Scott Ritter Book Tour in Russia

Fighting against Russophobia. Learning about Soul of Russia. Working for Peace!

Keeping the Peace, Finn Style

Keeping the Peace, Finn Style

The war in Ukraine trudges on, but the world has become safer with the imminent expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Recognizing the expansionist aspirations of Dictator Putin’s Russia, Sweden and Finland have decided to request formal admission to the peacekeeping alliance. Their reception has tentatively been approved, although just today another dictator, Recep Tayyip…

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We are entering the end stage of the 30-year US neocon debacle in Ukraine. The neocon plan to surround Russia in the Black Sea region by NATO has failed. Decisions now by the US and Russia will matter enormously for peace, security, and wellbeing for the entire world.

Four events have shattered the neocon hopes for NATO enlargement eastward, to Ukraine, Georgia, and onward. The first is straightforward. Ukraine has been devastated on the battlefield, with tragic and appalling losses. Russia is winning the war of attrition, an outcome that was predictable from the start but which the neocons and mainstream media deny till today.

The second is the collapsing support in Europe for the US neocon strategy. Poland no longer speaks with Ukraine. Hungary has long opposed the neocons. Slovakia has elected an anti-neocon government. EU leaders (Macron, Meloni, Sanchez, Scholz, Sunak, and others) have disapproval ratings far higher than approvals.

The third is the cut in US financial support for Ukraine. The Republican Party grassroots, several Republican Presidential candidates, and a growing number of Republican members of Congress, oppose more spending on Ukraine. In the stop-gap bill to keep the government running, Republicans stripped away new financial support for Ukraine. The White House has called for new aid legislation, but this will be an uphill fight.

The fourth, and most urgent from Ukraine’s point of view, is the likelihood of a Russian offensive. Ukraine’s casualties are in the hundreds of thousands, and Ukraine has burned through its artillery, air defenses, tanks, and others heavy weapons. Russia is likely to follow with a massive offensive.

The neocons have created utter disasters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and now Ukraine. The US political system has not yet held the neocons to account, since foreign policy is carried out with little public or Congressional scrutiny to date. Mainstream media have sided with the slogans of the neocons.

Ukraine is at risk of economic, demographic and military collapse. What should the US Government do to face this potential disaster?

Urgently, it should change course. Britain advises the US to escalate, as Britain is stuck with 19th century imperial reveries. US neocons are stuck with imperial bravado. Cooler heads urgently need to prevail.

President Joe Biden should immediately inform President Vladimir Putin that the US will end NATO enlargement eastward if the US and Russia reach a new agreement on security arrangements. By ending NATO expansion, the US can still save Ukraine from the policy debacles of the past 30 years.

Biden should agree to negotiate a security arrangement of the kind, though not precise details, of President Putin’s proposals of December 17, 2021. Biden foolishly refused to negotiate with Putin in December 2021. It’s time to negotiate now.

There are four keys to an agreement. First, as part of an overall agreement Biden should agree that NATO will not enlarge eastward, but not reverse the past NATO enlargement. NATO would of course not tolerate Russian encroachments in existing NATO states. Both Russia and the US would pledge to avoid provocations near Russia’s borders, including provocative missile placement, military exercises, and the like.

Second, the new US – Russia security agreement should cover nuclear weapons. The US unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, followed by the placement of Aegis missiles in Poland and Romania, gravely inflamed tensions, which were further exacerbated by the US withdrawal from the Intermediate Nuclear Force (INF) Agreement in 2019 and Russia’s suspension of the New Start Treaty in 2023. Russian leaders have repeatedly pointed to US missiles near Russia, unconstrained by the abandoned ABM Treaty, as a dire threat to Russia’s national security.

Third, Russia and Ukraine would agree on new borders, in which the overwhelmingly ethnic Russian Crimea and heavily ethnic Russian districts of eastern Ukraine would remain part of Russia. The border changes would be accompanied by security guarantees for Ukraine backed unanimously by the UN Security Council and other states such as Germany, Turkey, and India.

Fourth, as part of a settlement, the US, Russia, and EU would re-establish trade, finance, cultural exchange, and tourist relations. It’s certainly time once again to hear Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky in US and European concert halls.

Border changes are a last resort, and should be made only under UN Security Council auspices. They must never be an invitation to further territorial demands, such as by Russia regarding ethnic Russians in other countries. Yet borders change, and the US has recently backed two border changes. NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days until it relinquished the Albanian-majority region of Kosovo. In 2008, the US recognized Kosovo as a sovereign nation. The US similarly backed South Sudan’s insurgency to break away from Sudan.

