, along with
shortages and crippling inflation, bring with them not only deprivation
and hunger, but social upheaval and political instability. The climate
emergency, the real existential threat, is being ignored to appease the
gods of war.

*Threat of Nuclear War*

The war makers are frighteningly cavalier about the threat of nuclear
war. Putin warned NATO countries that they “will face consequences
greater than any you have faced in history” if they intervened directly
in Ukraine and ordered Russian nuclear forces to be put on heightened
alert status
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220618142650/https:/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60547473>.

The proximity to Russia of U.S. nuclear weapons based in Belgium,
Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Turkey mean that any nuclear conflict
would obliterate much of Europe. Russia and the United States control
about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, with around 4,000
warheads each
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220709015000/https:/fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/> in
their military stockpiles, according to the Federation of American
Scientists.

U.S. President Joe Biden warned
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220710034051/https:/www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/us/politics/nuclear-arms-treaties.html> that
the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be “completely unacceptable”
and “entail severe consequences,” without spelling out what those
consequences would be. This is what U.S. strategists refer to as
“deliberate ambiguity.” 

The U.S. military, following its fiascos in the Middle East, has shifted
its focus from fighting terrorism and asymmetrical warfare to
confronting China and Russia. President Barack Obama’s national-security
team in 2016 carried out a war game in which Russia invaded a NATO
country in the Baltics and used a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon
against NATO forces. Obama officials were split about how to respond. 

“The National Security Council’s so-called Principals Committee —
including Cabinet officers and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff —
decided that the United States had no choice but to retaliate with
nuclear weapons,” Eric Schlosser writes in /The Atlantic
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220708141816/https:/www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/russia-ukraine-nuclear-weapon-us-response/661315/>/.

    “Any other type of response, the committee argued, would show a lack
    of resolve, damage American credibility, and weaken the NATO
    alliance. Choosing a suitable nuclear target proved difficult,
    however. Hitting Russia’s invading force would kill innocent
    civilians in a NATO country. Striking targets inside Russia might
    escalate the conflict to an all-out nuclear war. In the end, the NSC
    Principals Committee recommended a nuclear attack on Belarus — a
    nation that had played no role whatsoever in the invasion of the
    NATO ally but had the misfortune of being a Russian ally.” 

The Biden administration has formed a Tiger Team of national security
officials to run war games on what to do if Russia uses a nuclear
weapon, according to 
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220709095416/https:/www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/politics/biden-russia-nuclear-weapons.html>/The
New York Times. /The threat of nuclear war is minimized with discussions
of “tactical nuclear weapons,” as if less powerful nuclear explosions
are somehow more acceptable and won’t lead to the use of bigger bombs. 

At no time, including the Cuban missile crisis, have we stood closer to
the precipice of nuclear war. 

“A simulation
<https://web.archive.org/web/20220623100958/https:/sgs.princeton.edu/the-lab/plan-a> devised
by experts at Princeton University starts with Moscow firing a nuclear
warning shot; NATO responds with a small strike, and the ensuing war
yieldsmore than 90 million casualties
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/21/science/russia-nuclear-ukraine.html#:~:text=A%20simulation%20devised%20by%20experts%20at%20Princeton%20University,90%20million%20casualties%20in%20its%20first%20few%20hours.> in
its first few hours,” /The New York Times/ reported.

The longer the war in Ukraine continues — and the U.S. and NATO seem
determined to funnel billions of dollars of weapons into the conflict
for months if not years — the more the unthinkable becomes thinkable.
Flirting with Armageddon to profit the arms industry and carry out the
futile quest to reclaim U.S. global hegemony is at best extremely
reckless and at worst genocidal.

*Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign
correspondent for 15 years for /The New York Times/, where he served as
the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan bureau chief for the paper. He
previously worked overseas for /The Dallas Morning News/, /The Christian
Science Monitor/ and NPR. ** He is the host of show “The Chris Hedges
Report.”*

*Author’s Note to Readers:* /There is now no way left for me to continue
to write a weekly column for ScheerPost and produce my weekly television
show without your help. /The walls are closing in, with startling
rapidity, on independent journalism
<https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/17/the-chris-hedges-report/>/, with the
elites, including the Democratic Party elites, clamoring for more and
more censorship. Bob Scheer, who runs ScheerPost on a shoestring budget,
and I will not waiver in our commitment to independent and honest
journalism, and we will never put ScheerPost behind a paywall, charge a
subscription for it, sell your data or accept advertising. Please, if
you can, sign up at// /chrishedges.substack.com
<http://chrishedges.substack.com/>/ so I can continue to post my Monday
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/This //column is from Scheerpost/
<https://scheerpost.com/category/chris-hedges/>/, //for which Chris
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<https://scheerpost.com/category/chris-hedges/>/. //Click here to sign
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/The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not
reflect those of /*Consortium News.*

On 7/14/22 11:26, RO wrote:
>
> wsws.org <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/12/rdep-j12.html>
>
>
>   NYC Emergency Management Department issues Public Service
>   Announcement for nuclear attack
>
> 4-5 minutes
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> /This article was originally posted on //Twitter/
> <https://twitter.com/DavidNorthWSWS/status/1546903956411994112>/./
>
> The New York City Emergency Management Department has posted a public
> service announcement advising residents what they should do in the
> event of a nuclear attack.
>
> Loading Tweet ...
>
> Incredibly, the video begins: “So there’s been a nuclear attack. Don’t
> ask me how or why. Just know that the big one has hit.” Then comes the
> advice:
>
>     1) Get inside; 2) Stay inside, stay away from windows, and shower
>     if exposed to radioactive fallout; 3) Stay tuned.
>
> Just think how many lives might have been saved if the people of
> Hiroshima and Nagasaki had taken these steps! What the fantasists who
> created the video fail to mention is that a hydrogen bomb strike would
> reduce most of New York City to flaming rubble within seconds.
>
> Tens of thousands of people would be instantly vaporized. At least 80
> percent of NYC residents would be dead within minutes of the nuclear
> strike. All public services would be dysfunctional. Most of those who
> survived the initial blast would be dead within a few days.
>
> NYC and its environs would be uninhabitable for decades. The scale of
> the resulting destruction is beyond description. “Tsar Bomba”—a
> hydrogen bomb detonated by the Soviet Union in a nuclear test 60 years
> ago— produced devastation within a 60 mile radius.
>
> An attack on NYC would be just part of a worldwide nuclear exchange.
> According to a new study using computer simulations by Louisiana State
> University, a nuclear war would result in a global ice age leading to
> the extinction of life on the planet.
>
> Even worse than the delusional advice is the statement: “Don’t ask me
> how or why.” But those are precisely the questions that must be asked
> if a catastrophe is to be stopped. The concise answer to “why?” is
> that the reckless policies of Washington triggered a nuclear war.
>
> The release of the public service message can only mean that NYC
> officials, acting on information they have received from Washington,
> believe that a nuclear war is now a distinct and even imminent danger.
>
> Rather than pulling back from the brink, Biden is escalating the
> reckless war against Russia. The public service announcement is in
> line with recent efforts by the US government and media to downplay
> the consequences of a nuclear war and portray it as a survivable event.
>
> In a recently published book on the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis,
> historian Serhi Plokhy writes that a nuclear war was averted, despite
> numerous blunders and miscalculations, because American and Soviet
> leaders recognized the catastrophic consequences. He writes:
