Chicago Tribune misses major reasons risk of nuclear war is becoming more likely

 Chicago Tribune misses major reasons risk of nuclear war is becoming more likely

The Trib was right to editorialize July 14 about the increasing possibility of nuclear war in ‘The risk of nuclear war waned after the Cold War. It’s back with a vengeance’

Referencing the first nuclear blast reminded me I was just 59 days old when that initial nuclear detonation in New Mexico irrevocably changed the world. I’m now among the dwindling Americans alive before the specter of nuclear annihilation that will haunt us to eternity. It has haunted me since I learned about it in 1951. Practicing ‘Duck and Cover’ in grammar school added to my angst.

Point of correction. The first detonation occurred July 16, 1945, not “on this date (July 14) 80 years ago.

It was appropriate for the Trib to reference the University of Chicago’s symposium “Nobel Laureate Assembly for the Prevention of Nuclear War.” A UChicago undergrad and 10 year Hyde Parker, I frequently passed the Henry Moore sculpture ‘Nuclear Energy’ at the site of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, always pondering its nuclear destruction potential during my lifetime and afterwards. .

Like the Trib, I also lament “how a public once acutely aware of nuclear arms’ catastrophic effects has largely forgotten those Cold War-era fears and lost its focus on avoiding nuclear war at all costs.” What the Trib fails to identify is that US foreign policy going back decades has arguably been the main contributor to possible nuclear war and also utterly ignored its provocations to lull the public into ignoring the most critical issue threatening their survival.

First the provocations. The Trib labels North Korea a “rogue state” for undermining the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons “in 2003 when North Korea withdrew from it and built an atomic arsenal.” But ignored is George W. Bush’s sabotaging North Korean efforts to stay in the Treaty and not build nukes because Bush sought to destabilize the North Korean regime. North Korea saw America invade Iraq over an imaginary nuclear weapons program and built nukes to avoid similar fate. It’s worked for 22 years now.

Same scenario in Libya except when Muammar Gaddafi ended his nuclear weapons program his fate was sealed as it greenlighted US regime change of a defenseless, non-nuclear state. It’s false for the Trib to state “Iraq and Libya had active nuclear-weapon programs that were stopped under intense international pressure.” They stopped existing as functioning states not having nuclear weapons programs due to criminal US wars to topple their regimes. Had they developed nukes like North Korea they’d still be functioning sovereign states.

The Trib ponders whether Ukraine would have been invaded had they not given up their nuclear weapons to Russia. This omits 2 critical points. First, Ukraine never had control over nuclear weapons on their soil. They were always controlled by Russia. Secondly, Russia’s guarantee of Ukraine's independence in 1994 tied to giving up their nukes was implicitly predicated on Ukraine remaining independent of NATO and Western attempts to isolate Russia. Ukraine would never have been invaded had the US not ignored Russia’s valid security interests of no NATO nukes on Russia’s borders and no Ukraine war to destroy the Russian culture of Donbas Ukrainians there. Over 10,000 were killed in Donbas by Kyiv once the US inspired and supported the coup that ousted Russian friendly Ukraine President Victor Yanukovych in 2014.

The Trib’s most egregious omission, indeed error, is to state “At the moment, the focus is on Iran’s nuclear program, which the U.S. bombed on June 22, alongside Israel.” Iran’s nuclear program was perfectly legal under international law and the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The Israeli/US tag team bombing of that program, killing hundreds, has essentially destroyed the international rule of law to prevent nuclear proliferation. This is an abomination which the Chicago Tribune should condemn in strongest possible terms. The Trib nibbles around the edges of this horrendous violence by stating, “Iran may conclude that it needs a nuclear capability for self-defense, to deter future attacks.” No kidding.

The Tribune Editorial Board is correct to state “It’s time for the targets of these terrible weapons — us, that is — to rise up and say, “No!” But it will be difficult, likely impossible for that to happen unless the public is given a complete narrative of US machinations and duplicity making nuclear war more possible now than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis 63 years ago this October.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL