Saturday, December 5, 2015

Kiev De Facto Invasion: Will Novorossiya Fight Again?

Poroshenko Enters Under Cloak of Darkness

Introduction by Kennedy Applebaum
Quemado Institute
December 4, 2015
Edited December 5, 2015

Kiev neo-nazi junta (--ainhoaaristizabal.wordpress)
Kiev neo-nazi forces (–ainhoaaristizabal.wordpress)
Terrorist attacks in recent weeks have overshadowed the crisis in Novorossiya, where the Kiev neo-nazi forces continue their advance on Donbass. Under the cloak of media darkness, Kiev regime leader Petro Poroshenko is moving in to snatch Novorossiya from the jaws of Minsk. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have stockpiled heavy weapons along the line of contact, the US approved new arms shipments to Ukraine, neo-Nazi saboteurs have blown up Crimean power lines, punitive forces continue to shell Donetsk and nearby suburbs, and Kiev troops have confiscated village houses to make their winter quarters.

Today, the conflict has come to a head. The Donetsk News Agency reports that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have captured settlements in the buffer zone that were not under Kiev’s control at the time of the signing in Minsk. Essentially, Ukraine has launched a de facto invasion of Novorossiya.

DPR representatives Denis Pushilin and Eduard Basurin threaten the resumption of war. But first, they are appealing to the Normandy Trio to prevent full-scale hostilities.

Normandy Four: Putin, Poroshenko, Hollande, Merkel
Normandy Four: Putin, Poroshenko, Hollande, Merkel
Normandy leaders Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande, and Vladimir Putin achieved major  success in that role at the Paris summit of October 2, when the German Chancellor stood at the height of her power, the French President was less distracted by emergencies at home, and the Russian President still had a strong commitment to Ukraine.

But a lot has changed since October 2. With the Muslim migrant invasion of Europe, the Russian airbus crash in Egypt, the Paris attacks that killed 130, Turkey’s shootdown of Russia’s SU-24, the revelations of ISIS oil smuggling, Erdogan’s threats to Moscow, Putin’s deepening quagmire in Syria, a fomenting coup in Albania, and the Islamic terrorists’ shooting in California, world events have eclipsed the Ukraine crisis.

Caught up in the Syrian-ISIS war, Putin has turned his attention away from Ukraine, and devoted his December 3 State of the Nation Address to terrorism, Turkey and Federation politics, while Merkel’s career unravels as she softens her stance on migrants, and Francois Hollande sinks eyeball-deep in Paris-attack retaliation. The Normandy Trio may have little time for Donbass.

Left to its own devices, will Novorossiya fight again?

The following reports describe conditions today:

Kiev’s Capture of Villages in Buffer Zone a Prerequisite
for Resumption of War – DPR Defense Ministry

Edited autotranslation by Quemado Institute
Donetsk News Agency
December 4, 2015

The capture by Ukraine of settlements in the “neutral” zone in the south of Donbass is a prerequisite for the resumption of hostilities. This was announced today at a briefing in the DAN press center by the deputy commander of the DPR Ministry of Defense Corps Eduard Basurin. “Yesterday, the military and political leadership of Ukraine said the seizure of the settlements Pavlopol and Pishevik in the Mariupol region was ‘victorious’. Data on violent capture of settlements by the UAF [Ukrainian Armed Forces] is a precondition for the resumption of the outbreak of hostilities,” said the corps representative.

Eduard Basurin stressed that the settlements Shirokino, Vinogradnoye, Pavlopol, Pishevik, and Gnutova, located in the buffer zone near the line of contact between the parties, were not under the control of the Kiev authorities at the time of the signing of the agreements. “I want to remind you that with the signing of the Minsk Agreements on February 12, 2015, the parties are obliged to withdraw heavy weapons to prevent violent seizure of settlements in the so-called ‘neutral zone’,” said the representative of the Defense Ministry. On the eve of December 3, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that Pishevik and Pavlopol previously were in the neutral zone, the security forces brought them under the control of Kiev, and the administrative authorities of Ukraine began work in the villages.