If Russia, Ukraine, or the US subsequently violated the new agreement, they would be challenging the rest of the world. As JFK observed, “even the most hostile nations can be relied upon to accept and keep those treaty obligations, and only those treaty obligations, which are in their own interest.”

The US neocons carry much blame for undermining Ukraine’s 1991 borders. Russia did not claim Crimea until after the US-backed overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. Nor did Russia annex the Donbas after 2014, instead calling on Ukraine to honor the UN-backed Minsk II agreement, based on autonomy for the Donbas. The neocons preferred to arm Ukraine to retake the Donbas by force rather than grant the Donbas autonomy.

The long-term key to peace in Europe is collective security as called for by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). According to OSCE agreements, OSCE member states “will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other States.” Neocon unilateralism undermined Europe’s collective security by pushing NATO enlargement without regard to third parties, notably Russia. Europe — including the EU, Russia, and Ukraine — needs more OSCE and less neocon unilateralism as key to lasting peace in Europe.

collujon "bloc"

collujon /ˌkɔ.liˈʒɔn/ [ˌkɔ.lɪˈʝɔn]

bloc, alliance, confederation, federation, a group of states acting together and linked to a significant extent both politically and economically;

pact, treaty, compact, agreement, a document with binding legal force conducted by subjects of international law

Etymology: Middle Borlish, originally restricted to pejorative use and directed at one's political enemies. Borrowed from Latin collūsiō, noun derivative of collūdō "to collude, to secretly work (with someone) to the detriment of another". Nowadays used neutrally for alliance-federacies like the Drengot Collusion.

Lon ongit no's un collujon d'Ubictað unanim postular. /lɔn ɔnˈʒɪt nɔz ɪn ˌkɔ.liˈʒɔn ˌdi.bɪkˈtaθ ˌi.naˈnɪm ˌpɔ.stiˈlar/ [lɔn ʊɲˈʝɪt nɔz iŋ ˌkɔ.lɪˈʝɔn ˌdi.bɪkˈta‿ˌði.nɐˈnɪm ˌpɔ.stɪˈlɐː] without sense n-is indf bloc of=Ubiquity united suppose-inf It is nonsensical to say there is a united Ubiquity bloc.

RSD-10 Pioner IRBM Missile

The RSD-10 Pioneer was a Soviet intermediate range missile system deployed from 1976 to 1988. Designed for surgical strikes against NATO forward bases within Europe, the missile carried three 550kt MIRV warheads capable of striking multiple targets. The launchers were based behind the Ural mountains, safely defended by the Soviet air defence network. As an intermediate theatre missile, the flight time of the IRBM was very short, and the system was incredibly destabilizing as a result. It directly led to the implementation of NATO's "Double Track" deployment escalation decision, and was banned under the INF treaty in 1988.

Okay so its wildly ironic (and a sign of different sides of DC just not talking to each other) that the Dr Fate and Phantom Stranger mini-series has a major plot point of rising nuclear tensions between the US and the Soviet Union happening at The Same Time as Firestorm is all about nuclear disarmament and the US and USSR are actually sorta getting along (because they both hate Firestorm so much). U cannot have it both ways.

The mystical side of DC comes to a head in the 3rd issue of phantom stranger (December 1987), with Reagan and his cabinet having a cuban missile crisis level situation, where they are literally seconds away from total war as demon!reagan (v easy to confuse w normal reagan, no difference really) phones in the code to launch nuclear missiles. (This is thwarted of course, because this is comics. Also we get to see the Phantom Stranger punch reagan in the face)

(Phantom Stranger #3, Dec 1987)

Meanwhile, in Firestorm, Ronnie and Martin have been running around for the past 4 months trying to forcibly disarm the world of nuclear weapons, interrupting a summit in iceland and threatening everyone that if they don't do it, he's gonna do it for them.

As one might expect, this pisses everyone off. The US and USSR tag team to try and take him down (this is also happening simultaneously with the justice league going international and the us and ussr each putting their own player on the team to try and keep them in check (jli 7 & captain atom 10)). They fail miserably, firestorm and the russian agent fuse, and at the end of it at least Reagan is promising to take disarmament seriously:

(Firestorm: Nuclear Man 65, Nov 1987)

This is actually following real world stuff pretty well! When they interrupt the iceland summit, the comic references the summit 'last year' which was the Oct 1986 Reykjavik Summit. That was where Reagan and Gorbachev failed to come to an immediate agreement for nuclear disarmament. In the real world, talks continued for a year and then in on December 8, 1987 the US and USSR signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), which was an agreement to disarm all Intermediate-Range weapons by 1991. In the DC world, this agreement is obviously brought about by Firestorm leveraging the world leaders.

