Daniel Ellsberg on Nuclear Weapons
Doomsday Looms Unless We Smarten Up
Is the U.S. military becoming a paper tiger whose sole remaining power move is a mighty nuclear roar? It’s a disturbing thought, given the extent to which U.S. military power is overstretched, recruiting shortfalls, and the usual waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon, exacerbated by imperial megalomania.
Meanwhile, that same Pentagon still seeks a huge “investment” in new nukes. America surely needs to launch a "first strike" against the absurdity of spending $1.7 trillion (or more) on “modernizing” the nuclear triad. Aren't you tired of Presidents and Congress diverting your hard-earned tax dollars from Main Street USA to MAD Street, as in mutually assured destruction via nuclear war?
Don't succumb to military BS about "investing" and "modernizing" the nuclear triad. Don't use that language. We need to divest, not invest. We need to disarm, not rearm. The U.S. already has over 5000 nuclear weapons; a couple of dozen might suffice to tip the world into nuclear winter, assuming the Russians or Chinese respond in kind. Who could possibly believe the world needs more nukes?
George Orwell was right. In America, war has become peace (or, our alleged way to peace). Thus that old Strategic Air Command (SAC) motto people used to poke fun at: "Peace is our profession" even as SAC prepared to launch doomsday. We are propagandized to believe that war and weapons are the path to peace. The peace of mass graves, I suppose.
No one speaks with more authority on U.S. nuclear weapons and planning than Daniel Ellsberg. Check out his book on the subject, and the following interview. And remember that the U.S. was prepared in the early 1960s to launch 100 Holocausts in the name of “winning” a nuclear war. Most evil, indeed, as Ellsberg notes.
Please listen to Ellsberg. We must fight this “common insanity.”
Very Timely video, Bill! Kudos for finding and posting it.
It's dangerous for all of us, the current crop of US leaders and decision makers, don't have the Courage, Sanity and Wisdom of President Kennedy, who resisted the Pentagon Brass and others advising him to launch a 1st Strike on the Soviets in Cuba in 1962.
After the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was defused, Kennedy, KNOWING how close the World came to Nuclear War, uttered the essential TRUTH in 1963 that can keep us alive TODAY:
“Above all, while defending our own vital interests, nuclear 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.”
Saying that got Kennedy killed, at the same Time being a subtle warning to others not to challenge the Status Quo or else.
The Doomsday Machine is a good read. As far as upgrading the nuclear arsenal is concerned, it is more big business US style. The morons in charge actually know that they can't wage a nuclear war, but making the weapons is not about war, it is about revenue. The original weapons still sit there unused after 60 years or more, and the new ones will sit around not being used either. It is going to entail a lot more radioactive pollution, a lot more government waste, fraud and abuse, and a lot more profits for a small number of people. The public gets nothing out of this other than a larger, more wasteful tax bill.