Would the US/NATO military establishment risk sacrificing Europe to the nuclear gods if a conventional armed conflict broke out with Russia and local North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) commanders believed that tactical nuclear weapons would be required to win?
Europe faces the possibility of such a regional conflict. Tensions have risen. Russia is getting suspicious of US/NATO’s intentions, feeling encircled as NATO expands militarily into Eastern Europe and the Ukraine.
It seems unthinkable, but if a tactical nuclear war erupts, the European nations would be the ones sacrificed, not America, -- the United States lies thousands of ocean miles away.
The world community watches in frustration as the United Nations, supposedly in existence to prevent wars, is unable to do its job. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Yemen, and Palestine are all subject to violent military aggression with the vast majority of victims being civilians and families. Could Europe be added to the list, a victim of its own involvement with NATO?
The EU already struggles with the multitudes of refugees fleeing the fighting in the Middle East, wars that the US/NATO or allies started in the first place, and which the UN was unable to prevent.
The UN is stymied by its fatally flawed Charter. Despite the fact that the original purpose of the UN is to end “the scourge of war,” it has failed time and time again. While the UN has done much good, the world has seen over 250 wars since the Charter was signed.
THE NUCLEAR GODS STILL CONTROL AMERICA
Despite reassurances by President Obama, nuclear disarmament is nowhere in sight. For US military contractors, present and future funding for nuclear weapons systems is “full speed ahead.”
“Despite committing the US to ‘seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons,’ Obama’s record on nuclear disarmament is dismal, having supported spending $1 trillion over the next 3 decades to modernize the US nuclear arsenal.” (Cabasso, United for Peace & Justice, 5/22/16)
A recent survey of the American public (Wall Street Journal, 5/21/16) asks “Would We Drop the Bomb Again?” “Yes,” according to the professors who did the study: “When provoked, we don’t seem to consider the use of nuclear weapons a taboo, and our commitment to the immunity of civilians from deliberate attack in wartime, even with vast casualties, is shallow.”
The US Congress refuses to admit the obvious fact that militarism and nuclear weaponry are a dead end. Moreover, they treat the UN as if it was of secondary importance, even though without a UN (or a new world organization) with the power to outlaw nukes and war, we will never be safe.
REACHING OUT TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
Frustrated by the American government’s obstructionism and its worship of all things military, a small contingent of NGO world federalists from the US and Canada is traveling to Brussels in early June, 2016 to meet with select members of the European Parliament.
Led by the NGO nonpartisan Democratic World Federalists based in San Francisco, an international campaign is being launched to demand a review of the UN Charter. It’s called “The San Francisco Promise” and describes the fact that at the original signing of the Charter a review was promised, even written into the Charter itself, but never carried out.
Currently the UN General Assembly (UNGA) is being foiled by the nuclear powers who are saying “no” to nuclear disarmament. But UNGA’s “Open Ended Working Group (OEWG) on nuclear disarmament” is not taking “no” for an answer, and appears determined to find a way to ban nuclear weapons.
In Europe OEWG has information revealing that NATO has nukes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Turkey. According to documentation by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), these countries host from 160 – 200 nuclear weapons (OEWG Report, Vol. 2, No. 9, 4 May 2016).
OEWG’s efforts are vitally important but they remain stuck within the parameters of the outdated UN Charter. The UN General Assembly must find a way to break free of the Charter’s restrictions that prevent the UN from ending the nuclear nightmare.
SHUTTING DOWN THE NUCLEAR GODS FOR GOOD
World federalists like Einstein and many other top thinkers have concluded that the only way to end the danger of nuclear annihilation is to form a democratic world federal union government with enforceable world law. These critical features are missing in the present UN Charter.
That is why the Earth Constitution drafted by the World Constitution and Parliament Association takes on such importance. It is ready to go, designed to shut down the nuclear gods once and for all. The nations and the world community must make the decision they want world peace more than they want a world in perpetual war.
There is an urgent need to reverse the downward course of militarism that is destroying the Middle East and endangering the European Union. The European Parliament could play a crucial role by supporting Charter Review. The Parliament could also challenge NATO’s ever expanding military posture, a policy that is stirring up fears in both Russia and China and causing an arms build-up.
UN Charter Review opens the door to compare the present Charter to the Earth Constitution. The Earth Constitution brings an inspired yet practical democratic governing structure that includes a democratically elected World Parliament, a well-designed judiciary system, and the opportunity for world union.
Will the upcoming meetings in Brussels between world federalists and members of the European Parliament mark a turning point which ends the death spiral caused by misplaced faith in the nuclear gods?
Roger Kotila, PhD
Editor, Earth Federation News & Views