So, like, its totally wild for the mystic side of DC to not know what's going on over on the earthly side, especially when the earthly side is directly mirroring real life events (well, as directly as comics can. certain values of directly). It is even more wild that Phantom Stranger's Missile Crisis was literally released at the same time the INF Treaty was signed.

Ronnie and Superman during the INF Treaty.

A world in which Reagan does the right thing while in office? Must be fiction.

A PROPOSITION

Hello everyone!! I am thinking about starting a SPN OC Based RP that would take place on discord! I already have the servers for it set up and organized! I am currently looking to recruit people to help me run it and do some world building for the RP!  The basis of the RP that I’ve organized so far is below! 

- Start of Plot - 

Long ago there was a small and ancient civilization where supernatural beings of all kinds lived harmoniously amongst one another. It wasn’t a life without some conflict, but it was a civilization that had governing law and order. All beings that resided within had learned to co-exist, living a life that shielded them from the unaccepting and dangerous humans living in the rest of the world. It was common for people that were the same type of supernatural being to stick together, but also not unheard of for different species to mingle and interact. It was a world without the worry of being discovered by society. The creatures living there were unworried about the consequences of ‘normal’ people learning of their existence. 

Then everything changed.

 As the population on earth grew and humans decided to set out and explore the earth, eventually their ancient society was discovered. A war broke out and supernatural being were pitted against humans in a battle that raged on for months. The supernatural beings held their own, dragging the battle on due to their enhanced abilities. However, the humans had the benefit of outnumbering the creatures they fought against and eventually the war started to come to a close. It looked as if the humans were going to rein victorious, and so the remaining supernatural beings did the only thing they could think to do, they surrendered. The human settlers wanted the land that the supernatural were residing in, and the supernatural had lost the fight to protect their home. They fled from the civilization, but this was not the end of things. 

As time passed, many supernatural beings spoke of the place where they used to live free and unbothered by humans. Eventually, the story spread to other places in the world and soon there was a large and rallied group of supernatural creatures that wanted to take the land back. They made up a plan of action, and stormed the human civilization that had taken their home from them. A second war was on the brink of breaking out and the humans knew this time they would be no match for the supernatural, their army was much bigger this time around and they were fuelled by years of anger and resentment. 

In order to ensure their survival, the human in charge of the civilization begged the leader of the supernatural army to sit down and speak with them. Humans and supernatural representatives sat down and eventually made a treaty, agreeing to share the land and co-exist together. They renamed the civilization Nirvana, and set out to making sure that all that lived within it were safe and protected. 

Many years passed and society modernized, moving into the present day. 

Nirvana is still standing, and it is still inhabited by humans and supernatural creatures alike. Many of the supernaturals from the past have since moved on from Nirvana, and all of the humans who lived back then had passed on to the next life. Over time, the story of how the town came to be was lost to the general public. Those that did speak of a time when supernatural beings lived within the town were often called imaginative or crazy. Most of the human population that live there believe the history to be nothing more than folklore passed down from generation to generation. Little do they know that their home is stilled shared by beings of all kinds and mystery and magic loom around every corner. 

- End of Plot - 

That is just a rough plot!! But its what I’m thinking of doing so far!! It would be open to all ocs and if I can get help running it I would love to do events and things within the servers! 

The set up would for the servers would include 3 servers. One for ooc info and applications, one for in character interactions and rping, and one for everyone to create their muse channels. 

I know it might sound confusing, but I can explain it all to you if anyone is interested!! If this sounds like its for you like this post, or better yet, message me!! There is no commitment from just an initial message, but I’d be happy to tell you more and build the rest of it up with you! 

death of a true war criminal,zero accountability

Death of true war criminal, good riddance, zero accountability

The infamous US war criminal, Henry Kissinger died centenary in his bed in Kent, Connecticut, while his millions of victims all over the world were not so lucky. Kissinger would be celebrated and feted as genial geopolitical analyst, hailed as the man of rapprochement and détente between the United states and China, of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), arms limitation treaties between the US and the USSR, aimed at restraining the arms race in long-range or intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear weapons, which had resulted in the signing of SALT I and SALT II in 1972 and 1979, the evil who fooled Gorbachev to struck the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) in 1987. Kissinger might not have been motivated by hatred of communism. But he was a reactionary who empowered and enabled the sort of reactionaries for whom anticommunism was a respectable channel for America’s racist and exploitative socio-economic traditions.

