[During the cold war, armageddon was avoided by compromises which
now seem to be rejected on principle by Nato states. This endangers us
all. Only a stronger peace movement can counter militarism. All
socialists should work to build such a movement.]
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THIS HIROSHIMA DAY WE MUST WAKE UP TO THE REAL DANGER OF A NUCLEAR
WAR  
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August 5, 2022
Morning Star
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_ During the cold war, armageddon was avoided by compromises which
now seem to be rejected on principle by Nato states. This endangers us
all. Only a stronger peace movement can counter militarism. All
socialists should work to build such a movement. _

The ruin of Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, now the
Hiroshima Peace Memoria, photo: Rap Dela Rea/Creative Commons

 

HIROSHIMA Day commemorates the US atom bombing of the Japanese city 77
years ago, which killed almost 150,000 people.

A further 80,000 were killed three days later when the US dropped a
second bomb on Nagasaki. But this year’s events must be more than a
commemoration — they should sound the alarm.

To date, the two US bombings are the only times nuclear weapons have
ever been used. But the risk of a repeat has seldom been closer than
it is today.

Confrontation between the world’s greatest military powers is at
boiling point. In Ukraine, invading Russian troops are in direct
combat with armed forces equipped and trained by Nato; US and
British-supplied rockets are fired on Russian forces.

This weekend, Chinese military drills involving hypersonic missile
strikes, simulated naval blockades and stealth bombers are being held
in response to a crass stunt by US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose Taiwan
visit was apparently designed to provoke such a response.

China has a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons, but that is no
guarantee a clash with the United States in the Pacific would not go
nuclear — particularly since the US navy has deployed smaller,
so-called “tactical” nuclear warheads to its submarine fleet since
2020.

These are devices whose very existence is based on the false premise
that a nuclear warhead can be a “battlefield weapon” and that a
nuclear war can be locally contained.

And China’s no-first-use pledge is rare among nuclear-armed states.
Of the others only India has made a similar commitment (the Soviet
Union did, but post-Soviet Russia repudiated it in 1993). The US,
Britain, France, Russia and Pakistan all reserve the right to use
nuclear weapons first, while North Korea and Israel have no explicit
policy regarding their use.

This makes the hot war in Ukraine acutely dangerous.

From the beginning Russia has hinted at its readiness to escalate to
nuclear conflict, warning Western powers in February of
“consequences you have never seen in your history” if Nato fights
it in Ukraine.

Discussion of nuclear war as a realistic possibility has become
terrifyingly common.

Russian defence committee member Andrey Gurulyov, an MP in Vladimir
Putin’s United Russia party, spoke on Russian television in June
about the early stages of such a war, specifying London as the first
city to be hit. In this country, opinion columns in mainstream media
outlets like the Telegraph and Observer call for open war with Russia.

While the targeting of any civilians in conflict is a war crime that
should be investigated and punished, hysterical rhetoric from both
Russia and Ukraine has the effect of downplaying how much more
horrific things could still get, with Mariupol’s deputy mayor
Sergeii Orlov comparing the now conquered city’s bombardment to the
Hiroshima bombing and a Russian occupation official in Novaya
Khakovka making the same analogy
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a rocket attack on it by Ukraine.

After decades of reducing nuclear arsenals, countries are reversing
the trend and expanding their size — not least Britain, in a
reckless and catastrophically expensive decision shamefully enjoying
Labour support.

The former government of Donald Trump brought nuclear brinkmanship
closer through tearing up the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty as
well as the Open Skies policy allowing Russia and the US to conduct
overflights across each other’s territory.

Though the election of Joe Biden managed to salvage the strategic arms
reduction treaty (New Start) with Russia, in other respects he has
continued where Trump left off.

Politicians’ current blasé approach to nuclear confrontation cannot
stand.

At key points in the cold war, armageddon was avoided by an ability to
negotiate and compromise which now seems to be rejected on principle
by the heads of Nato states. This recklessness endangers all of us.

Only a far stronger peace movement can counter the new militarism. All
socialists should work to build such a movement.

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