75 years ago this week, the US upped the ante on the destructive power of war and the willingness to use it by dropping two atomic bombs on innocent civilians.
First use of nukes by the US is “on the table.” That is official government policy. Recent moves in Washington have made the threat of nuclear war much more real.
The Trump administration has pulled out of Cold War era arms control agreements. The last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the US and Russia, the New START, is set to expire in February 2021 and prospects for renewing it look bleak.
The lack of arms control between the two largest nuclear powers makes the world a much more dangerous place.
Besides provocations towards Russia, the administration has taken a hawkish turn towards China in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic. Building more of a US military presence around China is lucrative for the weapons makers who run Washington, but it increases the risk of a military conflict with another nuclear power — a conflict that could be catastrophic to the entire world.
There is also a serious consideration within Congress and the administration to resume live nuclear tests, something that hasn’t been done since 1992.
A live nuclear test will jumpstart a new arms race, which would be an outright assault on US taxpayers. Besides the unnecessary financial costs, live tests do untold environmental damage. Just look at the case of the Marshall Islands, where US nuclear testing throughout the 1940s and 50s wiped out entire islands. The indigenous population suffers from illnesses caused by radiation to this day.
And we can never forget the devastating effect nuclear weapons had on the innocent people of Japan. That’s why today, on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, most of Antiwar.com’s page is dedicated to one of the worst war crimes in the history of the world.
The US government must change course with its nuclear weapons policy to avoid future devastation. The only way this will happen is if the American people demand it. The only way the American people will demand it is if they’re properly informed. That’s where we come in.
Antiwar.com will always cover dangerous provocations that can lead nuclear war and we will never forget the inhumane bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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