Nations of the World Unite!

Russia’s war upon Ukraine should remind us that violent international conflicts not only persist, but constitute a plague upon the world.

Over thousands of years, wars have brought immense suffering to people around the globe.  In addition to the widespread annihilation of human life, wars have produced vast material losses, including the destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, entire cities, the environment, and much of what people value as civilization.  They have also channeled enormous read more

There Is an Alternative to War

The war in Ukraine provides us with yet another opportunity to consider what might be done about the wars that continue to ravage the world.

The current Russian war of aggression is particularly horrific, featuring a massive military invasion of a smaller, weaker nation, threats of nuclear war, widespread war crimes, and imperial annexation.  But, alas, this terrible war is but one small part of a history of violent conflict that has characterized thousands of years of human existence.

Is there read more

Who Speaks for the World?

Russia’s brutal war upon the nation of Ukraine should remind us that, for thousands of years, great powers have used their military might to launch military assaults upon smaller, weaker societies.

Since World War II alone, these acts of aggression have included France’s colonial wars in Indochina and Algeria, Britain’s military intervention in the Middle East and Africa, the Soviet Union’s military conquest of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan, China’s invasions of Tibet and Vietnam, read more

A Rapidly Globalizing World Needs Strengthened Global Institutions

The world is currently engulfed in crises—most prominently, a disease pandemic, a climate catastrophe, and the prevalence of war—while individual nations are encountering enormous difficulties in coping with them.

These difficulties result from the global nature of the problems.  An individual nation is unable to institute adequate measures to safeguard public health because diseases spread easily across national boundaries.  Similarly, an individual nation cannot stave off the deterioration read more

The Coronavirus Pandemic, Like Other Global Catastrophes, Reveals the Limitations of Nationalism

We live with a profound paradox.  Our lives are powerfully affected by worldwide economic, communications, transportation, food supply, and entertainment systems.  Yet we continue an outdated faith in the nation-state, with all the divisiveness, competition, and helplessness that faith produces when dealing with planetary problems.

As we have seen in recent weeks, the coronavirus, like other diseases, does not respect national boundaries, but spreads easily around the world.  And how is it being read more

No ‘Happy New Year’ this holiday: Hard Times are Coming in 2020 and in the Decade Ahead

By Dave Lindorff

Gentle reader, I am afraid cannot bring myself to offer you the expected “Happy New Year” greeting at the start of this decade.

The traditional phrase for today sticks in my craw. It just seems too ridiculous and inappropriate to our reality to be uttered with any sincerity.

2020 and the decade that it is ushering in is not going to be a “happy” time for the vast majority of us humans on this planet or even to those of us living in this most fortunate of nations, geographically read more

https://thiscantbehappening.net/exposing-washingtons-obsession-with-nuclear-supremacy-and-its-decline-as-a-military-power/

By Ron Ridenour

Losing Military Supremacy: The myopia of American strategic planning

Author: Andrei Martyanov

Clarity Press, Atlanta 2018

When I first heard of Andrei Martyanov, I was skeptical about his intentions. Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR, 1963, he became a naval officer and expert on Russian military and naval issues. He took part in conflicts in the Caucasus. In mid-1990s, he read more

PBS SERIES, “THE VIETNAM WAR,” RECEIVES EMMY NOMINATION. SHOULD IT?

By Doug Rawlings

July 15, 2018

The recently announced Emmy nominations have generated new interest in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s 10-part documentary, “The Vietnam War,” nominated for an Emmy based on Episode 8, (April 1969 – May 1970), The History Of The World.

Vietnam veteran Doug Rawlings was in the Central Highlands with the 7/15th Army artillery that year and was later a founder of Veterans For Peace.

As each nightly episode of Burns/Novick series aired last fall, he wrote his read more

A Call for Congress to Act

We now have a nuclear North Korea. Those in the know all agree that any attempt at “surgical strike” to eliminate their nuclear capability will result first in the annihilation of Seoul’s 10 million people and followed shortly by devastation in Japan and the rest of South Korea. And even so will not eliminate their nuclear capacity. And a “decapitation strike” to eliminate the Kim Jong Un leadership will have the same results. These are not a sensible choices.

So what read more