DPR Notifies OSCE of Kiev Seizure of Neutral-Zone Settlements

Edited Autotranslation by Quemado Institute
Donetsk News Agency
December 4, 2015

The Donetsk People’s Republic has sent a notification addressed to the OSCE about recent facts of the capture by the Ukrainian military of settlements on the front line. This was stated to DAN by the head of the DPR delegation to the talks in Minsk, Chairman of the National Council Denis Pushilin. “We have sent a letter to the address of Martin Sajdik, coordinator of the contact group in Minsk as well as the special monitoring mission of the OSCE,” the Speaker of Pariliament said in a statement. “Also we call on the Normandy format to assess the actions of Kiev and prevent the resumption of full-scale hostilities caused by Ukraine’s gross violations of the Minsk Agreements.” Pushilin clarified that they are talking about the settlements Pishevik, Pavlopol, vinoglodnoye, Gnutova, Shirokino, Bahmutovka and Zhovanka. According to the Speaker, the actions of the Ukrainian side are increasingly aimed at the escalation of the conflict. “During the removal of equipment at a time when the safety of the zone should only increase, this is unacceptable,” said Pushilin.

We recall a similar assessment of the actions of Kiev were already given by DPR Defense Ministry deputy corps commander Eduard Basurin, who named the capture of the villages of Pishevik and Pavlopol in the south of Donbass as a precondition for the resumption of hostilities. On the eve of December 3, the Ukrainian General Staff announced that Pishevik and Pavlopol previously were in the neutral zone, that the security forces brought them under the control of Kiev, and that the administrative authorities of Ukraine began to work in the villages. Full text of the statement by Denis Pushilin [is found in the article below].


Denis Pushilin’s Statement in Connection with Seizure
by Ukraine of Settlements in Buffer Zone

Edited autotranslation by Quemado Institute
Donetsk News Agency
December 4, 2015

We have to admit the fact that the actions of the Ukrainian side are increasingly gaining momentum towards the escalation of the conflict. Today the military forces of Ukraine carried out the action of the passive attack, and seized settlements that are in the buffer zone, namely Pishevik, Pavlopol, Vinogladnoey, Gnutova, Shirokino, Bahmutovka, and Zhovanka. During the removal of equipment, at a time when the safety of the zone should only increase, this is unacceptable.

We have sent the appropriate letters to Martin Sajdik, coordinator of the contact group in Minsk as well as of the special monitoring mission of the OSCE. We also call upon the Normandy Four to assess the actions of Kiev and prevent the resumption of full-scale hostilities due to Ukraine’s gross violations of the Minsk Agreements.

Ron Paul: US Intervention Created ISIS, Boko Haram



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The War on Terror is Creating More Terror
Guest Commentary by Ron Paul
Ron Paul Institute
November 30, 2015
Posted here December 2, 2015

Ron Paul (--dealbreaker.com)
Ron Paul (–dealbreaker.com)

The interventionists will do anything to prevent Americans from seeing that their foreign policies are perpetuating terrorism and inspiring others to seek to harm us. The neocons know that when it is understood that blowback is real – that people seek to attack us not because we are good and free but because we bomb and occupy their countries – their stranglehold over foreign policy will begin to slip

That is why each time there is an event like the killings in Paris earlier this month, they rush to the television stations to terrify Americans into agreeing to even more bombing, more occupation, more surveillance at home, and more curtailment of our civil liberties. They tell us we have to do it in order to fight terrorism, but their policies actually increase terrorism.

If that sounds harsh, consider the recently-released 2015 Global Terrorism Index report. The report shows that deaths from terrorism have increased dramatically over the last 15 years – a period coinciding with the “war on terrorism” that was supposed to end terrorism.

According to the latest report: Terrorist activity increased by 80 per cent in 2014 to its highest recorded level. …The number of people who have died from terrorist activity has increased nine-fold since the year 2000.

The world’s two most deadly terrorist organizations, ISIS and Boko Haram, have achieved their prominence as a direct consequence of US interventions.

Michael Flynn (--twitter.com)
Michael Flynn (–twitter.com)
Former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn was asked last week whether in light of the rise of ISIS he regrets the invasion of Iraq. He replied, “absolutely. …The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq.” He added, “instead of asking why they attacked us, we asked where they came from.”

Flynn is no non-interventionist. But he does make the connection between the US invasion of Iraq and the creation of ISIS and other terrorist organizations, and he at least urges us to consider why they seek to attack us.

Likewise, the rise of Boko Haram in Africa is a direct result of a US intervention. Before the US-led “regime change” in Libya, they just were a poorly-armed gang. Once Gaddafi was overthrown by the US and its NATO allies, leaving the country in chaos, they helped themselves to all the advanced weaponry they could get their hands on. Instead of just a few rifles they found themselves armed with rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns with anti-aircraft visors, advanced explosives, and vehicle-mounted light anti-aircraft artillery. Then they started killing on a massive scale. Now, according to the Global Terrorism Index, Boko Haram has overtaken ISIS as the world’s most deadly terrorist organization.

James Woolsey (--thelip.tv)
James Woolsey (–thelip.tv)
The interventionists are desperate to draw attention from the fact that their policies contribute to terrorism. After the Paris attacks, neocons like former CIA director James Woolsey actually pinned the blame on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden! He claimed that because of Snowden’s revelations about NSA surveillance the terrorists were using sophisticated encryption. He even called for Snowden to be hanged because of it. But it was untrue: the Paris attackers did not use encryption, and other groups had used encryption long before the Snowden revelations.

Terrorism is increasing worldwide because of US and western interventionism. That does not mean that if we suddenly followed a policy of non-interventionism the world would become a peaceful utopia. But does anyone really believe that continuing to do what increases terrorism will lead to a decrease in terrorism?

Copyright © 2015 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Nuclear Winter: Are the Global Financial Powers Pushing for War?

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Elite Seeks War While EU Boosts Terrorism in Europe
Opinion
by Donovan Kirsten
Quemado Institute
December 1, 2015

Paris, November 15, 2015 (cnnphilippines.com)
Eiffel Tower, Paris, Nov 15, 2015 (cnnphilippines.com)

European leaders are luring in terrorists into their midst apparently in a lead-up to the next major war—a war designed by the fiscal architects of the global financial elite. This might be a swift kick to spur the debt-stalled economy. Hot on the heels of the Paris attacks, in which Muslim extremists—at least one a Syrian “refugee”—killed 130 innocent people, EU bureaucrats continue to welcome unvetted Islamic migrants, some of them ISIS sympathizers and candidate terrorists themselves.

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As political analyst Andrew Korybko says in his recent article Paris Analysis: Shattered Assumptions and Foreboding Conclusions [Sputnik, November 19, 2015]:


slavdec1x
“Many voices from the Balkans and countless EU-based cautionaries warned that some of the ‘refugees’ weren’t who they claimed to be, pointing to their own anecdotal evidence as well as ISIL’s open declaration that they’ll infiltrate thousands of terrorists within the ‘refugee’ ranks. Regretfully, as vocal and credible as these warnings were, they were totally ignored by the extreme liberal-progressive ideologues that dominate the EU. They refused to listen to the ‘political blasphemy’ that alleged that some of the ‘refugees’ could be cold-blooded terrorists, but lo and behold, they were lethally mistaken and their religiously abided-by assumptions have been disproven to the highest degree possible. The synchronized nature of the Friday The 13th attacks and the targeting of two prior-scheduled and culturally symbolic events at the Stade de France and Bataclan strongly indicate that this wasn’t spur-of-the-moment terrorism. Ahmad Almohammad, the “refugee”-posing terrorist that is thought to have arrived in France around mid-October, was probably just a foot soldier that was recruited to help carry out the pre-planned attack. Continuing with this logic, it seems as though French-based terrorists … had organized the whole thing, and that they were in constant communication with their Mideast counterparts and were thus able to request additional terrorist support as needed. […] There’s no way to tell how many of the over 750,000 “refugees” that entered Europe this year were actually terrorists, but it’s unrealistic that the Paris attackers were the only ones. Even assuming a conservative estimate of 1%, then that’s 7,500 terrorists, and seeing what carnage only 7 of them could do in Paris, it’s frightening to imagine the chaos that over a thousand times more of such scum could unleash all across the continent.”

slavdec1yAs clear and present as the dangers of Mideast terrorists are, to oppose this suicidal migrant influx is to invite being accused of “racism”, a weaponized term quick out the mouths of our youth, and an accusation exploited by the elite-run media to crush the voice of dissent. Indeed, any effective plan to reduce racial conflict is termed “racist” by the brainwashed public, especially by the gullible young who do not know the meaning of rational thought. Even educated news platforms such as Strategic Culture Foundation decry plans for European migrant reduction, so mesmerized are they by the elite’s ultra-liberal barrage, a primary media tool of the warmoguls.

Racial tension is a crisis now pushing the world toward war, yet the topic of race is taboo at a time we most need to discuss it. Media brainwashing prohibits us from examining racial-sectarian patterns, a kind of mental paralysis that keeps us from challenging the elite. Mind control means defining the road. The media establish the edges of the road, while we follow the center. We therefore believe we’re making a balanced choice. People imagine they’re not subject to media influence, but this is a deception. Nearly everyone marches to the same drum. Analysis of racial patterns is the road’s edge we’re forbidden to cross.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk
Jean-Claude Juncker, Donald Tusk
Not only are hundreds of thousands of migrants greeted with bleeding hearts and open arms, the bigshot EU puppet officials are now making plans for Turkey’s full membership in the European Union—despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that Turkey is an ISIS ally—meaning that along with innocent citizens, Turkey’s jihadist sympathizers will freely roam the European continent. Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk are now promoting just such an agreement with Turkey, a slap in the face of Russia, a clear provocation, and an open invitation to world war. According to a Sputnik article entitled EU May Introduce Visa-Free Regime With Turkey in Autumn 2016 (November 30, 2015):

“The European Union will introduce a visa-free regime with Turkey in autumn 2016, in case Ankara meets all outstanding requirements, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Sunday…. Earlier, President of the European Council Donald Tusk stated that the European Union and Turkey at a meeting in Brussels on Sunday approved a joint plan to boost negotiations on its membership in the bloc. ‘If all conditions are met, I think that visa liberalization could take effect in the autumn of 2016,’ Juncker told reporters after an EU-Turkey meeting in Brussels.”

Yet Turkey is a proven ISIS ally. After all, it was a Turkish F-16 that downed the Russian fighter as if flew through Syrian airspace en route to striking ISIS terrorists, the professed enemies of the duplicitous West. And it was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who said his air force would do it again, claiming the shootdown was conducted in defense of a legitimate Islamic cause.

Bilal Erdogan, son of Turkey’s President, having lunch with ISIS leaders.
Turkey’s Bilal Erdogan has lunch with ISIS leaders.
Legitimate? Only to an ISIS ally. Which proves Erdogan’s links to Islamic terrorists. Worse still, he and his son Bilal, chum of jihadist leaders, are known to be buying elicit Iraqi oil from ISIS and offering it at $20 a barrel to Western customers, who sell it at twice the price.

Such corrupt deals are described the Novorossia.su article SU-24 Shootdown Planned: Erdogan Supports Islamic State – Opinion by Alex Zot’ev (November 25, 2015), and also the Sputnik report Iraqi Politician Claims Turkey Lets ISIL Sell Oil for Meager $20 a Barrel (November 28, 2015).

So Erdogan, a terrorist ally, reaps kudos from the EU bigshots, while Turkey’s crimes fold nicely into the elite schemes of war. These money tyrants pick killer regimes to award with recognition, first the Kiev nazis, and now the Ankara jihadists. Why? Because killers fuel tension, and tension ignites conflict. The perversity of this points to one motive on the part of the financial elite: setting the stage for a major global war.

A two-pronged Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin partnership would bring a swift end to these apocolyptic schemes promoted by the corporate powers. Hence the media tries to damage Trump’s US presidential run with a barrage of false allegations, racism at the top of the list, while it vilifies Putin with trumped-up lies.

Donald Trump (--pforadio.com)
Donald Trump (–pforadio.com)
Even Sputnik News is a tool of the elite, though not to the extent of Western sources. The quasi pro-Russian news platform downplays Donald Trump’s qualifications rather than emphasizing his willingness  to work as a partner with Putin. In the the Sputnik article Next US President ‘Will Confront Russia Energetically’ (November 29, 2015) front-runner Trump is allotted one short paragraph, while the other candidates are emphasized. And Sputnik articles devoted to Trump are often demeaning.

The Sputnik report entitled Trump Campaign Accuses US Media of Suppressing 9/11 Footage (November 26, 2015) unfairly alleges, “Billionaire Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is doubling down on their outrageous claims that ‘thousands’ of Muslims in Jersey City were seen on television celebrating the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. They are now flat-out accusing the media of a conspiracy.” No matter how many Muslims celebrated in Jersey City, what Trumps says is in essence correct. And of course he is right that the media, 90% owned by six corporations, are guilty of conspiracy: they tacitly agree to print the same lies. That Sputnik denies this points to its own complicity. If Sputnik were sincere about promoting Russia’s welfare, it would cast Trump’s presidential run in a positive light.

