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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
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href="https://consortiumnews.com/2022/07/11/chris-hedges-nato-most-dangerous-military-alliance-on-planet/">consortiumnews.com</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Chris Hedges: NATO — Most Dangerous
Military Alliance on Planet</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">14-18 minutes</div>
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<p><strong><span>At no time, including the Cuban missile
crisis, have we stood closer to the precipice of
nuclear war.</span></strong></p>
</div>
<div id="attachment_81511" class="wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-81511"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Together-We-Are-Wrong-1-scaled-1.jpg"
alt="" class="moz-reader-block-img" width="1547"
height="1239"></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-81511" class="wp-caption-text"><span>“Together
We Are Wrong” — by Mr. Fish</span></p>
</div>
<p><span><strong>By<span> <a
href="https://consortiumnews.com/tag/chris-hedges/">Chris
Hedges</a></span></strong><br>
<em><a
href="https://scheerpost.com/2022/07/11/hedges-nato-the-most-dangerous-military-alliance-on-the-planet/">ScheerPost.com</a></em><br>
</span></p>
<p><span><span><strong><img
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-13-at-4.37.48-PM-100x100.png"
alt="" width="100" height="100">T</strong></span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>NATO expanded its footprint, <a
href="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">violating</a> <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220630182227/https:/nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2021-11-24/nato-expansion-budapest-blow-1994">promises</a> to
Moscow, once <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220707131814/https:/nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/16374-document-02-strategy-nato-s-expansion-and">the
Cold War ended</a>, to incorporate <a
href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm">14
countries</a> in Eastern and Central Europe into the
alliance. It will soon add Finland and Sweden.</span></p>
<p><span>It bombed Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. It launched
wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, resulting
in close to <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710150710/https:/watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human">a
million deaths and some 38 million people driven
from their homes.</a> </span></p>
<p><span>It is building a military footprint in <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710161445/https:/www.counterpunch.org/2022/05/27/the-rise-of-nato-in-africa/">Africa</a> 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,<a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710095721/https:/www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_190042.htm"> signing
a military training</a> partnership agreement with
Colombia, in December 2021. It has backed Turkey, with
NATO’s second largest military, which has illegally<a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210731144624/https:/therealnews.com/in-afrin-the-turks-are-looting-and-pillaging-with-gunfire"> invaded</a> and
occupied parts of Syria as well as Iraq.</span></p>
<p><span>Turkish-backed <a
href="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/">militias</a> are<a
href="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/"> engaged
in</a> the ethnic cleansing of Syrian Kurds and
other inhabitants of north and east Syria. The Turkish
military has been accused of war crimes — including<a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210903234318/https:/morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/turkey-accused-war-crimes-second-attack-un-administered-refugee-camp"> multiple
airstrikes</a> against a refugee camp and <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220609013747/https:/defend-kurdistan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Turkey-War-Report-Sweeney-V4-1.pdf">chemical
weapons</a> use —in northern Iraq. <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220708220332/https:/www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_197251.htm">In
exchange</a> for President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s
permission for Finland and Sweden to join the
alliance, the two Nordic countries <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220709084205/https:/www.greenleft.org.au/content/nato-gives-green-light-genocide-against-kurds">have
agreed</a> to <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220707050348/https:/www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/220628-trilat-memo.pdf">expand</a> 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.</span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>NATO sees the future, as detailed in its “<a
href="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">NATO
2030: Unified for a New Era</a>,” as a battle for
hegemony with rival states, especially China, and
calls for the preparation of prolonged global
conflict.</span></p>
<p><span>“China has an increasingly global strategic
agenda, supported by its economic and military heft,”
the NATO 2030 initiative warned.</span></p>
<p><span>“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.”</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Spurned Cold War Strategy </strong></span></p>
<div id="attachment_81514" class="wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-81514"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/52192187812_a11b2dd10c_k.jpg"
alt="" class="moz-reader-block-img" width="1341"
height="894"></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-81514" class="wp-caption-text"><span>NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, left, with U.S.