Bush’s declaration of protection for Kissinger, coupled with his rejection of the Rome Treaty on the International Criminal Court, extinguished a glimmer of hope that Kissinger would someday join Pinochet under arrest. It was always a fantasy. The international architecture that the U.S. and its allies established after World War II, shorthanded today as the “rules-based international order,” somehow never gets around to applying the same pressure on a hegemonic United States as it applies to U.S.-hostile or defiant powers. It reflects the organizing principle of American exceptionalism: America acts; it is not acted upon. Henry Kissinger was a supreme architect of the rules-based international order.

Of course, the western mainstream would hide the dark side of the evil responsible of mass killing scored more than 4 million deaths according to the Yale University historian Greg Grandin, author of the biography Kissinger’s Shadow, estimating that Kissinger’s actions from 1969 through 1976, a period of eight brief years when Kissinger made Richard Nixon’s and then Gerald Ford’s foreign policy as national security adviser and secretary of state. America, like every empire, champions its state murderers. Every single person who died in Vietnam between autumn 1968 and the Fall of Saigon died because of Henry Kissin Kissinger materially sabotaged the only chance for an end to the war in 1968 as a hedged bet to ensure he would achieve power in Nixon’s administration. In February 1969, weeks after taking office, and lasting through April 1970, U.S. warplanes secretly dropped 110,000 tons of bombs on Cambodia. By the summer of 1969, according to a colonel on the Joint Staff, Kissinger — who had no constitutional role in the military chain of command — was personally selecting bombing targets. A second phase of bombing continued until August 1973, five months after the final U.S. combat troops withdrew from Vietnam. By then, U.S. bombs had killed an estimated 100000 people out of a population of only 700,000. The final phase of the bombing, which occurred after the Paris Peace Accords mandated U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, was its most intense, an act of cruel vengeance from a thwarted superpower. Kissinger inflicted indirectly rather than by edict. In 1971, the Pakistani government waged a campaign of genocide to suppress the independence movement in what would become Bangladesh. For Kissinger, the Cold War was a geopolitical balance among two great powers. The purpose of Cold War statecraft was to maximize American freedom of action to inflict Washington’s will on the world — a zero-sum contest that meant restricting the ability of the Soviet Union to inflict Moscow’s — without the destabilization, or outright Armageddon, that would result from pursuing a final defeat of the Soviets. On September 4, 1970, Chileans elected the democratic socialist Salvador Allende president whose program was more than redistributionist, nationalizing the firms Anaconda Copper and Kennecott held by these two companies, Allende informed them he would deduct estimated “excess profit” from a compensatory package he was willing to pay the firms. It was this sort of unacceptable policy that prompted Kissinger to remark, during an intelligence meeting about two months before Allende’s election, “I don’t see why we need to stand idly by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” The coup was only the beginning. Within two years, Pinochet’s regime invited Milton Friedman, Arnold Harberger, and other economists from the University of Chicago to advise them. Chile pioneered the implementation of their agenda: severe government budgetary austerity; relentless assaults on organized labor; privatization of state assets, including health care and public pensions; layoffs of government employees; abolition of wages and price controls; and deregulation of capital markets. “Multinationals were not only granted the right to repatriate 100 percent of their profits but given guaranteed exchange rates to help them do so,” Grandin writes in his book Empire’s Workshop. European and American bankers flocked to Chile before its 1982 economic collapse. The World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank loaned Pinochet $3.1 billion between 1976 and 1986. Pinochet’s torture chambers were the maternity ward of neoliberalism, a baby delivered bloody and screaming by Henry Kissinger. This was the “just and liberal world order” Hillary Clinton considered Kissinger’s life work.

Trump Withdrew from INF treaty.

Trump's stupid foreign policy led to danger of nuclear war we have today.

'I just saw Oppenheimer with a Los Alamos lab crowd, and I’m immensely glad this film is out and witnessed by so many. It was a part of our national history that I think almost everyone in my generation knew of, but that many young people today don’t know much about… and as citizens we need to know this story. It becomes clear to me when I talk to young scientists how forgotten it is: sometimes in conversation with people with Ivy League educations, PhDs, when they learn I’m from Los Alamos, I in turn discover they have never heard of Los Alamos before, and don’t have a clue what it is/was. The movie is a powerful telling of this crucial part of who we are, who we have become. We need this understanding.

Obama articulated a vision to work towards a world without nuclear weapons, but since Trump it is not even a topic of discussion politically anymore. When the INF treaty ended and we withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal under Trump, there was a spurt of news at the time that ended in barely a political ripple. Nuclear disarmament is not an issue that ever makes it to lists of what voters are concerned about, this as we are continuing to expand and update our arsenal. The New START treaty was continued, but offers the earth, us, too little. We do not seem to have the will to ask for more.

