Daniel Ellsberg on Nuclear Weapons

Is the U.S. military becoming a paper tiger whose sole remaining power move is a mighty nuclear roar? It’s a disturbing thought, given the extent to which U.S. military power is overstretched, recruiting shortfalls, and the usual waste, fraud, and abuse at the Pentagon, exacerbated by imperial megalomania.

Meanwhile, that same Pentagon still seeks a huge “investment” in new nukes. America surely needs to launch a “first strike” against the absurdity of spending $1.7 trillion (or more) on “modernizing” the nuclear triad. Aren’t you tired of Presidents and Congress diverting your hard-earned tax dollars from Main Street USA to MAD Street, as in mutually assured destruction via nuclear war?

Don’t succumb to military BS about “investing” and “modernizing” the nuclear triad. Don’t use that language. We need to divest, not invest. We need to disarm, not rearm. The U.S. already has over 5000 nuclear weapons; a couple of dozen might suffice to tip the world into nuclear winter, assuming the Russians or Chinese respond in kind. Who could possibly believe the world needs more nukes?

George Orwell was right. In America, war has become peace (or, our alleged way to peace). Thus that old Strategic Air Command (SAC) motto people used to poke fun at: “Peace is our profession” even as SAC prepared to launch doomsday. We are propagandized to believe that war and weapons are the path to peace. The peace of mass graves, I suppose.

No one speaks with more authority on U.S. nuclear weapons and planning than Daniel Ellsberg. Check out his book on the subject, and the following interview. And remember that the U.S. was prepared in the early 1960s to launch 100 Holocausts in the name of “winning” a nuclear war. Most evil, indeed, as Ellsberg notes.

Please listen to Ellsberg. We must fight this “common insanity.”

William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), professor of history, and a senior fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), an organization of critical veteran military and national security professionals. His personal substack is Bracing Views. His video testimony for the Merchants of Death Tribunal is available at this link.