President Joe Biden on June 30, at the alliance’s
summit in Madrid. <span>(NATO)</span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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 <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220708201933/https:/www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2022/6/pdf/290622-strategic-concept.pdf">mission
statement</a> 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.” </span></p>
<p><span>On July 6, Christopher Wray, director of the FBI,
and Ken McCallum, director general of Britain’s MI5,
held a <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220709203702/https:/www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-62064506">joint
news conference</a> 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.”</span></p>
<p><span>This inflammatory rhetoric presages an ominous
future.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>The initiative includes the construction of rail
lines, roads and gas pipelines that will be integrated
with Russia. Beijing is expected to commit <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220708185137/https:/www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative">$1.3
trillion</a> to the BRI by 2027. China, which is on
track to become the <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-11/when-will-china-be-the-world-s-biggest-economy-maybe-never">world’s
largest economy</a> within a decade, has organized
the <a
href="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/">Regional
Comprehensive Economic Partnership</a>, the world’s
largest trade pact of 15 East Asian and Pacific
nations representing 30 percent of global trade. It <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710131133/https:/globalupside.com/top-10-manufacturing-countries-in-the-world/">already
accounts for</a> 28.7 percent of the Global
Manufacturing Output, nearly double the 16.8 percent
of the U.S. </span></p>
<p><span>China’s rate of growth last year was an
impressive <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710162835/https:/www.reuters.com/markets/asia/chinas-q4-2021-gdp-grow-faster-than-expected-2022-01-17/">8.1
percent</a>, although slowing to around <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220421024352/https:/www.reuters.com/world/china/chinas-gdp-growth-seen-slowing-50-2022-covid-hit-2022-04-14/">5
percent</a> this year. By contrast, the U.S.’s
growth rate in 2021 was <a
href="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/">5.7
percent</a> — its highest since 1984 — but is
predicted to <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710164109/https:/www.reuters.com/markets/us/feds-williams-sees-growth-lagging-below-1-2022-2022-07-08/">fall
below 1 percent</a> this year, by the New York
Federal Reserve.</span></p>
<div id="attachment_77183" class="wp-caption">
<p><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-77183"
src="https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/The_President_of_Russia_arrived_in_China_on_a_state_visit._07.jpg"
alt="" class="moz-reader-block-img" width="1880"
height="1160"></p>
<p id="caption-attachment-77183" class="wp-caption-text"><span>June
8, 2018: Chinese President Xi Jinping welcoming
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit.<span>
(Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)</span></span></p>
</div>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>The huge military expenditures, which have driven
the U.S. debt to $<a
href="https://www.usdebtclock.org/">30 trillion</a>,
$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.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span>Russia, in the eyes of NATO and U.S. strategists,
is the appetizer<strong>. </strong>Its military, <a
href="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/">NATO
hopes</a>, 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.</span></p>
<p><span>NATO has provided more than <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-04-28/nato-s-stoltenberg-ukraine-military-aid-tops-8-billion-video">$8
billion </a>in military aid to Ukraine, while the US
has committed nearly <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710033828/https:/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/05/20/upshot/ukraine-us-aid-size.html">$54
billion</a> in military and humanitarian assistance
to the country.</span></p>
<p><span>China, however, is the <a
href="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/">main
course</a>. Unable to compete economically, the U.S.
and NATO have turned to the blunt instrument of war to
cripple their global competitor. </span></p>
<p><span><strong> Provocation of China</strong></span></p>
<p><span>The provocation of China replicates the NATO
baiting of Russia.</span></p>
<p><span>NATO expansion and the <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220426135635/http:/www.mearsheimer.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Why-the-Ukraine-Crisis-Is.pdf">2014
U.S.-backed coup</a> 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. </span></p>
<p><span>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 <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220602040746/https:/www.cbsnews.com/news/china-taiwan-warplanes-fly-incursions-air-defense-zone/">flies
warplanes</a> into Taiwan’s air defense zone and the
U.S. sends <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220604005530/https:/www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-warship-transits-sensitive-taiwan-strait-2022-02-26/">naval
ships</a>through the Taiwan Strait which connects
the South and East China seas.</span></p>
<p><span>Secretary of State Antony Blinken in May <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220704075218/https:/www.politico.com/news/2022/05/26/blinken-biden-china-policy-speech-00035385">called
China</a> the most serious long-term challenge to
the international order, citing its claims to Taiwan
and efforts to dominate the <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210928031138/https:/www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3150304/us-sends-warships-through-south-china-sea-latest-transit">South
China Sea</a>. Taiwan’s president, in a
Zelensky-like publicity stunt, <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710140554/https:/www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4558341">recently
posed</a> with an anti-tank rocket launcher in a
government handout photo.</span></p>
<blockquote data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is
pictured holding a locally-made rocket launcher this
morning.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://t.co/Ly18NmZJfN"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://t.co/Ly18NmZJfN</a>
<a href="https://t.co/nnYE6Vtvcd">pic.twitter.com/nnYE6Vtvcd</a></p>
<p>— Rik Glauert (@RikGlauert) <a
href="https://twitter.com/RikGlauert/status/1532187658310414336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June
2, 2022</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>The conflict in Ukraine has been <a
href="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">a
bonanza for the arms industry</a>, 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 <a
href="https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_136388.htm">Eastern
and Central Europe.</a> The U.S. is building a <a
href="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/">permanent
military base</a> in Poland. The 40,000-strong NATO
reaction force is being expanded to <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220707040551/https:/www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-massively-increase-high-readiness-forces-300000-stoltenberg-2022-06-27/">300,000
troops</a>. Billions of dollars in weapons are
pouring into the region.</span></p>
<p><span>The conflict with Russia, however, is already
backfiring. The ruble has <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-20/ruble-soars-to-seven-year-high-in-challenge-to-bank-of-russia">soared
to a seven-year high</a> against the dollar. Europe
is barreling towards a <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/04/europe-recession-risk-russia-gas-supplies">recession</a> 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 <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710141414/https:/press.un.org/en/2022/sc14846.doc.htm">humanitarian
crisis</a> 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.</span></p>
<p><strong><span> Threat of Nuclear War</span></strong></p>
<p><span>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 <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220618142650/https:/www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60547473">heightened
alert status</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>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 <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220709015000/https:/fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/">90
percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, with around
4,000 warheads each</a> in their military
stockpiles, according to the Federation of American
Scientists.</span></p>
<p><span>U.S. President Joe Biden <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220710034051/https:/www.nytimes.com/2022/06/01/us/politics/nuclear-arms-treaties.html">warned</a> 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.” </span></p>
<p><span>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. </span></p>
<p><span>“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 <em><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220708141816/https:/www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/russia-ukraine-nuclear-weapon-us-response/661315/">The
Atlantic</a></em>.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span>“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.” </span></p>
</blockquote>
<p><span>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, <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220709095416/https:/www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/us/politics/biden-russia-nuclear-weapons.html">according
to </a><em>The New York Times. </em>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. </span></p>
<p><span>At no time, including the Cuban missile crisis,
have we stood closer to the precipice of nuclear war. </span></p>
<p><span>“A<a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220623100958/https:/sgs.princeton.edu/the-lab/plan-a"> simulation</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 yields<a
href="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.">more
than 90 million casualties</a> in its first few
hours,” <em>The New York Times</em> reported.</span></p>
<p><span>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.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning
journalist who was a foreign correspondent for 15
years for <em>The New York Times</em>, where he
served as the Middle East bureau chief and Balkan
bureau chief for the paper. He previously worked
overseas for <em>The Dallas Morning News</em>, <em>The
Christian Science Monitor</em> and NPR. </strong><strong> He
is the host of show “The Chris Hedges Report.”</strong></span></p>
<p><span><strong>Author’s Note to Readers:</strong> <em>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. </em><a
href="https://scheerpost.com/2022/03/17/the-chris-hedges-report/">The
walls are closing in, with startling rapidity, on
independent journalism</a><em>, with the elites,
including the Democratic Party elites, clamoring for
more and more censorship. Bob Scheer, who runs
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“The Chris Hedges Report.”</em></span></p>
<p><span><em>This </em><a
href="https://scheerpost.com/category/chris-hedges/"><em>column
is from Scheerpost</em></a><em>, </em><em>for
which Chris Hedges writes </em><a
href="https://scheerpost.com/category/chris-hedges/"><em>a
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</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/14/22 11:26, RO wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:4fd5d0fc-0901-9fc3-a601-7352aee7d41b@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p> </p>
<div id="toolbar" class="toolbar-container"> </div>
<div class="container" style="--line-height: 1.6em;" dir="ltr"
lang="undefined">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/12/rdep-j12.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">wsws.org</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">NYC Emergency Management Department
issues Public Service Announcement for nuclear attack</h1>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">4-5 minutes</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div>
<p><em>This article was originally posted on </em><a
href="https://twitter.com/DavidNorthWSWS/status/1546903956411994112"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true"><em>Twitter</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<div>
<p><img src="https://www.wsws.org/img/loading.gif"
class="moz-reader-block-img"
moz-do-not-send="true"></p>
<p>Loading Tweet ...</p>
</div>
<p>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: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>1) Get inside; 2) Stay inside, stay away from
windows, and shower if exposed to radioactive
fallout; 3) Stay tuned. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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…</p>
<p>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... </p>
<p>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. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is true. But the recklessness is not merely a
problem of the leaders’ psychology.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.” </p>
<p>Make the decision to stop war and fight for
socialism! Read the World Socialist Web Site! Join the<a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/special/pages/sep/us/home.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"> Socialist Equality Party</a>!
