Stop expanding and arming NATO
Published on January, 53 2015
By Joan Ecklein, Boston Branch and WILPF Disarm/End Wars Issue Committee
During 2015 our WILPF Disarm/End Wars members will be watching closely the actions of NATO, which is rapidly expanding into an aggressive global military alliance. NATO can lead us into a new Cold War -- or plunge us into Hot Wars, or into nuclear holocaust either by accident or design.
Join us in ferreting out the information we need to act wisely. I suggest reading Striving for Armageddon: How the Obama Administration Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb by Theodore A. Postol in the Nation, December 29, 2014. You can read it on line. Dr. Postol points out that actions of NATO are actually increasing the dangers of nuclear war, rather than protecting us or our allies. This is true of NATO maneuvers in both Ukraine and in the Pacific Pivot threatening China. Currently, the US government’s push to have Ukraine join NATO is causing great consternation in Russia. This coupled with the planned upgrading of the US nuclear arsenal to the price tag of a trillion dollars is leading to the increased probability of a nuclear accident. Postol , a former adviser to the chief of naval operations makes clear that “the stated goal of the program is to increase the reliability of US nuclear forces. But a close analysis reveals a technically sophisticated effort to ready US forces for a direct confrontation with Russia “
Another recent article says Russia Declares NATO Is Top Military Threat. It is by Nadia Prupis , staff writer for Common Dreams and is on line here. Prupis says:“NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declared that the alliance could deploy its troops ‘wherever we want’ in Eastern Europe. The announcement came shortly after NATO vowed to create ‘rapid response’ military forces to fight Russia.
”Stoltenberg’s comments -- and NATO’s years- long military expansion in Baltic states and recent presence on the Russian border -- seemed to defy the 1997 NATO Russia Founding Act, in which the alliance agreed to avoid ‘permanent stationing of substantial combat forces’ to Eastern and Central Europe.”
We not only invite you to help us ferret out information we need, but to devise approaches that can help us use our power as women to stop both wars and nuclear disaster. We will have wonderful opportunities to explore possible joint actions with women from other WILPF Sections at our Centennial Congress in The Hague starting April 26. Six of the official ten delegates and alternates to that WILPF Congress, including myself, are on our Disarm/End Wars Committee and we, and other US WILPFers who attend, can bring back new insights and concepts to all of us in the US Section. At the international conference which follows we will have additional opportunities to learn from and work with other peace building activists from around the world.
We invite the cooperation of any who share our concerns for abolishing nuclear weapons and ending war.
Contact Joan Ecklein
Photo: Luxembourgian-registered NATO E-3 AWACS flying with three American Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter aircraft in a NATO exercise. Wikipedia.
