Dr. Strangelove redux—still loving the bomb and scarier than ever!

by Kathie MM

The Finger on the Button is the third video in our series of short antiwar videos from Jonny Lewis. This one is less than four minutes long but packs a wallop. In light of the fact that the current POTUS ordered the Pentagon to test a new missile last Sunday (which would have violated a Cold War-era treaty if the Trump administration had not ditched it earlier this month), perhaps it’s time to treat this comic film and other warnings regarding the reviving nuclear threat seriously. Very seriously.

We’ll be showing more of Jonny Lewis’s Imaginative Beseeching Messages (the only honorable form of IBMs) on this website. Meanwhile, please visit Jonny’s website and tell him Kathie MM from Engaging Peace sent you.

Engaging Peace vs. Lemmingcide

Lemmings. Popular Science Monthly, 1877. In the public domain.

by Kathie MM

Engaging peace.  For what purpose should we engage peace?

To resist violence. To prevent violence.  To end violence.

Violence is life-shattering, life-destroying.

Peace is life-affirming, love-affirming, future-affirming.

Right now life on Earth faces the most violent assault since the Ice Age, which wiped out not only dinosaurs but also countless other life-forms.

I am not talking about nuclear bombs or neutron bombs or drones or weapons of mass destruction, although all those threats are real enough, terrifying enough.

I am talking about the program of mass murder, mass suicide, and mass genocide that human beings have undertaken through their wholesale destruction of the life forces that sustain them.

What elements made it possible for the original life forms on Earth to evolve?  Water, a tolerable level of sunshine, oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the species, shelter, and nutrients.

What do we need today if we are to survive? Water, a tolerable level of exposure to sunshine, oxygen or carbon dioxide depending on the species, shelter, and nutrients.

What are we doing to the elements that sustain life? Poisoning them. Destroying them. Making the earth uninhabitable for many plant and animal species that can include our own.

More than 15,000 scientists from more than 180 countries have recently issued a warning about the catastrophes that face us and the steps that can be taken. Read and take steps

Nobody has the right to participate in this suicidal process.

I will be writing more on this subject.

How many times must the cannonballs fly?

Ban the bombs…all of them.

Nuclear weapons:  The United States is the only nation in the world that has dropped atomic weapons onto a civilian population. Right now it has a stockpile of about 5,000 nuclear weapons, many of which can be launched within 15 minutes.

Cluster bombs:  The U.S. dropped thousands of cluster bombs (weapons that kill large numbers of civilians, even after an armed conflict has ended) in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. An international Convention on Cluster Munitions, sponsored by the United Nations, entered into force in 2010, yet the U.S.–along with Russia, China, and several other states–has been unwilling to sign the agreement. (See Feickert and Kerr [opens in pdf]).

Landmines:  The U.S. refuses to join its NATO allies and many other nations in banning the use of landmines.

Drones:  In secret meetings, the U.S. identifies individuals around the world as threats, then uses drones to kill them without trial or benefit from counsel.

Illicit arms sales:  A recent effort by the United Nations to establish an Arm Trades convention to help stop the illicit international sales of weapons failed in part because the U.S. government refused to sign off on the draft treaty. The National Rifle Association proudly takes responsibility for killing the agreement.

What can you do to help stop the U.S. government from acting like the world’s chief thug?

You can read The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb by Philip Taubman (see review).

You can support and volunteer for non-profits that strive to move the U.S. away from its preoccupation with power and destruction towards one of conflict resolution, reconciliation, social justice, and cooperation.

Engaging Peace, Inc. is one such organization, and we welcome your support in the form of reading and commenting on the blog, subscribing to the newsletter, as well as your financial donations.

In addition to Engaging Peace, here are some other groups you may want to learn about:

Please get involved in working to end the country’s headlong rush down the road to death for all.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology