G-7 leaders promise peace, then back war

  

   By Reginald Johnson

     

    Commentary

   

   During the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, world leaders laid wreaths at the Hiroshima Memorial, which commemorates the atomic bombing in 1945 at the end of World War II.

  The American bombing of Hiroshima on August 6 of that year, together with the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, killed over 200,000 innocent civilians. The savage attacks constituted the worst war crimes in history.

  It was the first and only time --- so far ---that nuclear weapons have been used. The bombings ushered in the nuclear arms race and left the world’s population living in a permanent state of fear of potential nuclear annihilation.

  “Here we remember the terrible cost of war,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. “And we are reminded of our duty to preserve peace.”

 What hypocrisy.

 The G-7 leaders, mostly from western countries, were not remembering “the terrible cost of war,” and they certainly weren’t heeding any “duty to preserve peace.”

  Instead, this cabal of warmakers spent most of the summit discussing ways to help Ukraine “win” its war with Russia. European leaders talked about what further sanctions they would apply against Russia to strangle the Russian economy and undermine the stability of the Russian government.

  The group also heard President Biden announce that he had agreed to have US military personnel train Ukrainian pilots on how to fly F-16 fighter jets. While Biden said that the US was not itself going to provide the planes, some of its European allies would agree to do that.

  So this means that Ukraine will get an advanced fighter jet in the war against Russia and ramps up an already intense conflict.

  The Ukraine-Russia War, underway for 15 months, has already left 300,000 dead or wounded and forced millions of refugees to flee the country. With Russia nuclear-armed and the US and its NATO allies also nuclear-armed, there’s the possibility that the war could turn nuclear.

 By allowing F-16s to be used by the Ukrainian armed forces, Biden reversed his earlier pledge saying that he would not do this because such a step meant the warplanes could be used to hit targets deep inside Russia and thus was potentially a dangerous escalation in the war.

The memorial in Hiroshima, Japan commemorating the thousands of innocent people killed when the US dropped an atomic bomb on August 6, 1945 

  According to the New York Times, this is the latest promise that Biden has broken regarding giving advanced weaponry to Ukraine, including HIMARS rocket launchers, Patriot air defense missile systems and Abrams tanks.

  “In each case, the president at first refused, only to change his mind under pressure from European allies,” the Times reported in its May 20 addition.

  Revelations by a military whistleblower in April also disclosed that the US has dispatched a small number of US combat personnel to Ukraine despite pledges by Biden previously that he would never do that because it could touch off  “World War III.”

  According to the Times, the allied leaders at the G-7 summit issued a joint statement in which they said they were committed to “continuing our security assistance to Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s aggression tailoring our support to Ukraine’s needs.” The report added that the group vowed to provide “financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

  So there you have the commitment to “peace” by the G-7 leaders. They are pledged to advance war and little else.

  It is galling that this group of leaders would dare to meet in Hiroshima, Japan, a sacred place, and insist they were promoting peace with their aggressive Ukraine war policy --- which could lead to a nuclear war wiping out the human race.

 The Orwellian claim that more war will create peace must be rejected. It is encouraging that protests took place outside the G-7 summit. Protests around the world need to spread until this misbegotten war ends and a nuclear catastrophe --- which would dwarf what happened in Hiroshima --- is averted.