>
>     Kennedy, Khrushchev, and their generation of world leaders and the
>     citizens of their countries came of age in the shadow of the
>     atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki…
>
>     That generation was keenly aware of the destruction that atomic
>     and especially hydrogen bombs could wreak on their countries and
>     humankind as a whole. Every move of the two leaders ... was
>     dictated by their fear of the use of nuclear weapons...
>
>     There is little doubt that today there are world leaders prepared
>     to take a more cavalier attitude toward nuclear weapons and
>     nuclear war than Kennedy and Khrushchev had in 1962.
>
> This is true. But the recklessness is not merely a problem of the
> leaders’ psychology.
>
> The conditions of intense capitalist crisis—producing a sense among
> leaders that desperate measures are necessary and unavoidable—result
> in actions that would in “normal times” be rejected out of hand as
> “insane.”
>
> The only effective and rational response to the insane policies of the
> capitalist regimes is their overthrow by the working class and the
> unification of humanity on a progressive basis through socialism. The
> alternatives, Rosa Luxemburg wrote, are “socialism or barbarism.”
>
> Make the decision to stop war and fight for socialism! Read the World
> Socialist Web Site! Join theSocialist Equality Party
> <https://www.wsws.org/en/special/pages/sep/us/home.html>! Build the
> Fourth International as the World Party of Socialist Revolution.
>
> On 7/14/22 11:23, RO wrote:
>>
>> wsws.org <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/14/dozm-j14.html>
>>
>>
>>   Questions remain unanswered after New York City nuclear war alert
>>
>> 8-10 minutes
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Two days after the July 11 release of a public service announcement
>> by New York City’s office of emergency management (OEM) for the case
>> of a nuclear attack, there has been no serious explanation given for
>> this extraordinary step taken by the administration of America’s
>> largest city, which is home to almost 8.5 million people and the
>> country’s financial center, Wall Street.
>>
>> The 90 second long video
>> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-5d7V4Sbqk>, which has now been
>> watched by over half a million people, was issued without any
>> political explanation or context. In what appeared like a parody on
>> the Cold War-era advice to children to “hide under your desk” in case
>> a nuclear bomb is dropped, the video recommended the public to “get
>> inside,” “shower with soap or shampoo,” and then “stay put” and check
>> their “safety alerts” from the city for more information. To top it
>> all, the presenter ended the video with a reassuring smile, stating,
>> “You’ve got this.”
>>
>> The utter irrationality of the content was almost as disturbing as
>> the very fact of the release of the video itself. Of course, all of
>> these recommendations would be worthless in case of an actual nuclear
>> detonation, which would incinerate the city and surrounding area and
>> turn much of the East Coast uninhabitable for generations.
>>
>> A 2015 article
>> <https://thebulletin.org/2015/02/what-would-happen-if-an-800-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan/>
>> published by the /Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists/ noted that
>> Russia at the time had an estimated 700 strategic nuclear warheads
>> each with an explosive power of 800,000 tons of TNT that, if fired,
>> could hit the US within less than half an hour. If such a warhead
>> exploded over midtown Manhattan, it would create a gigantic fireball
>> which would “vaporize the structures directly below it and produce an
>> immense blast wave and high-speed winds, crushing even heavily built
>> concrete structures within a couple miles of ground zero. …Within
>> tens of minutes, everything within approximately five to seven miles
>> of Midtown Manhattan would be engulfed by a gigantic firestorm.”
>>
>> The article continues to describe the apocalyptic scenario as
>> follows: “Those who tried to escape through the streets would have
>> been incinerated by the hurricane-force winds filled with firebrands
>> and flames. Even those able to find shelter in the lower-level
>> sub-basements of massive buildings would likely suffocate from
>> fire-generated gases or be cooked alive as their shelters heated to
>> oven-like conditions. The fire would extinguish all life and destroy
>> almost everything else. Tens of miles downwind of the area of
>> immediate destruction, radioactive fallout would begin to arrive
>> within a few hours of the detonation.”
>>
>> The response in the national and local media to the public service
>> announcement has been marked by extreme complacency and indifference,
>> with most outlets limiting themselves to perfunctory reports. The
>> /New York Times/, whichjust found that “people around the world are
>> better off than ever,”
>> <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/12/mwwn-j12.html> has not
>> published a single article on it, as of this writing.
>>
>> By contrast, thousands took to social media to express their shock
>> and profound discomfort, with many correctly asking, “is there
>> something I should know about?” Clearly, there is.
>>
>> But no serious answer to this question has been given by either New
>> York City or White House officials. In a press conference that was
>> almost as bizarre as the video itself, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams
>> defended the video, saying, “I don’t think it was alarmist. I’m a big
>> believer in better safe than sorry. I take my hat off to OEM. This
>> was right after the attacks in the Ukraine, and OEM took a very
>> proactive step to say let’s be prepared. And it doesn’t mean just a
>> nuclear attack, it’s any natural disaster. Pack a bag. Know where
>> your medicines are located. These are just smart things to do.”
>>
>> Adams then insisted that the decision to publish this video was made
>> by his administration alone, stating, “it was of my briefing, because
>> when I saw it and heard it, I thought it was a great idea. My
>> understanding is that it was really taking necessary steps after what
>> happened in Ukraine to give preparedness.”
>>
>> At a White House briefing on Wednesday, US National Security Advisor
>> Jake Sullivan also insisted that the initiative had been taken by the
>> city, without coordination with the White House. His language,
>> however, was notably evasive. He said, “I do not believe that it [the
>> public service announcement] was the result of any
>> intelligence-sharing from the federal government to New York City,”
>> and added, “I can’t speak as to why they put it out at this point.”
>>
>> Workers cannot take these statements at face value. The decision for
>> the release was taken in the midst of the biggest war ranging in
>> Europe since 1945, in which NATO is effectively fighting a proxy war
>> in Ukraine against Russia, the world’s second-largest nuclear power.
>>
>> Without any public declaration, much less public discussion or
>> democratic decision, the US has effectively entered a military
>> conflict with Russia. While gutting funds to social and COVID
>> spending, the US government has funneled tens of billions of dollars
>> worth of weapons into the Ukrainian army, including long-range
>> missiles that can hit Russian territory, assisting in military
>> strikes on Russian targets and engaging in one major provocation
>> after another.
>>
>> Although US President Joe Biden has repeatedly ridiculed and
>> dismissed warnings by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the
>> Kremlin is prepared to make use of its nuclear arsenal, the /Wall
>> Street Journal/ reported recently that since February, there had been
>> “a series of urgent meetings in the administration to map out how Mr.
>> Biden should respond if Russia conducts a nuclear detonation in
>> Ukraine or around the Black Sea. Officials will not discuss the
>> classified results of those tabletop exercises.”
>>
>> At its summit two weeks ago, NATO announced plans for “high-intensity
>> … warfighting against nuclear-armed peer-competitors,”
>> <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/01/ftvp-j01.html> an
>> extraordinary announcement that, again, has been almost entirely
>> blacked out by the media.
>>
>> It should also be noted that the head of New York City’s Office of
>> Emergency Management is Zach Iscol, who was appointed by Adams on
>> February 22, just days before the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
>> Iscol is a representative of what the WSWS has termed the “CIA
>> Democrats
>> <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/dems-m07.html>”: former
>> intelligence and military personnel who are deeply embedded in the US
>> national security apparatus and have come to play a major role in
>> Democratic Party politics.
>>
>> Iscol is a former Marine who was involved in the Second Battle of
>> Fallujah in 2004, the single biggest battle during the bloody,
>> decades-long US occupation of Iraq. The city, one of the oldest urban
>> settlements of human civilization, was turned into a sea of ruins and
