US/NATO missiles bombing Russia could lead to nuclear war

I usually look forward to writing this blog. Not so much when the topic is nuclear war.

Ok, so now that I’ve lost half my audience (I get it: who wants to discuss nuclear war?), let me ask the remaining half to indulge the urgency of this message.

Not my message, so much, but the message of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, and others. The work of this prestigious organization includes the Doomsday Clock in response to the threat of nuclear war and other existential dangers.

Earlier this year, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board wrote that, “in large part because of Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine” they were moving the Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, “the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been.”

If we were 90 seconds from global catastrophe before President Biden said he might allow Ukraine to launch long-range missiles deep inside Russia, the Clock certainly has advanced further in the wrong direction.
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Ukraine

My guests are Jeffrey Weiss and Kathleen McQuillen — two of the most articulate and well-studied people I know when it comes to war, peace, and US foreign policy. Jeffrey’s a prof at Des Moines Area Community College. Kathleen’s the director of Catholic Peace Ministry. Both have been engaged in peace and justice work since the last millennium.

It’s a good conversation. I hope you’ll listen to the podcast or radio program and share your feedback. Covering several aspects of the war in Ukraine, Jeffrey, Kathleen, and I discuss NATO, the lack of media interest in other conflicts (Yemen, in particular), the risk of the war escalating, and what can and should be done by the US and its allies. Continue Reading →