EXACTLY 60 years ago

 "[N]uclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war. To adopt that kind of course in the nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy — or of a collective death-wish for the world."

—President John F. Kennedy

The more it becomes unacceptable to say words like "diplomacy," "negotiation," "cease-fire," or "peace," the more we need to say them. The more it becomes forbidden to mention the well-deserved blame on both nuclear superpowers, the more we must mention it. When a U.S. president publicly worries about nuclear war on the same day that his party cracks down on progressive Congress Members who merely raised the issue of negotiating peace, failure to point out the absurdity is complicity in a death-wish for the world.

---RootsAction News

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, chair of the joint chiefs of staff under both George W. Bush and Obama, in a recent appearance on the ABC show “This Week” ... sounded exactly like the Progressive Caucus. Putin, he said, is like “a cornered animal.” The possibility that Russia might use battlefield nuclear weapons, he explained "speaks to the need ... to get to the table". 

And, I might add, NOW!

I can remember, quite vividly the days in October and November, 1962 when the possibility of a nuclear holocaust was very, very real. I was a sophomore in college in Bethlehem, PA at a school that sat on a hill above a major steel mill complex. We were quite certain that Bethlehem would be high on the list of targets and were planning our route to a rural area in northcentral PA so we would be able to survive the exchange of nuclear weapons about to ensue. No one thought about what the world would be like after a nuclear war, only how to survive the initial Armageddon. We were very naive.

A lot of things have changed in the last 60 years, not the least of which is the fact that we face other existential threats to our survival - climate change, pandemics and so on. And we have lived under that nuclear cloud for a long time, making it seem all too normal. Perhaps that's why there hasn't been a massive peace movement in this country and Europe in response to the war in Ukraine and the threats of escalation.

Or perhaps there is another even more significant reason - the consolidation of control of the media by corporate and right wing forces - which has made dissent over foreign policy even more un-American than in the past. I am amazed when talking with intelligent friends, many who consider themselves progressive, at how thoroughly the propaganda has blinded them to the underlying causes of the war, which the US has significantly contributed to, and to the necessity of working to de-escalate the situation and, in particular, provide some sort of off-ramp for the Russians and end the very real threat of escalation to a "limited" nuclear war. Don't worry about "Duck and Cover" this time, it's more like "Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye".

Just as troubling is the total failure to understand the linkage between US policy in eastern Europe and what is happening half a world away with regard to Taiwan. While the media and, as a result the public, is glued to the reports from the war in Ukraine, the US is doing everything it can to provoke a war with China: Pelosi's "state" visit to Taiwan, massive "NATO" maneuvers in the South Pacific (aside: why is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization holding maneuvers in the South Pacific?) and a clear announcement that the US will no longer adhere to its "one China" policy and thus oppose militarily any attempt of the People's Republic to assert that Taiwan is part of China. The Chinese haven't fired a shot! Why is the US making moves to provoke them? And, is there a connection with the massive US military aid to the Ukraine? To sum up, what's behind rising US militarism and provocations around the world?

Many in the US peace movement (there is one even though you won't see it in the main stream media) have directed their attention at the military/industrial complex. The Masters of War certainly deserve deserve some of the credit/blame. Approximately 50% of the US military budget goes DIRECTLY to huge corporations! Their CEOs and stockholders are salivating over the prospects of bipartisan support to increase the already bloated war budget.

But I would argue that the unity of prowar forces indicates there is something more sinister underneath this. Is US economic hegemony, which has been a feature of the post Cold War era, increasingly threatened by the BRICS states (led by China) and their growing relationship with other Global South nations? Is the US economic decline threatening its power to dictate the terms of international commerce so that the US feels it necessary to threaten to bring the country and the world to the edge of a nuclear Armageddon to reassert that power?

All of this should put the war in Ukraine and the provocations which led to it in a new light. We should all be worried that the Empire of Liberty, facing challenges around the world (more on that in a future post), could bring us to the brink of WWIII, which we clearly understood during the Cold War, would be "the war to end all wars". Antiwar forces need to connect the dots and build a movement to prevent that.