>> has become a sinister symbol of the war crimes of US imperialism
>> <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/06/08/pers-j08.html> against
>> the people of Iraq. In 2020, Iscol unsuccessfully ran for the office
>> of mayor, pledging to “translate” his experience during the battle of
>> Fallujah to New York City — a threat that must no doubt be taken
>> seriously.
>>
>> While the immediate background behind the issuing of this video
>> remains to be clarified, it confirms the warnings by the WSWS about
>> the very real threat of nuclear war. Writing in April this year, the
>> WSWS warned that “Capitalism is normalizing mass death
>> <https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/09/pers-a09.html>,” first
>> from the pandemic, and now from a war, including one fought with
>> nuclear weapons.
>>
>>     The total devaluation of human life, the indifference to mass
>>     death in the pandemic and the recklessness with which American
>>     capitalism is rushing into conflict with Russia reflect the views
>>     and social character of the American ruling class. This parasitic
>>     oligarchy feasts upon the impoverishment and exploitation of the
>>     working population.
>>
>>     Living on financial speculation made possible by a credit bubble
>>     inflated by the Federal Reserve, fearing and hating the working
>>     population of America and the world, the American ruling class is
>>     as desperate and reckless as it is ruthless. The central question
>>     is what will develop more quickly: the war drive of the
>>     capitalist oligarchy or the growing global rebellion of the
>>     working class.
>>
>> On 7/14/22 11:17, RO wrote:
>>> https://tass.com/politics/1478711
>>>
>>>
>>> 12 Jul, 11:32
>>>
>>>
>>>   US, allies teetering on brink of military confrontation with
>>>   Moscow, says diplomat
>>>
>>> Maria Zakharova also slammed Japan’s attempts to paint Russia as a
>>> country that made nuclear threats
>>>
>>> MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. The United States and its allies are
>>> teetering on the brink of an open military conflict with Moscow,
>>> which would be fraught with nuclear tensions, Russian Foreign
>>> Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Tuesday.
>>>
>>> "After provoking an escalation of the Ukrainian crisis and
>>> unleashing a violent hybrid confrontation with Russia, Washington
>>> and its allies are dangerously teetering on the brink of an open
>>> military confrontation with our country, which means a direct armed
>>> conflict between nuclear powers. Clearly, such a confrontation would
>>> be fraught with nuclear escalation," the statement reads.
>>>
>>> Zakharova also slammed Japan’s attempts to paint Russia as a country
>>> that made nuclear threats. "It is unacceptable to try to distort the
>>> logic of deterrence, which is what Russia’s official statements on
>>> nuclear issues are based on, for propaganda reasons, as well as to
>>> depict us as a country threatening to use nuclear weapons," she
>>> stressed.
>>>
>>> The Russian diplomat added that the tone and focus of Japanese Prime
>>> Minister Fumio Kishida’s remarks on the nuclear weapons issue were
>>> perplexing. "We have taken note of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio
>>> Kishida’s recent anti-Russian remarks, including his controversial
>>> statements on the nuclear weapons issue. Their focus and tone are
>>> puzzling. In particular, in order to justify the move to choose
>>> Hiroshima as the host city of a G7 summit, a remark was made that
>>> there was no better alternative to the city in a situation where
>>> "Russia’s use of nuclear weapons and nuclear threats are becoming a
>>> reality’," the statement added.
>>>
>>> On 7/14/22 11:13, RO wrote:
>>>> https://www.frontnieuws.com/rood-alert-nyc-biedt-inwoners-suicidaal-advies-over-atoomaanval-terwijl-de-vs-poetin-pusht-tot-een-first-strike-nucleaire-aanval-op-meerdere-steden-om-amerika-te-vernietigen/
>>>>
>>>> July 14, 2022
>>>> 2046
>>>> 5
>>>> <https://www.frontnieuws.com/rood-alert-nyc-biedt-inwoners-suicidaal-advies-over-atoomaanval-terwijl-de-vs-poetin-pusht-tot-een-first-strike-nucleaire-aanval-op-meerdere-steden-om-amerika-te-vernietigen/#comments>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 7/14/22 07:04, RO wrote:
>>>>> https://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Article/2857439/norad-is-ready-to-track-santas-flight-for-the-66th-year/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 7/14/22 06:56, RO wrote:
>>>>>> CollectAMexilioPubem
>>>>>>
>>>>>> JD delta 159
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