Oppenheimer’s story is filled with pathos, a life burdened by deepest sorrow imaginable tangled with brilliance. The question of how to live a moral life when confronted with options he faced is soul breaking. This is also true for Hans Bethe, who continued in the H bomb projects because he felt it would give him a voice in treaty and arms negotiations. It did. For example I think he helped negotiate the INF, but at what price? And despite his efforts to curb it, the nuclear arms race ran right past him.

Oppenheimer’s pre-war physics laid the foundation for understanding the death of stars and black holes, as was brought out in the film, but to me Bethe’s work was even more astonishing, foundational work for the realization that _all_ larger atoms, the very stuff of us, was born in the nuclear reactions of stars. “We are star dust, we are golden, we are billion year old carbon, and we’ve got to find our way back to the garden…” Bethe got the Nobel for that work. I’ve stumbled through those old papers with awe, understanding what I could manage, for the joy of it.

My dad had met Oppenheimer, they had one conversation and my Dad witnessed his sorrow. I’m not sure of the year but it was after Oppy was blacklisted. But earlier, their paths had crossed in a very different way. After 3 years of fighting in the living hell of the Philippines in the Pacific Theater, on Aug. 6th, 1945, my dad was headed on a ship to take part in the land invasion of Japan. He was sure his death awaited him. Instead, Hiroshima. Then Nagasaki. Then Dad came home.

I had one brief and very sweet encounter with Hans Bethe 30 years ago; we met hiking the Camp May trail, he was very old, on his own, leaning heavily on his walking stick, some miles in. An ancient sage. He was delighted by baby Max, my son, who was riding in my back pack: old-man-and-baby flirtations ensued, Hans with twinkling eyes. The bit of irony there was we were walking with my friend Kazu, a Japanese physicist, who knew him; my friend had gone to school in Hiroshima, and had a deeply personal understanding of the costs. Still, he knew and honored the man Hans Bethe.

But also, I’ve walked the halls where Bethe and Oppy walked, their paths through the woods. Bethe had led T-division, the division which was my scientific home of 30 years. In 2021 I received the Los Alamos Medal, our highest scientific award at LANL, and to me the medal is charged with the knowledge it was first created to honor Bethe in 2001. For me it is electric with sorrow, but also with a fierce pride in that connection.

I’ve sat with a picture of Hans Bethe in my study for 20 years now, alongside the pictures of my family… It was a beautiful gift from a LANL photographer who had taken the portrait, when I saw it laying on his desk one day long ago he gave it to me. This is because from all I’ve read, I deeply admired him. Hans, like Oppy, lived a life where the question of how to live a good and just life was complicated by choices where treacherous monsters lurked on whatever path they took. Hans was a German Jew who had fled the Nazis; he carried the weight of experience into the Manhattan Project.

Hans wrote this plea in 1995, when he was 88:

“I am one of the few remaining such senior persons alive. Looking back at the half century since that time, I feel the most intense relief that these weapons have not been used since World War II, mixed with the horror that tens of thousands of such weapons have been built since that time one hundred times more than any of us at Los Alamos could ever have imagined.

“Today we are rightly in an era of disarmament and dismantlement of nuclear weapons. But in some countries nuclear weapons development still continues. Whether and when the various Nations of the world can agree to stop this is uncertain. But individual scientists can still influence this process by withholding their skills. Accordingly, I call on all scientists in all countries to cease and desist from work creating, developing, improving, and manufacturing further nuclear weapons; and, for that matter, other weapons of potential mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons.”

Some little things I would have changed in the movie if I could have:

It was my understanding that the scene with the apple is not established fact, I was glad to read just now that Oppenheimer’s grandson objected to its inclusion for that reason.

I wish they had not used Georgia O’Keefe’s Pedernal as a stand-in backdrop for Los Alamos. Apparently, God gave Pedernal to Georgia once she had painted it enough … or so she said. Pedernal also belongs to the memory of the people who lived along the Rio Chama under its shadow for the 10,000 years before Georgia set foot there. Los Alamos is just as beautiful in its own way, and the place itself has a has a part in this story, and the landscape owns a part of this story. The finger mesas reaching out from the Jemez Mountains into the Rio Grande Valley. It was Los Alamos that Oppy loved and chose.

The movie got us so close to the story of the Downwinders, the people exposed to the radiation from the Trinity test — you could almost hear them stirring beyond the horizon the morning of the test. The movie captures the extreme political pressure to test quickly, and the storm and the winds the day of the test; they had a break in weather, and the denotation went forward. But they didn’t give us even a sentence to remember the downwinders by, or articulate the concerns the movie had begun to reveal.

