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.
No comments:
Post a Comment