Build the Fourth International as the World Party of
Socialist Revolution.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/14/22 11:23, RO wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:8d6bd63d-e5e4-1761-a6e7-173011167b24@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
<p> </p>
<div id="toolbar" class="toolbar-container"> </div>
<div class="container" style="--line-height: 1.6em;" dir="ltr"
lang="undefined">
<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <a
class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/14/dozm-j14.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">wsws.org</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Questions remain unanswered after
New York City nuclear war alert</h1>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">8-10 minutes</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="content">
<div class="moz-reader-content reader-show-element">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page">
<div>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-5d7V4Sbqk"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">90 second long video</a>,
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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>A <a
href="https://thebulletin.org/2015/02/what-would-happen-if-an-800-kiloton-nuclear-warhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener"
moz-do-not-send="true">2015 article</a> published
by the <em>Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists</em>
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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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 <em>New York Times</em>, which<a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/12/mwwn-j12.html"
moz-do-not-send="true"> just found that “people
around the world are better off than ever,”</a>
has not published a single article on it, as of this
writing.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <em>Wall
Street Journal</em> 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.”</p>
<p>At its summit two weeks ago, NATO announced <a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/01/ftvp-j01.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">plans for “high-intensity …
warfighting against nuclear-armed
peer-competitors,”</a> an extraordinary
announcement that, again, has been almost entirely
blacked out by the media.</p>
<p>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 “<a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/dems-m07.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">CIA Democrats</a>”: 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.</p>
<p>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 <a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/06/08/pers-j08.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">war crimes of US
imperialism</a> 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.</p>
<p>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 “<a
href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/04/09/pers-a09.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">Capitalism is normalizing
mass death</a>,” first from the pandemic, and now
from a war, including one fought with nuclear
weapons.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>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.</p>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/14/22 11:17, RO wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:443f8dd4-54f0-ecb9-08cc-9ecec1409cbd@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
<address><span class="news-header__date-date"><span
data-ng-if="visibleDate" class="ng-binding ng-scope"><a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://tass.com/politics/1478711"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://tass.com/politics/1478711</a></span></span></address>
<p><span class="news-header__date-date"><span
data-ng-if="visibleDate" class="ng-binding ng-scope"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p><span class="news-header__date-date"><span
data-ng-if="visibleDate" class="ng-binding ng-scope">12
Jul, 11:32</span></span></p>
<h1 class="news-header__title">US, allies teetering on brink
of military confrontation with Moscow, says diplomat </h1>
<div class="news-header__lead">Maria Zakharova also slammed
Japan’s attempts to paint Russia as a country that made
nuclear threats</div>
<div class="text-content">
<div class="text-block">
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/14/22 11:13, RO wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:9822d9b6-0e33-d937-8269-86d045d04583@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
<address><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="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/"
moz-do-not-send="true">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/</a><br>
<br>
</address>
<div class="td-module-meta-info"> <span
class="td-post-date"><time class="entry-date updated
td-module-date" datetime="2022-07-14T07:42:50+00:00"><font
style="vertical-align: inherit;"><font
style="vertical-align: inherit;">July 14, 2022</font></font></time></span>
<div class="td-post-views"><span class="td-nr-views-61436"><font
style="vertical-align: inherit;"><font
style="vertical-align: inherit;">2046</font></font></span></div>
<div class="td-post-comments"><a
href="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"
moz-do-not-send="true"><font style="vertical-align:
inherit;"><font style="vertical-align: inherit;">5</font></font></a></div>
</div>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/14/22 07:04, RO wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:ed193c24-9acf-ff0f-2512-4f8375bc5cdb@gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8">
<address><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Article/2857439/norad-is-ready-to-track-santas-flight-for-the-66th-year/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.norad.mil/Newsroom/Article/2857439/norad-is-ready-to-track-santas-flight-for-the-66th-year/</a></address>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/14/22 06:56, RO wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:5a91d0d7-4e4e-56df-5d7a-5c1d2c552252@gmail.com">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">CollectAMexilioPubem
JD delta 159
</pre>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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