Oppy’s daughter and brother Frank were also both blacklisted. I don’t think the movie could have easily captured that, but there was such a high cost to his family, it bears reflection. The communist charges against Oppenheimer were used against his daughter 15 years later by the FBI, and she lost her translator’s job at the UN. She ultimately committed suicide.'

https://libertarianinstitute.org/news-roundup/news-roundup-7-27-2023/

Here is your daily roundup of today's news:

News Roundup 7/27/2023

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

A recently released study exposes the “widespread dispersion” of radioactive fallout and devastation caused by the US government’s first detonation of a nuclear weapon. The Institute

In a little-remarked move, the Biden administration announced Monday that Victoria Nuland will take over as the acting second-in-command at the State Department. She replaces Wendy Sherman, who plans to retire at the end of this week. RS

Russia

The US and its allies are worried that Ukraine’s stalled counteroffensive means the war between Russian and Ukrainian forces will be an open-ended conflict, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. AWC

The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new $400 million weapons package for Ukraine that includes ammunition for artillery and air defense systems, anti-tank weapons, and other types of equipment. AWC

On Tuesday, the German newspaper Bild reported that the German military is blaming Ukraine’s lack of success in its counteroffensive on the tactics of its commanders. AWC

US officials told The New York Times on Wednesday that the main thrust of Ukraine’s counteroffensive has started while the Russian military reported a “massive” Ukrainian tank attack in the southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast. AWC

The US Marines Corps has activated its first Tomahawk cruise missile battery, a system previously banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019. AWC

The North Atlantic alliance will step up its aerial surveillance of Russian activity in the Black Sea as tensions in the region rise. Moscow recently withdrew from the Black Sea grain export agreement and warned it would consider civilian ships potentially carrying military supplies to Kiev. The Institute

President Joe Biden has ordered his administration to begin sharing evidence of alleged Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine with the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in the Hague, a US official said on Wednesday. According to the New York Times, the White House began notifying lawmakers of this change in policy on Tuesday. The Institute

On Wednesday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) took responsibility for the October 2022 truck bombing of the Crimean Bridge that connects Crimea to the Russian mainland. AWC

China

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday hit back at Japan over comments made by a Japanese official about Tokyo potentially assisting Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack. AWC

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the Pacific Island nation of Tonga for the first time on Wednesday and took aim at China, blasting Beijing’s activities in the region as “predatory” and “problematic.” AWC

The US Air Force tested a new missile system in the Pacific that gives cargo planes the ability to launch long-range cruise missiles that are normally fired by large bombers. AWC

Middle East

While the Biden administration has expressed concern about the judicial overhaul being pushed forward by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it has made clear US military aid to Israel will not be affected. AWC

Washington says a Russian fighter jet deployed a flare that made contact with an American MQ-9 Drone in the skies above Syria over the weekend. The White House and Kremlin have traded accusations that the other is conducting dangerous operations in Syria during the past several months. The Institute

For the second time in a week, unnamed American officials say a US drone was struck with a flare dropped by a Russian jet in Syrian airspace. During recent months, American and Russian aircraft have increasingly engaged in hostile encounters in Syrian skies. The Institute

A life-saving United Nations mapping system to coordinate rescue efforts was blocked in Syria by US sanctions following a devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey on February 6, Middle East Eye reported on Wednesday. AWC

Read More

The Cold War: A Journey to a Peaceful Conclusion by AF

The Cold War, a period of intense geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union, is often remembered for the fear and apprehension it generated worldwide. Lasting from the end of World War II to the early 1990s, the Cold War had the potential to erupt into a devastating global conflict. However, against all odds, it ended peacefully.

One of the primary reasons the Cold War ended peacefully was the pursuit of diplomatic initiatives by both sides. The policy of détente, which emerged in the late 1960s, aimed to reduce tensions and establish a more cooperative relationship between the superpowers. Through arms control treaties such as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), the United States and the Soviet Union sought to mitigate the arms race and establish a framework for strategic stability. These agreements demonstrated a willingness to engage in dialogue and negotiate peaceful solutions, gradually reducing the risk of an all-out war.

Bilateral summits played a crucial role in fostering understanding and trust between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union. Meetings such as the Geneva Summit (1985), the Reykjavik Summit (1986), and the Washington Summit (1987) provided platforms for open discussions and negotiations. The personal rapport between key figures like Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev helped to break down barriers and dispel mutual suspicions. These summits resulted in significant agreements, such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, further contributing to the peaceful resolution of the Cold War.

