Trump's
Demand for More Nukes, the Ongoing Obscenity of War, and Its
Contradiction With Authentic Christianity
by
Rev. Paul J. Bern
Just
this past week, president Donald Trump stated that the US must be
“top of the pack” in nuclear weapons capability. Trump has
expressed concern that the United States has fallen behind in its
nuclear weapons capacity and that he would like to “restore its
supremacy”. In a Reuters interview conducted in the Oval Office
this past Thursday, Trump said the US needed to revive its nuclear
arsenal. "I am the first one that would like to see nobody have
any nukes, but we're never going to fall behind any country even if
it's a friendly country, we're never going to fall behind on nuclear
power," Trump said. The comments were his first on the US
nuclear arsenal since taking office last month. In December – hours
after Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to enhance his
country's nuclear forces – Trump tweeted that the United States
"must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until
such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes." In
that event, I think the first two people who need to “come to their
senses” are Presidents Trump and Putin, and especially Trump. It is
not hard to see why.
The
war in Afghanistan lasted more than 11 years. The original reason for
the US military invasion was to hunt down and capture or kill Osama
Bin Laden as the chief perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks. The reason it
took the US military more than a decade to find him was because they
were looking in the wrong country. Oops, sorry Mr. or Mrs. taxpayer,
we got the right guy but we had the wrong address. Oh well! At the
height of its military operations, the United States was spending $60
billion per month on the twin wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is
not counting all the other bases the US military now has in well over
140 countries around the world, such as Germany, Japan, Okinawa,
Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Diego Garcia and Kuwait, to name a few of the
major ones. A stepped up nuclear arms program is the ultimate
escalation. The main reason Hillary Clinton didn't get elected was
because people were so concerned about her being such a war hawk.
Many were afraid she would have gotten us into World War Three. Could
it be that president Trump is going to turn around and do the same
thing?
This
leads to a fundamental question; why is our country's leadership
(because it's not just president Trump) doing this? Why take a chance
on a nuclear conflagration ever happening in the first place? Have we
become collectively suicidal and homicidal? Look at the world from
the standpoint of armaments. The USA is the world's #1 arms
manufacturer by far. This leads me to the conclusion that most of the
arms being manufactured by other countries, such as Russia (the #2
arms manufacturer), are in place to counter the American threat. Too
many Americans do not realize how much our country has frightened and
damaged much of the world. We have the military and our elected
politicians to blame, this happened on their watch! And now president
Trump wants to ramp up nuclear arms production? I rebuke that in the
name of Jesus, who said, “He
who lives by the sword will die by the sword”!!
The
notion of America being a superpower is a 20th
century notion whose retirement date has long since arrived. With
over 7 billion people currently inhabiting the earth, waging war has
become counter-productive. It creates more problems than it solves,
both in terms of human lives and in damage to the environment, which
is already severely damaged and in need of extensive rejuvenation.
Moreover, wars are almost never being fought for the reasons stated
to the public. Let's take Afghanistan as an example. The US military
was allegedly there to find Osama Bin Laden, but the truth is that
Afghanistan is a country with vast untapped natural resources,
including enormous copper deposits. Meaning, all the fuss about
Afghanistan's poppy seed crop being a target of the 'drug war' here
in the US is just a whitewash job on the American public. Upon closer
examination of what has been happening there out of sight of the
American people, it becomes apparent that it is none other than the
CIA running the show. So when you see teenage gang members selling
heroin on any given street corner in America, you can thank the CIA.
This
is a stark contrast to what I have been teaching about being a people
of peace for the last 6 years. It brings the US “war on terror”
into sharp focus and sheds light on the criminality of the American
Empire's military machine and its illegal incursions into countries
where it does not belong. The
truth of the matter is that the U.S. position with respect to the
dictators in the Arab world has been one of pure hypocrisy. We have
supported these tyrants in the name of "stability" and the
"war on terrorism" in exchange for easy access to their
oil, but it has been a policy that has contributed mightily to the
oppression of the people in those countries. This is a betrayal of
our own revolutionary past, not to mention our fight against tyranny,
as well as exacerbating the Islamic terrorism being used against us.
Contrary to what is being reported in the Lame Stream Media, populist
revolts in the Arab world have been non sectarian, grass roots and
non ideological in every country they have occurred. That fact would
seem to expose and make America's policy in the "war on
terrorism" while initiating wars in the Muslim world obsolete
and absurd. Regarding this, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
said during Bush 43's second term in office, "Any secretary of
defense who advises a president to engage in land wars with vast
armies in foreign lands needs to have his head examined". So
going nuclear is now the new way to wage war? Go to Japan and find a
few of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ask them whether
nuclear war is a viable option, and see what they tell you!
The
fact is Washington's entire strategy of preemptive nuclear war and
the whole "war on terrorism" is a ruse, a cruel invention
concocted by neoconservatives and cold war warriors who were itching
to replace the defunct Soviet Union with another enemy – otherwise
the purpose for their existence would have to be called into
question. Not only is the war on terror a reason for the American
Empire to exist, it has become the only reason for its existence! It
was and is a fantasy perpetrated by them and foisted on the American
people. The 'terrorist attacks' perpetrated on 9/11 by rogue elements
inside the US government has become the manufactured cause for
endless war and is the real legacy of that fateful day. But in light
of the unfolding "awakening" in much of the world, can
there not be serious discussions in the White House and Pentagon of
the absurdity of our continuing to fight wars in Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Yemen and Libya (not to mention the proxy war the CIA has
been fighting against the Assad regime in Syria)? Secretary Gates'
comments allude to the insanity of fighting these wars (even if he
put it in the context of new misadventures). From here it seems the
U.S. resembles (in its ability to end its wars) a giant ship at sea
that takes an excruciatingly long time to reverse course. Like the
Viet Nam quagmire we seem stuck, committed to the non-winnable
'endless war' yet unwilling and unable to face reality. War is an
ongoing obscenity, and America is addicted to it. It's time for
America, particularly those inside the Washington Beltway, to check
it's collective self into rehab. No more wars, and especially no more
nukes!
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