OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #183, June 26, 2024.  Compiled by Dick Bennett

Dr. Caldicott.  Missile Envy: The Arms Race and Nuclear War
Chris Bambery.  NATO Risks Catastrophe

Dr. Helen Caldicott.  Missile Envy: The Arms Race and Nuclear War.  Bantam Books, Rev. ed., 1986. 

This book was written over 30 years ago, but it is relevant today as a history of the post-WWII animosity of the USA against Soviet ideology and economics, now rivalry with Russia.  Here are a few of the chapters: 

“Pathogenesis: The Pathological Dynamics of the Arms Race.”  The opening pages discuss how:  “From the beginning, the nuclear arms race in America has been fueled by a mad lust for power, first in the Air Force and later in the Navy; by a fascination with scientific, esoteric, and intellectual pursuits; by clinical paranoia about the Soviets;and by rapacious greed by our military industries” (74).  Most of the chapter describes each weapon in the growing US nuclear weapons system. 

“Etiology; Missile Envy and Other Psychopathology. “ The opening describes Russian fears of expanding US nuclear weapons, and the relationship of the weapons to diverse groups in the US: men and women, adults and children, industrial complex, etc.  [The Obama admin. budgeted a trillion dollars to refurbish the existing nuclear arsenal, while continuing to expand NATO along Russia’s western border, all part of President Putin’s red lines and the Ukraine War.]

Prognosis: How Long Will the Earth Survive?  Her meeting with Pres. Reagan and her study of his nuclear officials found them poorly informed and closed-minded.  
Therapy:  Education (and mental health) of all officials: if informed officials elected by informed publics stopped measles and cholera, we can stop the worst epidemic of all time by a thoroughly overhauled electoral system  and nuclear disarmament and abolition.   [The people of the world listened and via ICAN and the UN produced the Treaty for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Treaty in 2021, but the US did not sign it.]

”NATO’s Spiralling Commitments to Ukraine Risk Catastrophe.”   Editor. mronline.org (6-1-24).

We are on the possible verge of a major escalation in the war in the Ukraine, one which risks war between NATO and Russia, and one involving nuclear weapons, argues Chris Bambery.
Originally published: Counterfire on May 29, 2024 by Chris Bambery(more by Counterfire)  |  (Posted May 31, 2024).

Economic Crisis, State Repression, Strategy, WarAmericas, Europe, France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, United StatesNewswireATACMS Long-Range Missiles, British-French Storm Shadow/Scalp Long-Range Missiles, F-16 Fighter Jets, Military Weapons, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), President Joe Biden, President Vladimir Putin, Russia-Ukraine War, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, U.S HIMARS Short-Range Missiles, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky

France and Germany have agreed that Ukraine should be allowed to use its allies’ missiles to ‘neutralise’ Russian military bases used to fire missiles into Ukraine, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron said.