WWIII and Nuclear Annihilation: This is not a warning; it’s an alert.

The finale of Stanley Kubrick’s iconic 1964 film about the nuclear bomb, Doctor Strangelove, subtited ‘How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.” Is this how things end today or will we wake up?

By Coleen Rowley  Women Against Military Madness Newsletter Vol. 41  Num. 1  Spring 2023

The U.S. is supplying well over $100 billion in arms to Ukraine, most recently to include armored tanks,[1] prompting Ukrainian President Zelensky to then demand to be furnished with the latest U.S. fighter jets.[2]On February 6, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the General Assembly, “I fear we’re not sleepwalking into a wider war. We’re doing it with eyes wide open.”[3]

The U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia is rapidly escalating into World War III. Many prognosticators believe that World War III has already begun. The only question that remains is how long it will take before one side or the other,in obliviousness and desperation, resorts to pushing the button on their arsenal of nuclear missiles,already on hair-trigger alert, to end all life on earth. Another very real possibility is that the conflict escalates with a barrage of tactical nuclear weapons that trigger a nuclear winter, in which most or all of the world is plunged into darkness and starvation.

The long history of nuclear close calls during the “Cold War” reveals we are already lucky to be alive.“Accidents” are even more likely now as exemplified by the U.S. military panic leading to their costly firing of missiles at a series of  “unidentified flying objects” including an “enemy” balloon (whether on a deliberate path or blown adrift by the wind), then entailing the shooting down of three more our own U.S. research/weather craft!

This year, even some military analysts from the war-planning think tank, Rand Corporation, have begun to worry about costs to the U.S. of the war in Ukraine,[4]but most of us Americans have no understanding of the dangers posed by this new World War III between nuclear superpowers.

Americans have been shielded from the costs because U.S. wars have come to be conducted without a military draft and solely through aerial/drone bombings and via hapless proxies and mercenaries. Nor have most Americans comprehended the connection between economic costs as they aren’t levied higher taxes to pay the trillions of dollars being spent on war.Linda Bilmes, a financial expert at the Harvard Kennedy School, refers to the post-9/11 wars as “Credit Card Wars” because they are financed through borrowing to be paid by future generations.[5]

Today, though Americans feel the pain of inflation and lack of funding for healthcare, safe railways, and other human needs, Washington’s discourse over raising the debt ceiling neglects to mention the cost of militarism.

Yet, the danger of nuclear confrontation continues. With the U.S./NATO having broken nearly all their prior nuclear treaties[6]and having admittedly committed outright fraud in the prior “Minsk Agreement,” Russia has become rightly wary of negotiating with such unreliable, deceitfulpartners.[7] Warmongering “leaders” in Washington,like insane characters right out ofDr. Strangelovehave become hell-bent going for broke, deluding themselves with notions of “winning” a nuclear war.(Director Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 dark comedy was subtitled:“How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb.”)

Even though we’re truly reaching for the eve of destruction, our Congress instead spends its time stewing over Ticketmaster concert sales[8] while New York City public service ads advise us to deal with nuclear Armageddon by going inside and shutting our windows.[9]

We need to open our collective minds and wake up before it’s too late.

Coleen Rowley is a former FBI agent and Minneapolis legal counsel who became a whistleblower, exposing the FBI’s 9-11 cover-up. Since retiring, she has been a dedicated justice and peace activist, member of Women Against Military Madness, member of WAMM’s Tackling Torture at the Top (T3) and Twin Cities Julian Assange Defense committees and Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. 

ENDNOTES (added by editor):

[1]Depleted uranium is a low-grade radioactive material. “German Leopard-2 tanks, as well as Marder IFVs can use armor-piercing projectiles containing depleted uranium cores…Konstantin Gavrilov, the head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna-based Arms Control Committee told the Russian newspaper, Izvestia, that ‘if these weapons supplied by NATO are used against Russian troops, they would be considered a dirty bomb.’” Russia Warns Against Supplying Depleted Uranium Munitions to Ukraine. PL/Prensa Latina. Jan. 26, 2023. tinyurl.com/j7f6y4tt

[2]Cooke, Lorne. Kyiv clamors for fighter jets as war nears “critical phase.”AP News. February 14, 2023. tinyurl.com/2p8nsj63

[3]António Guterres@antonioguterres. Twitter. Feb.6, 2023. tinyurl.com/5xde6yme

[4] Charap, Samuel and Priebe, Miranda. Avoiding a Long War: U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict. Rand Corporation. January 2023.tinyurl.com/y7ypzn5a

[5]Blimes cites the “pay as you go” philosophy of President Truman for World War II. And  that the delayed costs for recent wars had come to include “not only the trillions of dollars of current spending, but also the long-term liabilities such as veterans care – to future generations.” Blimes, Linda J., The Credit Card Wars: Post 9/11War Funding Policy in Historical Perspective. Cost of War, Watson Institute, International and Public Affairs, Brown University. November 8, 2017.  tinyurl.com/ycku6fhm

[6]Treaties and Agreements. Arms Control Association. Accessed February 15, 2023.  www.armscontrol.org/treaties

[7]After U.S. & NATO reject Russia’s proposals, outlook for Ukraine is grim. Yale McMillion Center. February 3, 2022.  tinyurl.com/ccz5uhdn

[8]Ticketmaster fees draw Klobuchar’s attention in Senate Hearing. The Hill. January 24, 2023. tinyurl.com/mryeaxup

[9]Nuclear Preparedness. PSA. New York City. tinyurl.com/eafv9ybj

Also see this: “Recipe Concocted for Perpetual War,” by Coleen Rowley and Robert Wing in Consortium News on February 4, 2018. tinyurl.com/4azf7dmn

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