Additionally, diplomatic back-channels played a vital role in establishing informal lines of communication and building trust between the superpowers. Secret negotiations, facilitated by intermediaries, allowed for more flexible and discreet discussions that were often not possible through official channels. These back-channels, such as the meetings between KGB head Vadim Bakatin and CIA director William Webster, enabled confidential exchanges of information and played a pivotal role in de-escalating tensions.

The dynamics of the global landscape during the Cold War underwent significant transformations, contributing to the peaceful conclusion. Economic interdependence emerged as a powerful force, bringing the United States and the Soviet Union closer through shared economic interests. The rise of globalization and the recognition of the benefits of economic cooperation led to a realization that armed conflict would be detrimental to both sides. This interdependence incentivized peaceful relations and motivated leaders to prioritize dialogue over confrontation.

The information revolution, characterized by advancements in communication technology, played a crucial role in shaping the peaceful conclusion of the Cold War. The rapid dissemination of information and ideas across borders facilitated greater understanding and awareness of the consequences of a potential conflict. People on both sides of the Iron Curtain were able to witness firsthand the devastating impacts of wars, prompting a shared desire for peace and stability.

Nuclear deterrence, a doctrine based on mutual assured destruction, served as a deterrent against the use of nuclear weapons. The recognition that a nuclear conflict would result in the annihilation of both superpowers and potentially the world at large created a sense of caution and restraint. The fear of mutually assured destruction helped prevent the escalation of conflicts into direct confrontations and provided a strong incentive for peaceful resolutions.

Proxy Wars, which were prevalent during the Cold War, also played a role in ending the conflict peacefully. The superpowers realized that their indirect involvement in conflicts across the globe not only perpetuated violence but also hindered their own interests. Proxy wars, such as the Vietnam War and the Soviet-Afghan war, were a stain on history.

 War showcased the futility of pursuing ideological battles through military interventions. The rising costs in terms of human lives, economic resources, and international reputation prompted a reevaluation of strategies and a shift towards seeking peaceful resolutions.

The leadership of key figures during the Cold War played a pivotal role in the peaceful conclusion of the conflict. Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, known as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), aimed to modernize the Soviet Union and improve relations with the West. Gorbachev's bold vision for reform and his commitment to diplomacy set the stage for a peaceful resolution. Similarly, Ronald Reagan's pragmatic approach emphasized engagement rather than confrontation, leading to improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. The personal rapport between these leaders, characterized by mutual respect and a shared desire for peace, paved the way for diplomatic breakthroughs.

Other leaders, such as Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush, and Helmut Kohl, also played important roles in the peaceful resolution of the Cold War. Thatcher's strong alliance with Reagan provided a consistent and unified Western front, while Bush's cautious diplomacy during the collapse of the Soviet Union helped to prevent a chaotic transition. Kohl's steadfast support for German reunification and his commitment to European integration fostered stability and cooperation in the post-Cold War era.

The peaceful conclusion of the Cold War stands as an extraordinary achievement in human history. Diplomatic initiatives, changing global dynamics, and the leadership of key figures all played integral roles in averting a catastrophic global conflict. The pursuit of dialogue and negotiations, facilitated by agreements, summits, and diplomatic back channels, created an environment of understanding and trust. The changing global dynamics, driven by economic interdependence, the information revolution, nuclear deterrence, and the futility of proxy wars, all contributed to a shared realization of the benefits of peace. The leadership of figures like Gorbachev, Reagan, and other key leaders provided the necessary vision, pragmatism, and collaboration required for a peaceful resolution.

Understanding the factors that led to the peaceful conclusion of the Cold War serves as a valuable lesson for future generations and global conflicts. The power of diplomacy, the importance of leadership, the necessity of global cooperation, and the imperative of nuclear disarmament are all valuable takeaways. By embracing these lessons, humanity can strive to resolve conflicts peacefully and create a more harmonious world for future generations.

G7 Leaders Falter Over Nuclear Disarmament in Hiroshima

“Was the G7 Vision on Nuclear Disarmament blind arrogance? “ While condemning Russia’s decision to “undermine the New START Treaty”, not one word was uttered about how the US walked out of the ABM Treaty with Russia as well as the INF Treaty, and has not returned to the nuclear deal that (former US President Barack) Obama negotiated with Iran, Slater pointed out “The US leads the way in…