Sputnik also prints a disclaimer about Andrew Karybko’s editorial quoted earlier, saying: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik. And of course, Sputnik never fails to qualify the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as “unrecognized” or “self-proclaimed”, in keeping with the interests of the global financial powers.

Meanwhile, the Western media vilify Trump with accusations of “racism” for mentioning Muslims who applauded 9/11, despite that his words are relevant to a discussion of world peace. It was, after all, Muslim extremists who carried out 9/11. Why would their brothers not applaud? He invites his critics to check FBI records. But of course records mean nothing to our miseducated youth, who do not accept reality unless they see it on TV.

The elite are pushing for major war as a means to reset the economy. Initially, they sought to provoke armed conflict with Russia by staging a coup in post-Soviet Ukraine. Putin did not take the bait, He resisted US and EU provocation at the cost of thousands of civilian lives, lost due to the Ukrainian Army shelling of Russia’s historical Donbass. Yet the subsequent crisis failed to spark an all-out East-West war, forcing the elite to seek another avenue of conflict.

Some political analysts, including The Saker, Boris Rozhin and Rostislav Ischenko, contend the United States carried out this provocation to preserve its waning hegemony. It was not the US per se, however, but the global financial elite, which works to some degree through all Western governments. The US government is simply the most prominent, hence their confusion.

The elite do not want a war with China. Even to their sick demented minds, the vision of 1.3 billion Hans occupying North America is repugnant. Yet they need a foe who is powerful, and Russia is the optimal choice.

Having failed to achieve war through the Ukraine crisis, the powers that be stepped up the conflict with ISIS. Unfortunately, in this case, Putin did take the bait. He is now mired in a heated war and getting more deeply involved all the time. He can’t back out without risk to Russian security, and the end of ISIS is taking longer than expected.

No matter the loss of the Ukraine prospect, to the power elite, a war in Syria will work just as well for their purpose of fueling a global conflagration. The West can retaliate as easily in Syria by staging false flags and fueling public fervor.

Toward the Sun by Leonid Afremov (--pinterest)
Toward the Sun-Leonid Afremov (-pinterest)

Like an impressionist painting in which seemingly random brush strokes form a picture when viewed from afar, we can see the picture in the migrant crisis, the ISIS-executed Paris attacks, the bombing in Egypt of the Russian passenger airliner, the fascist-backed power failure in Crimea, and Turkey’s shootdown of the Russian SU-24. All these incidents are being exploited to maximize tension and set the stage for a global war.


The puppet US and their European allies, at the behest of the global powers, created the very ISIS that attacked the people in Paris. Yet Turkey and the West are buying illicit ISIS oil. This may comprise as much as 5% of world consumption, enough to depress prices and exacerbate the current glut, in which hundreds of oil tankers are backed up in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, US gasoline prices have fallen below $2.00 a gallon.

Turkey buys ISIS oil, Erdogan and his son have ties to the Islamic State, the ISIS terrorists claim credit for killing 130 in Paris, and at least one of the suicide bombers was a Muslim migrant. So how can we explain the fact that the EU continues to welcome migrants, and that Juncker and Tusk want to open the borders with Turkey? Unless they are trying to boost terrorism in Europe to instigate a major war—a war intended to stimulate an economy ridden with debt, incurred due to their own corrupt banking policies.

The tragedy of their ignorance is, global war will not alleviate economic stagnation. Pakistan would no doubt side with the Islamic State, allowing terrorists access to their nuclear arsenal. If today’s trends in American policy continue, the US might also funnel nuclear weapons to ISIS. And the terrorists would not hesitate to use them. Russia, aligned with China, would be forced to counter with nuclear missiles, making escalation inevitable.

Those who perish from nuclear war are not just the people directly attacked. A major exchange between superpowers would result in nuclear winter, in which stratospheric smoke would block 70% of the sunlight across the northern hemisphere. Crops would cease to grow, and starvation would decimate most of the human population as well as that of most living creatures. Civilization as we know it would come to an end.

I post Steven Starr’s article describing nuclear winter:

Nuclear War, Nuclear Winter, and Human Extinction

by Steven Starr
Federation of American Scientists
October 14, 2015

70% of sunlight blocked by stratospheric smoke layer following nuclear war
70% of sunlight blocked by stratospheric smoke  (–FAS)
While it is impossible to precisely predict all the human impacts that would result from a nuclear winter, it is relatively simple to predict those which would be most profound. That is, a nuclear winter would cause most humans and large animals to die from nuclear famine in a mass extinction event similar to the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Following the detonation (in conflict) of US and/or Russian launch-ready strategic nuclear weapons, nuclear firestorms would burn simultaneously over a total land surface area of many thousands or tens of thousands of square miles. These mass fires, many of which would rage over large cities and industrial areas, would release many tens of millions of tons of black carbon soot and smoke (up to 180 million tons, according to peer-reviewed studies), which would rise rapidly above cloud level and into the stratosphere. [For an explanation of the calculation of smoke emissions, see Atmospheric effects & societal consequences of regional scale nuclear conflicts.]

The scientists who completed the most recent peer-reviewed studies on nuclear winter discovered that the sunlight would heat the smoke, producing a self-lofting effect that would not only aid the rise of the smoke into the stratosphere (above cloud level, where it could not be rained out), but act to keep the smoke in the stratosphere for 10 years or more. The longevity of the smoke layer would act to greatly increase the severity of its effects upon the biosphere.

Once in the stratosphere, the smoke (predicted to be produced by a range of strategic nuclear wars) would rapidly engulf the Earth and form a dense stratospheric smoke layer. The smoke from a war fought with strategic nuclear weapons would quickly prevent up to 70% of sunlight from reaching the surface of the Northern Hemisphere and 35% of sunlight from reaching the surface of the Southern Hemisphere. Such an enormous loss of warming sunlight would produce Ice Age weather conditions on Earth in a matter of weeks. For a period of 1-3 years following the war, temperatures would fall below freezing every day in the central agricultural zones of North America and Eurasia. [For an explanation of nuclear winter, see Nuclear winter revisited with a modern climate model and current nuclear arsenals: Still catastrophic consequences.]
Nuclear winter would cause average global surface temperatures to become colder than they were at the height of the last Ice Age. Such extreme cold would eliminate growing seasons for many years, probably for a decade or longer. Can you imagine a winter that lasts for ten years?

The results of such a scenario are obvious. Temperatures would be much too cold to grow food, and they would remain this way long enough to cause most humans and animals to starve to death.

Global nuclear famine would ensue in a setting in which the infrastructure of the combatant nations has been totally destroyed, resulting in massive amounts of chemical and radioactive toxins being released into the biosphere. We don’t need a sophisticated study to tell us that no food and Ice Age temperatures for a decade would kill most people and animals on the planet.  Would the few remaining survivors be able to survive in a radioactive, toxic environment?

It is, of course, debatable whether or not nuclear winter could cause human extinction. There is essentially no way to truly “know” without fighting a strategic nuclear war. Yet while it is crucial that we all understand the mortal peril that we face, it is not necessary to engage in an unwinnable academic debate as to whether any humans will survive.

What is of the utmost importance is that this entire subject –the catastrophic environmental consequences of nuclear war – has been effectively dropped from the global discussion of nuclear weaponry. The focus is instead upon “nuclear terrorism”, a subject that fits official narratives and centers upon the danger of one nuclear weapon being detonated – yet the scientifically predicted consequences of nuclear war are never publically acknowledged or discussed.

Why has the existential threat of nuclear war been effectively omitted from public debate? Perhaps the leaders of the nuclear weapon states do not want the public to understand that their nuclear arsenals represent a self-destruct mechanism for the human race?  Such an understanding could lead to a demand that nuclear weapons be banned and abolished.

Consequently, the nuclear weapon states continue to maintain and modernize their nuclear arsenals, as their leaders remain silent about the ultimate threat that nuclear war poses to the human species.


Steven Starr is the director of the University of Missouri’s Clinical Laboratory Science Program, as well as a senior scientist at the Physicians for Social Responsibility. He has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Strategic Arms Reduction (STAR) website of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology; he also maintains the website Nuclear Darkness. Starr also teaches a class on the Environmental, Health and Social Effects of nuclear weapons at the University of Missouri.