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La sospensione da parte russa dell’accordo New Start è allarmante perché questo era rimasto l’unico importante trattato bilaterale sul disarmo nucleare fra Washington e Mosca sul controllo degli armamenti Quando Putin ha annunciato ieri la sospensione (non il ritiro) del trattato New Start sulla limitazione delle armi nucleari ha ripreso a correre il Doomsday Clock, l’orologio dell’apocalisse degli scienziati atomici che a gennaio di quest’anno era già stato impostato a 90 secondi dalla mezzanotte, il peggior valore di sempre, mai raggiunto nemmeno durante la Guerra Fredda. La distanza maggiore dall’apocalisse, 17 minuti alla mezzanotte, era sta fissata quando nel 1991 venne firmato da Bush senior e Gorbaciov il primo trattato Start. La sospensione da parte russa dell’accordo New Start è allarmante perché questo era rimasto l’unico importante trattato bilaterale sul disarmo nucleare fra Washington e Mosca che sul controllo degli armamenti, ancora ai tempi dell’Unione Sovietica negli incontri tra Reagan e Gorbaciov degli anni Ottanta, avevano impostato relazioni costruttive che avevano condotto alla fine della Guerra Fredda. È assai significativo ricordare in questo momento critico il ritiro, deciso nel 2019 da Donald Trump, degli Stati Uniti da trattato Inf, per limitare i missili da terra a medio raggio firmato appunto da Gorbaciov e Reagan nell’87, nel 2019. Il nuovo trattato Start (New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) era stato firmato a Praga l’8 aprile del 2010 da presidente Usa Barack Obama e da quello russo Dmitri Medvedev. Entrato in vigore il 5 febbraio 2011, fu prorogato una prima volta per 5 anni nel febbraio 2016 e una seconda nel febbraio 2021 con una scadenza prevista nel 2026. Il New Start ha l’obiettivo di ridurre le armi nucleari strategiche e metteva un limite di 1.550 testate nucleari montate sia su missili balistici intercontinentali (Icbm), sottomarini e bombardieri. Di fatto si riducevano le testate del 30% sul trattato precedente (Mosca 2002). Perché Putin ha preso questa decisione? Lo Zar ha accusato non solo gli Usa ma anche la Nato di non collaborare all’attuazione dell’accordo Start. «A questo punto – ha dichiarato -_ sono costretto ad annunciare che la Russia sospende la sua partecipazione al trattato per le armi offensive strategiche». Per la verità il 21 agosto era stata la Russia a bloccare le verifiche previste dall’intesa in quanto Mosca lamentava – a torto o ragione – che le squadre di ispezione negli Stati Uniti incontravano sempre maggiori difficoltà dovute alle sanzioni. Sulla base del New Start le due potenze nucleari possono infatti svolgere ispezioni nei reciproci arsenali. «La Russia non rispetta gli obblighi del New Start che prevedono le ispezioni nei suoi territori» – aveva denunciato a gennaio un portavoce del dipartimento di Stato – il rifiuto della Russia impedisce agli Stati Uniti di esercitare importanti diritti stabiliti dal trattato e minaccia l’efficacia del controllo sulle armi nucleari». In ogni caso tra accuse reciproche e recriminazioni, nel pieno della guerra Ucraina, esplode di nuovo la paura che il mondo ricada in una tremenda incertezza nel settore delle armi nucleari. Tra l’altro lo scontro sul trattato Start accende anche la corsa al nucleare oggi aggravata, rispetto a mezzo secolo fa durante la Guerra Fredda, dai «progressi» tecnologici e anche da fattori nuovi come la Cina e le potenze nucleari regionali (Israele, Iran, Corea del Nord, India, Pakistan) che complicano ancora di più l’equazione. Ma non è finita qui. Non sono soltanto le armi nucleari strategiche a preoccupare. Durante la guerra in Ucraina si è parlato di armi meno potenti, definite tattiche. Questi ordigni sono pensati per essere usati sul campo di battaglia e distruggere obiettivi in un’area limitata. Molte di queste testate sono comunque più distruttive della bomba sganciata su Hiroshima dagli americani. I missili nucleari tattici di solito hanno una potenza compresa tra uno e cinquanta chilotoni e hanno effetti devastanti in aree di circa cinque chilometri quadrati. Ma secondo gli esperti un attacco con armi atomiche tattiche non porterebbe vantaggi militari ed esporrebbe la Russia a gravi rappresaglie. «Una cosa è certa il rischio nucleare c’è _ dice Paolo Cotta-Ramusino segretario del Pugwash, organizzazione degli scienziati per il disarmo _ e se anche fosse soltanto del 5-10% non rischierei per andare a testarlo». Non si può che essere d’accordo.

Alberto Negri, New Start sospeso da Mosca, torna la paura dell’apocalisse nucleare, Il Manifesto, 22 febbraio 2023